Whitefish reactivates affordable housing discussion
The Whitefish City Council turns its attention to affordable housing tonight.
A work session from 5 to 7 p.m. with the Whitefish Housing Authority will include an overview and discussion of federal cutbacks on housing authority funding and grants.
The council will look at options for renovation of BNSF Railway Co. houses on First Street and discuss the possibility of tax-increment funding for the housing rehabilitation.
At the regular meeting that starts at 7:10 p.m., the council will hold a public hearing for a resolution maintaining the cash-in-lieu payment in connection with affordable housing at the current level of $8,000 per unit.
In 2008 the council raised the per-unit fee from $6,000 to $11,000, but in 2011 the fee was lowered to $8,000 during the local housing downturn.
An “affordable” unit is defined as one that can be purchased by someone earning up to 120 percent of the median family income in Flathead County without being cost-burdened. The cost-burden benchmark is generally when a mortgage exceeds more than 30 percent of one’s monthly income.
In other business, the council has two other public hearings.
One hearing is a request from Rob Pero to extend the preliminary plat approval of Great Northern Heights Phase 3A for an additional 24 months. This is a 15-lot subdivision of seven duplex townhouses and one home on 2.93 acres.
The final hearing is for an ordinance amending Whitefish zoning and subdivision regulations within the bounds of state law. The amendments accommodate changes in state law made during the last legislative session.
There will be discussion and direction for imposing annual inflationary fee increases of 5.7 percent for water and sewer rates and 3 percent for garbage and solid waste service. The increases would add about $4.25 monthly to a single-family home’s typical utility bill, according to a staff report from Public Works Director John Wilson.
Both the work session and regular council meeting are at Whitefish City Hall.