Whitefish annexation targets U.S. 93 parcels
The city of Whitefish is moving forward with the annexation of 17 parcels of land in the U.S. 93 corridor that will increase the city’s property tax collections by about $22,640 a year.
A public hearing will be held tonight before the City Council votes on a resolution to annex the various parcels of county land.
This kind of infill annexation will use the “wholly surrounded” method described in state law that doesn’t allow protests, City Manager Chuck Stearns said in his council report.
But that doesn’t mean there isn’t opposition.
The Midway Rental property is among the parcels targeted for annexation, and Kent Reimer, one of the business owners, sent a letter to the city last month opposing the annexation. He said the annexation of Midway Rental property will increase Midway’s taxes by $4,614 a year.
The hook-up fee for city water “is another expense that is not affordable to us,” Reimer wrote.
Stearns responded to Reimer’s request, saying that while he’s sympathetic to his concerns, from the city’s perspective the Midway Rental properties and the other properties proposed for the annexation are already receiving city services such as fire service, boulevard maintenance and emergency police response, but aren’t paying the same rate for those services as neighboring properties within city limits.
Don Kaltschmidt, owner of the Don K Chevrolet/Subaru/Dodge dealership, has asked whether a vacant lot north of the dealership that’s slated for annexation can be exempted because it contains a community garden and therefore should be classified as agricultural land.
The city maintains the lot is mostly used for parking cars and that the garden use is peripheral.
“Whether to include the property in the annexation or not will be a policy question for the City Council,” Stearns said in a letter to Kaltschmidt.
Karen Stevens, a longtime Whitefish resident, also is protesting the annexation of her two parcels. She wrote to the city, saying if she would have wanted to be annexed, “I would have asked for it. It’s fine the way it is.”
If the city approves the resolution, the annexations would take effect after they’re filed with the Flathead County Clerk and Recorder.
IN OTHER business, the council will spend time in a work session to do a five-year review of city impact fees.
Since 2008 the city has collected $922,330 in impact fees. The impact fees for new construction total about $5,500 per dwelling unit and took effect in late 2007, just as the national recession began taking a toll on construction activity in the Flathead Valley.
New development generates a fair amount of money for the city through property taxes, resort tax, gas taxes and so on, but it doesn’t pay for everything, the city’s consultant advised the council prior to the adoption of the fees.
The council also will discuss a recommendation made last year by the impact fee advisory committee to terminate some impact fees. The committee recommended imposing impact fees only for wastewater, stormwater and paved trails and eliminating fees for water, the Emergency Services Center, City Hall and the park maintenance building.
There will be time for public comment during the two-hour work session, at which no formal decisions can be made.
The work session begins at 5 p.m., with the regular meeting at 7:10 p.m. Both meetings are at Whitefish City Hall.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.