News & INSIGHTS

Whitefish Planner Alan Tiefenbach gave a growth policy update to the City Council last week. He reported progress since the last update in June. 

A growth policy is required by the state for towns with a population of at least 5,000 and review of the policy is every three years is also required. The growth policy is also known as a master, comprehensive or community plan. 

“I want to say this because there's been a lot of confusion about what a community plan is,” Tiefenbach said. “It's a policy document. It's not a scientific document. There's a lot of data in there, but it's really talking about what our position is. This is what we value in Whitefish. 

"It is what is used for work programs, capital programs, capital improvements, funding, those kinds of things,” he added. 

He said in June, staff had completed and reviewed the planning framework, Whitefish history, demographics, vision and the environment and natural resources section. 

In August, the Development Board approved a version of the economic development element. The final version included changes to text that had been deleted and added back.  

Changes included background information, like the percentage of people who commute to Whitefish, some negative impacts from the tourism industry, and the word “required” was changed to “choose” with regard to people who drive out of Whitefish for jobs. 

The public facilities element came before the board in May. Topics of discussion included city administrative roles, emergency medical services, fire, courts and police. 

“The water, sewer and stormwater sections have since been completed and gone through department review,” he said. “Those sections basically summarize what the water and the sewer master plan say.” 

He said he’d be releasing the transportation element within days. It and the water and sewer element are scheduled to be discussed at the Community Development Board meeting on Oct. 15.  

He said has completed a comprehensive outline for the housing element. 

Tiefenbach said the land use element builds on all the prior elements and a consultant has been hired to help because of requirements from the Montana Land Use Planning Act, or MLUPA. 

Consultants from czb joined the meeting virtually. They said they customize their work for clients and have worked all over the country. Czb is to deliver a draft land use element by the end of January. 

“You need to start getting to a more nuanced, more detailed discussion about what character means,” said Matt Ingalls, consultant. “Densities, building heights, setbacks, all of those things that traditionally -- they don’t get discussed in traditional land use planning. They are usually saved for zoning code.” 

A timeline has been assigned to the growth policy update and Tiefenbach said they are on track, except the transportation section will be discussed in October, rather than September. 

The drafts published on the Vision Whitefish 2045 website are the most recent versions.