A mandate to require ground-floor retail space in downtown Whitefish is one of five downtown master-plan amendments that are the focus of a public hearing on Thursday before the Whitefish City-County Planning Board.

Among the other proposed changes - all aimed at improving the vitality of the downtown core - are requirements that ground-floor walls have windows and doors that dominate 75 percent of the wall area, and building designs include retail expansion options on all major street facades.

Required build-to lines for building facade continuity and restrictions on curb cuts that eliminate on-street parking also will be considered.

The zoning-text amendments were suggested two years ago when the City Council adopted the downtown master plan. Recently they were discussed at a June Planning Board work session, during which the architectural review committee and Heart of Whitefish downtown group supported the proposed changes.

Central Avenue's business district is the retail heart of Whitefish and generates the biggest share of resort-tax revenue.

"Protecting that retail core is essential," the planning-office staff report said. "While professional offices such as real estate offices are a welcome and needed business component of any community, studies show they can create pedestrian 'dead zones' when they are located in a major downtown retail hub such as Central Avenue, negatively impacting adjacent retail uses."

The report noted that confusion exists about how professional offices currently are allowed in the general business, or WB-3 district. The zoning text doesn't allow professional offices but does allow professional services.

The proposed amendments would allow existing uses that might be non-conforming to remain "grandfathered" indefinitely, including a change of ownership, unless the property is vacant for more than 180 days.

A longtime downtown law firm, Hedman, Hileman & LaCosta, already has voiced concern over the amendments in a letter sent to the planning department last week.

Attorney William Hileman Jr. said the law firm has been located at its present location, at the corner of Central Avenue and Second Street, for nearly 40 years. The original structure on that site was First National Bank, built in 1910.

"Suffice to say that for nearly 100 years this corner has been utilized for non-retail purposes," Hileman wrote. "When we had our fire in 1992, none of the other 12 businesses wanted to rebuild. We bought out the other owners, including purchase of the additional lots next door."

The law firm built a brick facility with a clock tower.

"I have never heard anything but positive comments about our endeavor - how ironic that you now propose zoning changes which would have prohibited our business," Hileman continued. "…it is certainly inappropriate to devalue our property by labeling it as 'non-conforming.'"

IN OTHER business, the board will consider a conditional-use permit for Folco Development Corp. to operate a bar and lounge at 147 Central Ave., the former Corner House Grill location that now houses a new restaurant called Latitude 48. The owners have applied to transfer an existing all-beverage license from the former Flanagan's Central Station.

A third hearing is a request by John Wagner for a conditional-use permit to build an apartment above a new detached garage at 14 Minnesota Ave.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. at Whitefish City Hall.