With five public hearings on tonight’s agenda — including approval of next year’s budget and the hot-button 2nd Street Residences project — it’s going to be a long night for the Whitefish City Council.

A zone change and planned unit development request for 2nd Street Residences is bound to consume a big chunk of time as neighbors weigh in on the project during a public hearing. The Whitefish Planning Board last month recommended approval of the redesigned subdivision on the east edge of the city.

Sean Averill and William MacDonald of Community Infill Partners first presented the 2nd Street Residences project in March, asking for approval of a 174-unit subdivision north of the intersection of Second Street and Armory Road. The initial plan was to build 164 apartments spread over 17 buildings.

After neighbors objected to the density and potential increase in traffic, the developers revamped the project and shaved 30 units from the plan, removed the massive apartment buildings and reconfigured the units into numerous small buildings in a “pocket” rental community within the development. The rentals would be professionally managed.

Averill and MacDonald now plan to build 92 apartment units, 20 condominiums and 16 single-family homes with accessory apartments. The developers intend to take advantage of density bonuses by providing 14 deed-restricted affordable rental units to be managed by the Whitefish Housing Authority.

While the Planning Board attached two additional amendments to its recommendation of approval, the planning staff has suggested the council reword one of the amendments and scrap the other.

The first amendment called for shifting the extension of Armory Road to the west; planning staff recommends putting a little more wiggle room into the amendment by saying the Public Works director should “explore the idea of moving the proposed Armory Road extension to the west.”

The planning staff recommends eliminating a second amendment asking to conduct a traffic study to determine vehicle loads on nearby WR-1 (residential) neighborhoods, and requiring traffic counts for the 2nd Street project to fall within 15 percent of the WR-1 counts.

“The 15 percent standard chosen by the Planning Board is not based on any recognized criterion and it hasn’t been vetted through the public hearing process or reviewed and approved by the City Council,” the planning staff report notes.

The Planning Board also asked the city to consider bumping up Armory Road on its priority list of road projects. Currently Armory Road is 25th on the list and won’t come due for improvements until sometime after 2035.

A special improvement district may be one funding alternative, the staff report suggested, explaining that it would be difficult to move Armory Road ahead of other equally, if not more necessary, road reconstruction projects.

OTHER PUBLIC hearings on the agenda begin with a proposed resolution approving a Special Recreation Use License with the state for the Spencer Trail Network. The resolution stems from a Whitefish Area Trust Lands Neighborhood Plan that calls for preserving public access to the Spencer Mountain segment of the Whitefish Trail.

A second hearing is a request from Mike Collins on behalf of Mountain Properties of Montana, asking for a 24-month extension for the Ramsey Lakeview preliminary plat, a four-lot subdivision on .63 acres at 502 Ramsey Avenue.

The third and fourth public hearing tonight deal with approval of the fiscal year 2014 budget.

The 2nd Street Residences project is last on the hearing list.

The council will hold a work session from 5:30 to 6:50 p.m. to review and discuss the Whitefish Community Wastewater Committee’s draft management plan. The document provides recommendations to the council regarding wastewater management, septic systems, nutrient trading and wastewater conveyance.

Both the work session and the regular meeting, which begins at 7:10 p.m., are at Whitefish City Hall.

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