Whitefish wants mandatory permits in 'doughnut'

As the city of Whitefish and Flathead County prepare to shake hands on a memorandum of understanding about governance of the two-mile planning “doughnut,” a new city proposal for mandatory zoning compliance permits in the doughnut area could rip the scab off a wound that barely has begun to heal.

The Whitefish City-County Planning Board on Thursday will hold a public hearing to consider a proposal to make zoning compliance permits mandatory within both Whitefish city limits and the doughnut area. The permits currently are voluntary.

The Whitefish Planning Office staff is recommending that all projects except single-family homes be required to have a zoning compliance permit prior to construction, but a planning report suggests the Planning Board “could recommend to the City Council to also include a zoning compliance permit requirement for single family [homes] in the unincorporated planning jurisdiction...it could be a very valuable tool for single-family residential development in the unincorporated area where the city does not administer the building code.”

Mandatory zoning compliance permits were a controversial element of the critical area ordinance that was the springboard for a rift between the city and county over planning control of the doughnut area.

When the critical area ordinance finally was adopted, the zoning compliance permits were made voluntary as a compromise.

“The council had concerns about being heavy-handed and chose to make the permit optional, with a fee for an after-the-fact permit if development was found to be in violation of the zoning,” Senior Planner Wendy Compton-Ring said in her staff report.

But in the three years since the critical area ordinance was adopted, only a handful of people have applied for the voluntary permits.

“Not having a building permit or a mandatory zoning compliance permit in the unincorporated areas makes enforcement of these provisions nearly impossible unless staff receives a complaint from a neighbor,” Compton-Ring said.

The critical area ordinance requires a permit prior to any ground disturbing activity — either a critical area checklist or a single-family home exemption — but it’s not enough to provide oversight for zoning compliance, the staff report notes.

Heavy-handed regulations in the doughnut area — where residents cannot vote for city officials — was a key concern when the county two years ago rescinded its interlocal agreement with the city of Whitefish for the two-mile planning area.

The city sued the county over that action, but the city and county have been working for months on a revised interlocal agreement that was on track to be approved at Monday’s City Council meeting.

IN OTHER business, the Planning Board has two other public hearings scheduled:

• The city of Whitefish is requesting amendments to subdivision regulations to allow additional time for preliminary and final-plat projects to be finalized within the bounds of state law. Due to the economic downturn, the planning staff has been contacted by several developers whose preliminary and final plat approvals were set to expire.

The goal of the revisions is to give developers some relief.

“One of the main concerns staff has heard is no one wants to go back through the preliminary platting process due to concerns with how the critical area ordinance may affect their project,” Compton-Ring said in her report, adding that the staff has encouraged developers to analyze the implications of the critical area standards on their development. “At least two projects have done this and it resulted in a loss of only a few units/lots.”

• The city of Whitefish wants to amend the zoning code in commercial and industrial zoning districts to include microbreweries as a conditional use.

In the past microbreweries have been categorized under light manufacturing, but questions have come up as to how much beer needs to be produced on site to be considered light manufacturing, and whether microbreweries would need to be classified as light manufacturing if they produced less and didn’t distribute beer but were more of a restaurant-type use.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. Thursday at Whitefish City Hall.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com