Whitefish planning board adopts Heart of Whitefish economic development draft, 4-2

The Whitefish Planning Board voted 4-2 on May 21 to accept the Heart of Whitefish version of the economic development chapter of the city's growth policy, including the vision, narrative, goals and objectives, with one friendly amendment to delete a named director from the text.

The vote came after more than an hour of board discussion and public comment on competing drafts. Board member John argued the Heart of Whitefish version better reflects community concerns about growth, box stores and commercial uses in residential zones, while other board members urged care to ensure the plan represents voices who cannot attend meetings.

"It says full range. Just it doesn't just say good range or a partial range. It says full range," John said while describing the staff draft's vision language and cited the consulting report that "concluded that there are 720 business kinds that Whitefish doesn't have." He warned that, "there's 1 estimate somewhere in the comments that the town would have to grow to 20,000 to, accommodate and have all 720," a level John called rapid growth compared with the city's current size.

Board debate focused on four recurring points John raised: the staff draft's vision wording about a "full range of goods and services," regulation versus prohibition of large-format "box stores," allowing small-scale neighborhood commercial uses in residential zones, and whether the Heart of Whitefish draft better reflects visioning-session priorities such as affordable housing and traffic.

Mallory, a board member who voted against the adoption, said the board must weigh broad public-engagement results rather than rely on comments from those able to attend meetings. "There are huge slots of the community members that do not have the capacity to show up and engage in each individual meeting, and therefore, it is imperative that we look to the larger public engagement processes that have been done and weigh the feedback in those meetings," Mallory said. She added that allowing neighborhood commercial could help residents without transportation access access goods and services locally.

Toby, who also opposed the motion, said he could not support the Heart of Whitefish draft as presented and that he had not had sufficient time to compare the version handed out at the meeting with the staff draft.

Supporters said the Heart of Whitefish language would give the city clearer policy direction to use later when the planning department and elected bodies apply zoning and other code provisions. One board member cautioned that language in the growth policy can become a measuring standard for future quasi-judicial decisions and appeals under the Montana Land Use Planning Act (MLUPA), which was updated in 2023 to change how growth policies are treated in review and appeals.

The motion to adopt included a friendly amendment to remove the explicit naming of an individual in a paragraph that cited housing information; the board approved that amendment before the final vote. The board's chair announced the motion passed by a count of four in favor and two opposed.

The board directed staff to continue editing and to work to reconcile the Heart of Whitefish language with staff material as the draft moves through subsequent reviews and public comment periods. Staff said the adopted text will be further revised before inclusion in the complete growth-policy packet that will be posted for additional agency and public review.

The adoption is an interim policy-direction step: board members and staff repeatedly said the growth policy document will continue to evolve and that more detailed zoning and implementation provisions will follow later in the update process.