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Board adopts zoning text changes to reflect state law and add factory‑built housing definition
Summary
The Community Development Board adopted WZTA 25‑04, updating city zoning text to remove a state‑repealed protest provision, add a 'factory‑built housing' definition, and make administrative edits to align local code with recent legislative changes.
The Community Development Board adopted zoning text amendment WZTA 25‑04, a package of edits to align Whitefish zoning regulations with recent state law and to clean up outdated references in the municipal code. The staff presentation explained two primary changes: first, the legislature eliminated the zoning‑protest provision in House Bill 713 (which had allowed affected property owners in limited circumstances to trigger a higher vote threshold), so the city code language referencing that protest mechanism was removed; second, Senate Bill 252 introduced a definition for factory‑built housing, and staff added that definition to the local code and allowed factory‑built units on a permanent foundation within single‑family and multifamily dwelling definitions. Staff also corrected internal references from the former Planning Board name to the Community Development Board, removed outdated procedural language that referenced non‑existent administrative procedures, and clarified that decisions do not automatically approve by default if council fails to act. The board voted unanimously to adopt staff’s recommended amendments. Staff noted the annexation protest process remains governed by separate provisions and was not changed by this amendment. Less critical details: staff will update code documents and the public website to reflect the changes. The amendment is a code‑cleanup and statutory implementation step; no individual development approvals were changed as part of the package.
