Planning Board to consider revised proposal Thursday

The Daily Inter Lake

After two months of study and three laborious work sessions, a revised draft of Whitefish's embattled stormwater law will be unveiled at the Whitefish City-County Planning Board meeting on Thursday.

The board postponed a decision in December, continuing a public hearing until two very different drafts of the critical areas and groundwater ordinance could be examined. Additional public testimony will be taken at Thursday's meeting.

Public comment at the December hearing fell on opposite ends, with environmentalists and conservationists supporting draft No. 3 with tighter stream setbacks and developers lauding draft No. 4, the version they'd had a hand in drafting. Two earlier drafts were scrapped.

The newest version is available online at www.whitefish.govoffice.com.

The latest draft still contains a standard to essentially prohibit development on slopes in excess of 30 percent, a proposal that has drawn fire from the development community.

"Some still do not agree with that standard and maintain that prudent engineering is the best way to address impacts on water quality associated with development on steep slopes," Planning Director Bob Horne said in his staff report. "I respect that position … however, all of the research on the experiences and practices from other communities has only served to solidify my confidence that the 30 percent slope standard is reasonable, prudent and legally defensible for this proposed interim ordinance."

The new draft also contains stream-bank setbacks and buffers that "are far in excess of what is set forth in the urgency measure" and contained in the draft version supported by developers, Horne said.

In addition to setting standards for protection of critical drainage areas and establishing protection zones, the new law requires wet-season groundwater monitoring and groundwater studies within special drainage-study areas.

It provides criteria for reasonable-use exemptions and requires a grading and drainage plan for placement or storage of fill material in excess of 12 cubic yards.

The Northwest Montana Association of Realtors recently launched a "public awareness" campaign about the proposed stormwater law, maintaining in newspaper advertisements that the proposal "has been expanded to include a number of unrelated uses that appear to give the city the right to not only control, but curtain growth and increase costs." The ads encourage people to share their thoughts with government officials.

Horne has recommended that the board vote on the proposal and send it on to the City Council, even if it can't recommend approval of the latest draft in its entirety. The ordinance could be passed with broad guidance (as opposed to word-for-word redrafting) for modifications, he said.

THREE OTHER public hearings on Thursday's agenda deal directly with the stormwater law and would give the city the tools it needs to enforce the law. Specifically, they would:

. Amend zoning regulations to add a section prohibiting site excavation, placement of fill material or terrain disturbance of any kind for the express purpose of development until a site plan is approved by the city. A site plan may include an approved planned-unit development, conditional-use permit or site plan submitted as part of an application for a building permit or zoning compliance permit.

"Requiring an approved site plan prior to excavation for development purposes may require some getting used to by the local contractors," Horne said, "but without some procedure to review site plans up front, they could be digging in protected areas without realizing it."

. Amend zoning laws to require a zoning compliance permit prior to any terrain disturbance for the purpose of development and prior to any construction activity. This requirement would apply to unincorporated land within the Whitefish planning jurisdiction where the city doesn't require building permits.

. Amend city code to include the environmental protection standards set forth in the stormwater law as permissible deviations under the provisions of planned-unit development.

PUBLIC HEARINGS for several other high-profile issues also are included on Thursday's agenda. They include:

. A request by the city to amend the architectural review standards to include design standards for multifamily "snout house" structures in which the garage is built in front of the living space. Under the proposed law, "garage-forward design" won't be allowed unless the design is unavoidable. It lists a number of mitigation measures to make snout construction more visually appealing.

. A request by the city to amend architectural review standards to include design standards for commercial buildings of more than 15,000 square feet. Last month the Planning Board OK'd a proposal to require conditional-use permits for buildings larger than 15,000 square feet.

. A request by Winter Sports Inc. for an 11-lot subdivision in the Big Mountain Village. This hearing is continued from January, when the board postponed a decision until parking details could be worked out with Alpinglow Inn and Edelweiss Condominiums. Winter Sports is seeking approval of a plan for 12 buildings and accompanying infrastructure that would become the village core outlined in the resort's new master plan.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Whitefish City Hall.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com