The Whitefish City Council tonight is scheduled to consider a change to the city's Legacy Homes affordable-housing program as well as a final plat application for the 8.8-acre, 58-lot Trailview subdivision on the southeast edge of town.

The virtual meeting will begin at 7:10 p.m. Instructions for participating via Webex video conferencing can be found on the city's website, and a video of the meeting will be posted to the city's YouTube channel.

Homes built under the Legacy Homes program, which the council enacted in July 2019, have restrictive covenants to keep housing prices affordable to the Whitefish workforce. That includes renters earning between 60% and 80% of the county's median income and homeowners earning between 80% and 120%. As of last year, that range included households making between $32,000 and $64,000, according to the Whitefish Housing Authority.

Now the council is considering a change to the Legacy Homes zoning regulations, which currently require developers to obtain conditional-use permits to build between eight and 18 multifamily housing units in high-density residential zones.

A letter from council member Ben Davis, chairman of the city's Strategic Housing Plan Steering Committee, indicates developers may be deliberately avoiding the affordability requirements by building only seven units. The committee, Davis wrote, has identified three seven-unit projects "where a better project and more efficient use of the land may have been a different design."

"The committee is concerned about projects being designed to avoid the Legacy Homes program that have an impact on affordable housing," he wrote. "These projects should be contributing to the affordable housing solution."

Under the proposed change, the affordability requirements would kick in for projects with a minimum of five units, rather than eight. The steering committee initially proposed lowering the threshold to four units, but city planning staff cautioned against that, citing the potential for confusion with other zoning designations and noting that the Legacy Homes program is relatively new. The Whitefish Planning Board then recommended the five-unit change to the council.

"We simply have not had enough projects during the past 16 months to determine whether this aspect of the overall Legacy Homes program is failing us," reads a Nov. 12 planning staff report. "Staff recommends no major overhauls of the [program] until we have a better idea of how the program is working. We understand from other communities it can take three to five years to see the actual fruits of our collective labor on affordable housing. We recommend continuing to monitor this and the entire program to see how it is working, how we are achieving our workforce housing needs, and if this amendment or others are warranted."

In his letter, Davis said lowering the unit threshold would capture more projects in the Legacy Homes program and remove an incentive for developers to tweak their construction plans.

"If the threshold is low enough, the best project will be built for the property versus designing a project to avoid a standard," Davis wrote.

THE COUNCIL also is scheduled to consider a final plat for the second, 18-lot phase of the Trailview subdivision and clarify language in developer Jerry Dunker's agreement with the city.

The growing single-family neighborhood, which sits south of Voerman Road and west of Monegan Road, predates the Legacy Homes program but has several unique affordability provisions. Those include a deed restriction aimed at keeping all 58 homes affordable for people making between 80% and 150% of the county's median income; a requirement that homebuyers be employed locally, with preference given to workers in the 59937 ZIP code; and requirements that Trailview homes are used as primary residences and not rented.

In a letter, Dunker asked the council to clarify that a final provision – restricting home sales to buyers with limited assets and no more than 150% of the county's median income – applies to only half of the 58 homes, while the other requirements apply to all of them. City staff agreed in a report to the council, saying mistakes were made in the drafting of a previous ordinance and the language should be updated.

IN OTHER business, the council is scheduled to consider applications from two homeowners for conditional-use permits to build "accessory apartments" on their lots – one in the 600 block of Somers Avenue and one in the 600 block of Columbia Avenue.

And the council will consider extending its virtual meetings into the new year in an effort to comply with a Nov. 17 directive from Gov. Steve Bullock that caps public gatherings at 25 people to curb the spread of COVID-19. An emergency ordinance that requires all council meetings be conducted online is slated to expire on Dec. 21; the ordinance allows other city boards and commissions to go virtual if they choose.

Reporter Chad Sokol can be reached at 758-4434 or csokol@dailyinterlake.com