Ownership of the city’s snow lot is being passed to the Whitefish Housing Authority to allow for the development of an affordable workforce housing project.

City Council last week voted to transfer ownership to the housing authority and to help assist in funding the future project by providing $459,5000 in tax increment finance funds and $509,000 in fees-in-lieu of affordable housing paid by past developers who chose to pay cash instead of creating affordable housing.

“I’m glad we’re moving forward with this project,” Councilor Andy Feury said. “We’ve been considering this for a long time.”

Councilor Ben Davis, who previously served as chair of the Whitefish Housing Authority Board, also praised the project. “We look forward to seeing this project become a reality,” he said.

The city’s downtown master plan designates the 1.64 acre property at the corner of Railway Street and Columbia Avenue, as suitable for a housing project. The 2017 Whitefish Strategic Housing Plan recommended the city work with a partner to develop the lot for affordable workforce housing.

The city previously retained Homeword, a Missoula-based nonprofit that focuses on affordable housing projects, to draft a conceptual design and financial feasibility analysis for the lot.

The analysis of the project in February found that roughly 24 homes constructed on the lot would make the project financially feasible. Homeword created a conceptual plan for the property that calls a total of 24 single-family homes constructed in duplex-style buildings on the property.

A cost estimate showed that at just under $6.5 million for the entire project and an estimate of about $5.6 million in revenue from eventual home sales, the project would be viable.

The city’s contact with the housing authority, as approved by Council, says that if for some reason the lot is not used to provide permanently affordable housing, the lot would then revert back to city ownership.

The snow lot currently houses a central recycling site and the city is looking at options for relocating the recycling.