It’s time to slam the brakes and re-evaluate in Whitefish
Whitefish is in a crisis bordering on an emergency, and two new proposed high-end developments by Averill Hospitality can only make things worse.
The vast majority of Whitefish residents love our vibrant, small-town community and its friendliness, lack of class structure, and easy-going lifestyle. Now these cherished values, already strained by an over-the-top deluge of tourists, the critical employee shortage, and lack of affordable housing, are under additional threat.
The developers are asking the City Council for zone changes to build an exclusive “boutique” hotel on Central Avenue and a massive development on the property surrounding the turnoff to Whitefish Mountain Resort. Both will severely aggravate all our existing problems while at the same time offer no benefit to the community or its residents. New jobs? We have to fill the old ones first.
Try to swing by the grocery store or get the kids to soccer during the summer and you will find southbound traffic on U.S. 93 backed up from Central School to Safeway. Got visitors and want to enjoy a dinner in your favorite restaurant? I did, only to find it closed and a help wanted sign on the door. What used to be pleasurable has become a miserable, stressful ordeal.
I hear people complain there’s nothing we can do to stop the two proposed projects, that these guys will always get their way.
Actually, they can be stopped. The tools are already in place. Our defense lies with the Whitefish City Council. They represent us. They put in thousands of volunteer hours because they love and care about our community. They are not beholden to wealthy special interests. They need to be reminded that their constituents, probably 99 in a hundred, do not want to see these two developments approved. All the council needs to do is vote down the proposed zone changes.
Averill Hospitality and their partners knew the zoning restrictions when they bought the properties. They do not have the “right” to change the rules. These zoning regulations were created for this exact purpose - to protect our community values and lifestyle from the type of development that will destroy them.
Some argue a downtown hotel is part of the Whitefish Master Plan. That’s true. A master plan is a valuable tool to guide growth. It’s like a car’s headlights. You need to see ahead in order not to veer off track and lose control. But such a plan can only take a guess at what lurks around the corner beyond the lights. Our master plan didn’t envision the glut of tourists crammed into our small downtown and the consequent degradation of our quality of life. It didn’t foresee the employee crises. This summer, visitors jostled literally shoulder-to-shoulder all along Central Avenue. Wandering pedestrians backed up traffic for blocks. Many restaurants (those that had enough employees), had to turn customers away every day because they were overwhelmed. That same master plan calls for two additional downtown parking garages. Imagine the suffocating, big city type crowds that would create.
These two new development proposals include concessions to help alleviate the affordable housing crises. Simply put, that’s a smoothly worded bribe. If the developers want to donate to help the community, they don’t need to attach strings.
Our wealthier residents didn’t attach conditions to the donations that made possible our great hospital, excellent non-profit fitness center, beautiful library, and fine performing arts centers, not to mention our nationally renowned trail system. They donated because they could afford to and felt it was simply the right thing to do to contribute to their community.
Whitefish has reached the tipping point. It’s time to slam on the emergency brakes and re-evaluate where we want to go as a community. We can start by refusing zone changes for the two proposed developments, at least until we have solutions for the very problems they would make worse.
Jake How has been a Whitefish resident for over 40 years.