The Whitefish Planning Commission reviewed agenda items about zoning regulation changes and took public comments at its April meeting, but due to an error in the notification for the special meeting last week, it held off on discussions until it reconvenes May 5 at 6 p.m.  

Public comments will be kept open, and the City Council will hear the matter May 18. 

Whitefish City Planner Dave Taylor presented the city’s request to amend the zoning regulations and the subdivision regulations to comply with the Montana Land Use Planning Act and several land use bills adopted by the 2023 and 2025 state legislatures. 

The act requires the city to have five housing strategies. The city already had six in the code in 2023. Taylor said the process for appeals, variances and conditional use permits need to be changed to align with the act by the May 18 deadline. Changes go into effect on July 1. 

“[We beefed] up standards for gas stations and convenience stores, hotels and lodging uses, churches, light manufacturing and assembly, automobile sales,” Taylor said. “All those things we created development standards for.” 

Most existing uses requiring conditional use permits remain the same, but the process for the permit will change. The Planning Commission and the City Council will no longer see those requests. 

One housekeeping item applies to setback requirements for homes on Whitefish Lake. Flathead County regulations require a 10-foot setback. When a property with a 10-foot setback annexes into the city, where the setback is 15 feet, the home would be considered non-conforming. 

To meet a new building height law, the city code now allows 60-foot buildings for entirely multi-family residential buildings and mixed-use buildings where all floors above the ground floor are for residential purposes. 

“That term, residential purposes, is in there because we define that in our code and that’s 30 days [rental] or more,” Taylor said. “So, short-term rentals would not be permitted in those zones. So those are the only types of buildings that would be allowed to go above 45 feet, or 35 feet, depending on the zone.” 

A second, more thorough phase of zoning changes is expected in the fall. 

Taylor said the subdivision code is involved in a “more massive overhaul,” including changes in variances, appeals and violations and penalties. The process in state law is the same for a zoning/land use matter or a subdivision application. 

Previously, the regulations contained four plat types. The Montana Land Use Planning Act allows for two, preliminary and final plat processes. 

Until June 30, 2027, the public in the area of a proposed subdivision will be given notice and 15 days to comment. The city will also post all subdivision applications on the city’s website. After July 1, 2027, that practice will change to be compliant with state law. 

Final plats will still go through City Council, but only on the consent agenda. 

“It won’t be a process where they’ll be a lot of public input on that because at that point, whoever is doing the subdivision will have already spent millions of dollars to put all of their infrastructure in,” Taylor said.