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City planner outlines Whitefish 2045 growth-policy draft, planning board debate over edits
Summary
City staff described the draft Whitefish 2045 growth policy, the Montana Land Use Planning Act requirements, and next steps. The Community Development Board’s recent 4–2 vote to accept a redlined alternative chapter drew public pushback and prompted council discussion about process and an outside consultant to help finish the land-use element.
Alan Siebenbach, the city of Whitefish’s long-range planner, told the City Council on June 2 that the Whitefish 2045 update is a policy document — required under the Montana Land Use Planning Act — that sets vision, values and goals to guide future land-use regulations and programs.
"This is the growth policy or the community plan update," Siebenbach said, explaining the document’s role and the review steps taken so far, including stakeholder interviews, agency review and public outreach.
The draft, Siebenbach said, is organized into required plan elements — environment and natural resources, housing, transportation, public facilities, economic development and hazards — and includes chapters on history, demographics and a vision statement derived from community visioning sessions. He told the council the planning team has posted chapter drafts and red-lined community-development-board comments on the project website so the public can follow revisions.
Why it matters: the Montana Land Use Planning Act now requires cities above specified population thresholds to adopt growth policies and to include population projections and the statutory elements the state…
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