County lays out rezoning of 'doughnut' area
Northwest Montana News Service
The Flathead County Planning Board will conduct a public hearing Wednesday on changing all land in Whitefish's two-mile planning jurisdiction from city to county zoning designations.
About 12,790 acres are slated for rezoning as the county moves toward taking back jurisdiction of the two-mile "doughnut" area from the city. That includes about 7,730 acres of agricultural land and more than 1,000 acres of resort land on Big Mountain.
County planners tried to choose county designations that closely matched the designations Whitefish gave unzoned lots and parcels after the city took over planning and zoning in the doughnut area in February 2005.
County Planning Director Jeff Harris said the city did a good job of zoning by closely following its 1996 master plan, which the county will revert to in the doughnut. The county will not adopt the city's growth policy for the doughnut area.
The county's new 2.5-acre minimum zoning designation will be used for 1,313 acres. Land with Whitefish's 15-acre agricultural designation will become suburban-agricultural with a 10-acre minimum.
The highest-density designation will be R-2, with a 20,000-square-foot minimum per lot, which is big enough not to require city sewer but not big enough for a well. The city and the county do not have an agreement to provide city sewer service to these lands, Harris said, and the county cannot designate land uses that require sewer.
About 750 acres currently have Whitefish designations for higher density than R-2, but they're located adjacent to city limits and could be annexed into the city, Harris said. About 107 parcels or lots will be affected, he said.
The county also will designate zoning for land that Whitefish did not zone, including 597 acres of state school trust land, 12 acres of county land and 14 acres of private land in the Big Mountain resort area. The latter will be zoned RC-1, for residential cluster with a one-acre minimum.
Winter Sports Inc.'s Big Mountain Neighborhood Plan was approved by the Whitefish City Council in July 2006. County planning staff recommend adopting the resort company's 1992 Overall Development Plan to replace it. The county can then use an existing resort-business zoning designation for the Whitefish Mountain Resort village area.
Harris said more than 2,200 letters were sent to affected landowners announcing Wednesday's Planning Board meeting.
The meeting will be at 6 p.m. in the Earl Bennett Building in Kalispell. The county commissioners are scheduled to hold a public hearing on the zoning on Jan. 13.