Whitefish planning commission hears wide public input on Vision Whitefish 2045 housing element

Whitefish — At a Dec. 17 Planning Commission meeting on the Vision Whitefish 2045 housing element, city staff presented population projections, a housing inventory and the findings of a contracted housing-needs assessment, and the meeting drew more than two hours of public comment urging denser, more affordable housing and clearer implementation steps.

Alan Teperbach, a member of city planning staff who led the presentation, told the commission the draft housing element was prepared to meet the Montana Land Use Planning Act requirement to inventory existing housing, project future need and analyze constraints. "This housing element is based on two major things: our housing needs assessment and our population projections," Teperbach said during the presentation.

The staff presentation described several projection scenarios and a planning assumption that 30% of Whitefish’s total population is seasonal; using that assumption, staff said the city could need roughly 3,000–5,000 more people worth of housing over 20 years. Teperbach summarized the housing-needs outputs as a range of about 930 to 1,500 new units…