Whitefish City Council approved a conditional use permit, amended one aspect of the Legacy Homes Program and denied a lakeshore variance at its regular meeting last week.

Kevin Kaltschmidt requested a conditional use permit to expand the vehicle storage area for Don K Whitefish auto dealership. The property is located across the street from the dealership at 6200 and 6208 U.S. 93 South.  

About half the property is zoned WB-2, or business district and the rest is WR2, or residential with special conditions. A conditional use permit is required in the WB-2 for the storage area which will be wholly located within the WB-2 district. 

Although the entire tract is a little more than 11 acres, only about 1 acre will be used for the storage area. 

Kaltschmidt said the area will be used mainly for inventory storage, but there will be enough parking spaces for employees. 

Staff recommended approval and there was no public comment. The council voted unanimously to approve the conditional use permit. 

WHITEFISH PLANNING Director David Taylor said the council has updated the fee in lieu for the voluntary Legacy Home Program annually since 2019. It is based on a three-year average of sales and average square footage in the Whitefish zip code, along with the area median income in Flathead Valley. 

Taylor noted the home sales aspect does not include homes costing $5 million or more. According to Northwest Montana Association of Realtors, the three-year average was $795,666.  

Last year, the fee in lieu was $294,349 and will be $375,443 in 2024, a 27.5% increase. The council voted unanimously to adopt the updated fee in lieu.  

THE WILLOWS Homeowners Association requested a variance to remove an existing 110-foot-long, 2-foot-wide fixed walkway and replace it with a floating, five-foot-wide walkway, at 1340 Wisconsin Avenue. The council voted 5-1 to deny the request with Councilor Rebecca Norton in opposition. 

Whitefish City Planner Nelson Loring said three criteria need to be met for approval to be granted for a minor lakeshore variance. His findings indicated only two of the three were met and recommended denial of the request. 

The criteria include undue hardship, which, due to the unsafe nature of a 2-foot-wide walkway, was found to be met. Further, Loring found that granting the variance would have no water quality, shoreline, wildlife, recreation, navigation, or environmental impacts 

The other criterium is that no reasonable alternatives exist but Loring found reasonable alternatives do exist to reduce dock size and to fall within the lakeshore protection regulations standards.