Approximately 11 acres of a 31-acre parcel were successfully rezoned for higher-density housing at the last Whitefish City Council meeting.

The property is located west of Highway 93 South and south of the Park Knoll subdivision. The property had been zoned WCR-SC (Country Residential with special conditions) which has a minimum lot area of 2.5 acres and now, 11 acres of the parcel have been rezoned to WER-SC (Estate Residential with special conditions) with a 20,000 square foot lot size. The western remainder of the lot will remain WCR.

The staff report says the WER district is intended to provide for single-family, large tract or estate development and that the zone change is in keeping with the future land use of suburban residential for that portion of the lot.

Carter Unger, the property owner and representative of Honor Bound LLC, told the council his plan is to build one and two-family homes through a planned unit development.

Whitefish City Planner Dave Taylor explained to the Pilot through an email that this zone change means that Unger could spread units that would have gone in that 11-acre portion to other places on his property. While most of the 11 acres portion will likely be in a wetland buffer, the applicant could develop with higher density elsewhere, perhaps to the east, near the proposed Baker Avenue extension.

At the planning board meeting on March 16, the rezoning request was approved with a vote of 5-1. At that time, board member Toby Scott said he understood what Unger was proposing – consolidating his properties so he can divide it up appropriately with the 2.5-acre lots, half-acre lots and smaller lots for development of hopefully affordable rental housing.

The special conditions on the parcels stem from promises Unger made to homeowners in nearby neighborhoods, including an additional five-foot setback and the assurance that only single-family homes will be built along Park Knoll Lane west of the future Baker Avenue intersection.

An additional special condition recently added concerns the wetland area that makes up a large portion of the rezoned 11 acres. The applicant will add an additional 10% of buffer to the required setback.

“Currently, with the WCR zoning, our Water Quality Protection Regulations would require a 75-foot setback off of that wetland,” said Taylor. “The zoning that he is applying for, which is a WER, requires a 100-foot setback.”

Taylor pointed out that with the water quality ordinance, the higher the density, the bigger the setback that's required off of any kind of a wetland.

“We have some of the more restrictive setbacks for the Whitefish River compared to what other municipalities have adopted,” Mayor John Muhlfeld said. “No other community I’m aware of actually has water quality ordinance protections for isolated wetlands like we do, much less stream setbacks (that) far exceed county requirements.”

DURING PUBLIC comment, Carol Watkins, the neighbor to the south of the property in question and head of the South Whitefish Neighborhood Association, spoke about the importance of protecting the wetlands and has hired her own hydrologist to study the area.

Additionally, Michelle Weinberg, representing the South Neighborhood Association, said the proposed zone change fails to comply with state laws and the city’s zoning regulations and recited several other reasons to deny the request.

“It seems the two main questions here today are on appropriate density and… wetland protections,” Unger said. “I think a little more density is needed desperately. Clearly, I am not going to be building in any wetlands… I voluntarily added in an additional 10% to the city’s requirement.”

Councillor Ben Davis made the motion to approve the zone change and said, in part, “I do think it is important for development to be considerate of the environment that’s around it. I trust that our regulations that we have in place and our engineering standards will address those concerns.”

The council voted 5-1 in favor of the zone change with Councilor Rebecca Norton voting in opposition. She said she’d prefer to postpone a decision on this request until there was more data available about the wetland area.