Time to speak up about future growth is now
For those citizens of Kalispell and Whitefish who care about the future of their communities, April 6 is an important date.
The city councils of both municipalities will be voting on community land use plans that will guide development for the next 20 years. Both cities have spent months laboring on updates as required by the Montana Land Use Planning Act to create new guiding documents that focus on increasing housing supply through zoning and subdivision regulation reforms.
Kalispell and Whitefish will hold public hearings on those updates on April 6, when both are expected to approve their respective plans.
The Kalispell land use plan, Plan-It 2045, describes Kalispell as the “commercial and governmental center of the Flathead Valley with a diverse economy, robust employment and vibrant neighborhoods offering a variety of housing options.”
The plan points out that Kalispell saw a surge in population growth following the pandemic and continues to see rapid growth, becoming the fastest-growing city in Montana between 2020-2024, which has brought about challenges looking to the future.
Kalispell expects growth to continue, with 23,000 new residents by 2045, and the need for 10,000 additional housing units to address high housing costs and low rental vacancy rates. To tackle housing shortages, the plan includes strategies for higher-density housing, such as more duplexes, townhomes and accessory dwelling units.
The plan also calls for commercial development to continue, projecting Kalispell to add nearly 4.8 million square feet by 2045.
Whitefish’s plan also expects growth for the city. Called Vision Whitefish 2045, the plan calls for focusing growth within the city’s existing boundary to support walkability through mixed-use development, efficiency in infrastructure, protecting surrounding landscapes and strengthening existing neighborhoods.
It predicts the full-time and seasonal population of Whitefish to grow between about 3,000 and 5,000 by 2045. The community is projected to need about 2,100 new housing units, which will require increased density through rezoning and offering incentives to create affordable or workforce housing.
The economic development section of Whitefish’s plan includes a goal to “support local business retention and expansion and entrepreneurial opportunities.” Support of both residential and commercial growth will require land use planning to accommodate additional densities in targeted areas, the plan points out.
The Montana Land Use Planning Act was designed to streamline the planning process once the land use plans are adopted, so the opportunity for public comment becomes more limited as individual projects come forward in the future. Cities are required to update land use plans every five years, but as we’ve seen in the Flathead Valley, a lot of change can happen in that short amount of time, so making sure leaders know what the community wants is imperative now rather than later.
Turnout has been low at recent Kalispell City Council meetings on the land use plan. But if you want to influence the documents that will guide future decisions for at least 20 years, the time to speak up is now.
As Kalispell Councilor Jed Fisher put it, “Now is the time to get involved ... [These are] some major things we are doing now.”