County repeals Whitefish plan

The Flathead County commissioners voted Tuesday to repeal a 1996 Whitefish City County Master Plan for the “doughnut” area around Whitefish.

The action didn’t exactly have the city of Whitefish’s blessing, though.

Tossing out the nearly 20-year-old plan — the county’s most recent master plan for the doughnut — is the latest step in the tedious and complicated process of shifting planning oversight in the area around Whitefish from city to county control.

Following a years-long legal battle over control of the doughnut, the Montana Supreme Court last year ceded control to Flathead County.

And so began the process of the county taking control.

The county quickly imposed interim zoning in the doughnut, and then extended it for a second year while the process plays out.

In December 2014 the Flathead County Planning Board recommended a zoning option to repeal the 1996 Whitefish City County Master Plan prior to the expiration of interim zoning.

Whitefish Planning Director Dave Taylor acknowledged the 1996 plan is outdated, but he said throwing it out removes any county-adopted specific future land-use maps. The county’s current growth policy doesn’t include a future land-use map.

“We’re a growing city. It’s important for us to know how things will develop in the future,” Taylor told the commissioners. “We want to make sure the county recognizes that as they make future land-use decisions.”

In an earlier email to the commissioners, Taylor said “without a specific plan that guides growth, land-use decisions are then made in a void and end up being unpredictable and can fail to take into consideration future municipal growth.”

The city of Whitefish has suggested all along that the county could amend its growth policy to include the future land-use map for the doughnut area from the 2007 Whitefish City-County Growth Policy. Another option was updating the 1996 Whitefish plan, but the county Planning Board rejected that idea, with one board members calling it a “long, arduous process.”

Commissioner Gary Krueger said state law directs counties to take city growth policies into consideration when making land-use decisions in areas outside of city limits. Flathead County does that, he said.

“I’m not sure Whitefish would want us to adopt a land-use map. We could adopt a map contrary to what they want,” Krueger said. “I would think they’d much rather have us consider their growth policy.”

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