Whitefish Long Range Planner Alan Tiefenbach worked determinedly and tirelessly for the last four years to complete Vision Whitefish 2045, the city’s growth policy. This week, he started his new job as Kalispell's senior planner. 

In August 2022, Tiefenbach joined the city of Whitefish with the primary job of updating the growth policy. 

“I really do appreciate the opportunity that I was given here,” Tiefenbach said. “It really is one of those magnum opus opportunities, to be able to do the community plan for Whitefish. I'm tremendously proud of it. 

“Nobody will say it's not thorough and complete and detailed. It was a major collaborative, infuriating process,” he added. “I'm not happy with everything about it, but I'm tremendously proud. I did 100% on that.” 

Whitefish City Manager Dana Meeker and Whitefish Deputy Mayor Frank Sweeney acknowledged Tiefenbach’s work at a recent City Council meeting. 

“We are so grateful for his time here and the work that he did,” Meeker said. “He had a very difficult job over the past few years, and we really appreciate all the work that he’s done.” 

Even as a 21-year veteran of the planning game, and one who has previously penned three growth policies for mountain towns, Tiefenbach found the Whitefish community plan to be a “heavy lift.” He said it was a bigger job than he anticipated, due, in large part, to the immense amount of community input. 

"Thirty-three planning commission meetings, 1,000 pages of public comment, conflicting reports from different agencies, every time,” he said. "It was a long fight, pretty much through the whole process.” 

While Tiefenbach is a supporter of public participation, and realizes that working in public service is, generally, a thankless job, the level of community involvement in the Whitefish plan was intense.  

“I would write a section of the community plan. I'd have multiple agencies submitting their own versions of what it should read like, and you're trying to synthesize all that information together and come up with something that everybody can equally hate or equally agree on,” he said. “It’s usually equally hate.” 

The quantity and, oftentimes, vehemence of the critiques were challenging and novel for the long-term planner, but he retained his composure throughout. He tied a bow on the community plan project just last week. 

His new job will provide Tiefenbach opportunities to be involved in a broader range of work, including both current and long-range planning as well as redevelopments and tax increment finance projects. 

“There’s a lot more opportunities with economic development and new businesses and business expansion,” he said of Kalispell. “There's a lot of redevelopment opportunities with the Parkline Trail and the rail yards and the mall and all along the North Town Center.” 

He said the Kalispell senior planner position was his logical next step. 

“I'm not someone that is trying to take my steps up the ladder. It's not money anymore, and trying to prove myself,” he said. “I've already done more than most planners ever get to do in their lifetime. I've written four community plans.” 

AFTER FIVE years stationed at the Naval Amphibious Base Coronado as a Navy Beachmaster, Tiefenbach graduated from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and got his first planning job in Colorado almost immediately, thus starting his 25-year career in the field. 

He considered going into medicine before seeing that his skills were better suited to city planning. His energetic nature and public speaking skills allow him to distill loads of information and communicate its relevance clearly. 

“Planning is the intersection of so many disciplines: economics, psychology, sociology, environment, architecture, physical design,” he said. “You have to have a broad knowledge of so many topics, and then, in the context of that, you have to understand the community and what the citizens want and pull all that together in some kind of policy and regulation to make cities more livable places.”  

Tiefenbach, his wife of 27 years, Jennee, and their dog, Lazlo, live in Kalispell, not far from City Hall. One of the perks of his new job has two wheels. 

“It would be the first time that I've ever been able to ride my bike to work, and the first time that I've ever lived in the community that I've worked,” he said. 

Reporter Julie Engler can be reached at 406-862-3505 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at whitefishpilot.com/support.