Proposal aims for increased oversight of big projects

The Whitefish Planning Board on Thursday will discuss proposed city-initiated changes to zoning regulations along the U.S. 93 South corridor that would require stricter oversight for large developments such as hotels and gas stations.

The proposed amendments to the city’s zoning regulations would reduce the “footprint size requirement that triggers a conditional-use permit from 15,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet,” according to a Planning Office staff report. In addition, all new hotels, motels, auto-service and gasoline stations would need conditional-use permits.

“Moving hotels and motels and service stations with convenience stores from the permitted uses to the conditional uses … provides additional opportunity to review these uses for character and aesthetic impacts as well as impacts to available municipal services and traffic,” the report notes.

It states that commercial hotels can take up valuable commercial property that could be used for “mixed-use, multi-family, manufacturing or other businesses that support local residents.”

The large numbers of hotels and motel rooms “puts pressure on city services,” including municipal water capacity, and limits how many residences can be built until water treatment facilities are upgraded. The report also notes there is not enough affordable housing to support the “low-wage service workers” more new hotels would require. If these workers had to commute from other communities, it would contribute to Whitefish’s traffic issues.

As for the conditional-use permit requirement for “auto service stations and convenience stores,” the report states these buildings “create traffic impacts, add light pollution from pump canopies, and have large amounts of paving and impervious surface.”

According to Whitefish Mayor John Muhlfeld, some members of the public told the Highway 93 South Corridor Steering Committee that “they would like to see additional oversight” of development activities along U.S. 93.

Muhlfeld said that currently buildings under 15,000 square feet are “use-by-right” and only require a building permit. He said developers are being careful to build just a little under 15,000 square feet so as to avoid needing a conditional-use permit. He said the amendments would encourage investment in areas other than U.S. 93 South and “catalyze economic development in the downtown area,” or WB-3 business zoning district. This would help maintain the character of the U.S. 93 South corridor.

“We want to guarantee the entrance [to Whitefish] remains unique, authentic,” he said.

Muhlfeld told the Daily Inter Lake that Town Pump is looking at a location on the northeast corner of U.S. 93 and Montana 40, which is within the WB-2 zoning district that includes the highway corridor. It is uncertain at this point whether the corporation would have to apply for a conditional-use permit. At this point it’s a matter of timing, Muhlfeld said, depending on what the city’s Architectural Review Committee decides and when a final decision is made on the city’s proposed zoning amendments for the highway corridor.

The staff report also notes a few potential disadvantages to the amendments, including disincentives for some new businesses to locate in Whitefish along with “an impediment to development, redevelopment, and investment.”

But Whitefish planing staff is recommending the approval of the amendments, in accordance with their findings.

“The proposed amendments promote public health, public safety and general welfare because they will initiate a more robust public review process and allow the City to place conditions upon large-scale and high-impact development in order to mitigate some of its potentially negative effects,” the staff writes.

“The proposed code amendment promotes compatible urban growth by creating additional layers of development review to ensure compatibility.”

The Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the proposed zoning text amendments at its meeting that begins at 6 p.m. Thursday at Whitefish City Hall.

Reporter Colin Gaiser may be reached at 758-4439 or cgaiser@dailyinterlake.com