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ShelterWF warns Whitefish growth plan may "downzone" neighborhoods, urges broader infill
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Summary
ShelterWF told the council the draft growth policy effectively downzones much of Whitefish and concentrates future housing on a few lots (estimated ~1,500 units across 1.5 lots), which the group says risks sprawl and misses opportunities for workforce housing close to downtown.
Keegan Sebenholler, executive director of ShelterWF, told the council during public communications that the draft growth policy and land-use plan is "conceptually off the mark" and amounts to a downzoning for the vast majority of the city.
Sebenholler cited specific areas where current zoning (WR4/WR3, etc.) is proposed to be changed to "suburban neighborhood," and noted an example where an area that allowed 18 units under existing zoning would now be limited to quadplexes. He said the plan identifies three lots (Whitetail Ridge, a Park Knoll Lane site with wetlands, and the old hospital site) that together he estimated could absorb about 1,500 units over 20 years — a figure he called "startlingly unlikely" to happen, arguing this could force annexations and sprawl.
Sebenholler urged the planning commission and city council to take substantive changes and produce a strategy that enables more workforce housing through infill. He pointed to proposals from Housing Whitefish / Heart of Whitefish recommending that roughly 75% of housing units be created within a mile of downtown and that approximately 1,600 units could be developed in that radius.
Sebenholler offered ShelterWF's help to prepare a report identifying where the draft differs from prior zoning and to recommend changes to better distribute growth across neighborhoods.
The council did not take an immediate action on the land-use plan at the meeting; public hearings on related items were scheduled and the planning process will continue.
