Growth policy discussions steer toward multimodal traffic plans
JULIE ENGLER | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 1 month, 4 weeks AGO
Cars drive along U.S. Highway 93 in Whitefish. (Heidi Desch/Whitefish Pilot file)
Julie Engler covers Whitefish City Hall and writes community features for the Whitefish Pilot. She earned master's degrees in fine arts and education from the University of Montana. She can be reached at [email protected] or 406-882-3505. | November 26, 2025 1:00 AM
Whitefish Long Range Planner Alan Tiefenbach reported the status of the growth policy update, Vision Whitefish 2045, at a council work session last week and the consulting firm czb, LLC described its work on the land-use chapter.
The sections of the policy that are complete include: history, demographics, vision, economic development, public facilities, environment, natural resources and hazards.
Drafts for three elements, transportation, housing and land use, are in progress.
Tiefenbach said information from transportation plans throughout the years was summarized on two composite maps, one for motorized concerns and road improvements and another with trails.
“What we were told when we were envisioning, is that the community wanted non-motorized transportation to be treated equally to motorized transportation,” Tiefenbach said. “So we made sure they all have equal weight in this transportation element.”
In the transportation element, multimodal means all modes of travel are treated equally, and automobile travel is not prioritized, and it was the top desire of visioning participants.
The community housing committee is working on the housing element. It is expected to go for agency and public review and is tentatively scheduled for the Planning Commission’s Dec. 17 meeting.
Tiefenbach said the plan is to finish the transportation element in November, housing in December and land use in January. The council will begin working on the plan at a work session in January.
Thomas Eddington with the czb team said street types and place types make up a future land-use policy.
The consultants met with the community twice in September. Each session saw about 50 attendees. An online version of the session was offered in October, and 150 people participated.
Six main areas were delineated: north of the tracks, residential west of downtown, downtown, Karrow Avenue, residential east of downtown, U.S. 93 from Montana 40 north of the river, and the public shared opinions about the likelihood of the areas experiencing change over the next 10 to 20 years.
Community input and the consultants’ analysis of street types were turned into a large map, and a chart was made to represent the need for affordable housing units.
“If you’ve got 2,100 units as the need over the next 20 years, stretching the housing assessments forward for another 10 years ... you would need about 1,600 of those 2,100 units as housing for those earning less than 120% of AMI,” Eddington said. “A pretty tall order.”
He said the land-use plan is closely integrated with the housing and transportation plans.
To be in compliance with the new Montana Land Use Planning Act, the city’s growth policy update must meet all requirements by May 18, 2026.
ARTICLES BY JULIE ENGLER
Students share growth policy ideas with Planning Commission
A dozen Whitefish High School students presented ideas for Vision Whitefish 2045, the growth policy update, to the Planning Commission.
Habitat for Humanity pitches plan to build townhomes in Whitefish
The Whitefish City Council meeting last week began with the swearing in of reelected Councilors Ben Davis, Giuseppe Caltabiano and Andy Feury, and was followed by more swearing as the night saw an hour of intense public comment followed by three hearings and a handful of other items.
The Flag Man spreads cheer in Whitefish
Al Wallenstein, The Flag Man, has been “an honest man trying to make a living selling his wares” on a few street corners on the south side of Whitefish.