Residents debate growth plan edits as council moves toward consultant RFP for land‑use element

Residents and civic groups pressed the Whitefish City Council on June 2 over proposed growth‑policy language and how public input was aggregated into a draft known as the Heart of Whitefish.

Speakers representing community boards, neighborhood groups and individual residents raised three recurring concerns: (1) whether the Heart of Whitefish document had properly reflected broad public input, (2) whether the plan's data and assumptions are accurate, and (3) whether proposals for added commercial mixed‑use would create empty storefronts as shopping shifts online.

John Heberling, a Whitefish resident who has tracked planning law and process, told the council that state planning statutes give the planning commission defined duties in preparing a growth plan and…