Whitefish downtown advocacy group Heart of Whitefish presented a letter from a privately hired consultant to the Whitefish Planning Commission with suggestions for the land use element of the city’s growth policy update. 

Chris Schustrom said Heart of Whitefish retained planning firm Crandall Arambula to provide expertise on the economic aspects of the growth policy and added that the firm has participated in Whitefish planning projects in the past.  

Portland, Oregon-based Crandall Arambula was hired by the city to create the 2005 downtown master plan, which proposed a man-made waterway that would have channeled water from the Whitefish River toward downtown, along with an accompanying downtown resort and hotel dubbed Whitefish Landing. Both of those concepts were scrapped by City Council after the firm’s services were retained again in 2012 to update elements of the plan. 

Schustrom, chair of Heart of Whitefish, an organization with the goal of “ensuring the economic vitality of downtown Whitefish through advocacy for sound planning,” asked that mixed neighborhoods be removed from the growth policy, adding there is no data “to justify the need for retail use in residential place types.” 

He said permitting more neighborhood retail businesses would make the problem with downtown vacancies worse, weaken the downtown business district and reduce revenues from the city’s resort tax. 

“We request that the economic development, land use and housing elements do not include mixed neighborhood or neighborhood center policies promoting retail use, nor zoning updates that include permitted retail use outside the downtown business district or other town areas where retail is currently permitted by right or conditionally,” he said. 

He added that he found it “troubling” and “alarming” that planners have proposed five areas of mixed neighborhoods in the U.S. 93 South corridor. 

Executive Director of Shelter WF, Keegan Siebenaler, said he was struck by Heart of Whitefish’s comment that the potential for viable businesses in other neighborhoods would exacerbate the vacancy problem downtown. 

“That’s particularly interesting because these same people have been saying that there’s no way that this mixed-use commercial would ever be viable. At the same time, they’re saying all these businesses will go there instead of going to the downtown,” Siebenaler said. “So, I guess I’m asking which of those two scenarios it is.” 

Whitefish resident Nathan Dugan asked the commission to question the principles of Crandall Arambula, because it appears they say what they are getting paid to say.  

Citizens for a Better Flathead director Mayre Flowers supported Heart of Whitefish and encouraged the commission to heed the opinions of Crandall Arambula because the firm was retained by the city in the past. 

“I think to dismiss or discredit the information that you got tonight from Heart of Whitefish is a disservice to this whole community,” she said. “It deserves to be as a professional opinion considered with great weight going forward.” 

Whitefish City Councilor Giuseppe Caltabiano said the growth policy is not an advocacy document, but a “community-wide framework.” 

“When a privately retrained consultant submits a parallel land use framework, even under the label of public comment, it risks blurring the line between participation and authorship,” he said. “Expertise is valuable, but accountability matters more.” 

Caltabiano said the consultant retained by the city is accountable to the public, and a private consultant is accountable to a client and a specific outcome. He suggested the commission treat the Crandall Arambula submission as advocacy input – one perspective out of many. 

“Protecting the integrity of the process is how we ensure the final plan reflects all of Whitefish, not just the best resourced voices,” he said. 

Dugan pointed out a popular mischaracterization about commercial and retail. 

“I haven’t heard anyone advocate for retail in neighborhoods. Neighborhood commercial, sure,” he said “Nobody wants a Gucci store in their neighborhood. People are thinking about coffee shops. I don’t know how neighborhood commercial has turned into retail in neighborhoods.”  

Whitefish resident Jamie Gougen said it is important to be discerning about what kind of retail to have in a neighborhood and suggested they enhance people’s lifestyles, like coffee shops, barber shops and stores for sundries. 

“When I speak on mixed use, I'm mostly thinking new development versus existing development” she said. “A polycentric community can have a high-quality lifestyle for those neighborhood members and then, downtown is where we convene.” 

CONSULTANT Thomas Eddington with czb LLC, the firm charged with working on the land use element of the growth policy, presented the draft land use element, thus covering much of the same information shared at the Vision Whitefish 2045 open house Jan. 14. 

He explained what a land use plan can and cannot do, ending by saying that just because the city allots a space for a certain kind of business, that business may or may not set up there. 

Eddington said the plan is divided in three parts: place-based growth to shape development, protecting and transitioning community boundaries to clearly delineate where urban development is intended, and to reserve and build upon local character, which includes public visioning efforts to enhance conventional zoning. 

The Planning Commission will review the land use element Feb. 4. 

The commission featured two new members, Marti Brandt and Mike Hein. It selected Whitney Beckham to continue as chair, Hein as vice chair, and Scott Wurster to serve on the Lake and Lakeshore Protection Committee.