Guest opinion: Preserving downtown character in Whitefish requires enforceable zoning

Citizens for a Better Flathead strongly supports the Whitefish City Council’s leadership and clear commitment to protecting the town’s historic core.  

The Council has made it known that preserving Whitefish’s small-town character and preventing massive oversized development is a top priority. Allowing 60-foot buildings in downtown Whitefish poses a direct threat to the visual identity, small-town atmosphere, and economic vitality that residents and local businesses have built and cherished for decades. Uncontrolled height and density in our core will also inevitably exacerbate existing parking shortages and traffic congestion, harming the quality of life for everyone who lives, works, and shops here.  

To safeguard Whitefish’s downtown, the city is considering amendments to the Whitefish Growth Policy—specifically recommendations to designate scenic corridors along key streets to protect iconic view sheds like Big Mountain. While establishing these scenic corridor recommendations is an important step as an amendment to the Whitefish Growth Policy, because such recommendations are non-regulatory as elements of a growth policy, they are not enough to prevent applications for 60-foot buildings from still being proposed in Whitefish’s downtown core. Under state planning law, a growth policy is a guiding document rather than an enforceable regulation.  

What is quickly needed is for the Council to direct the city planning staff to prepare and propose new zoning regulations which are regulatory and needed to implement the intent of the growth policy to prohibit 60-foot buildings in the scenic and historic and economically vibrant downtown core of Whitefish.  

At the Whitefish City Council meeting on September 8, 2026, Citizens for a Better Flathead (CBF) suggested a series of very specific zone changes to best protect the scenic, historic, and economic vitality of the downtown core of Whitefish. At the city’s upcoming September 21 meeting, the Council should direct staff to move forward quickly with recommendations for the zone changes needed to implement the growth policy intent, including full consideration of the specific recommendations CBF presented at the September 8 meeting.  

By turning non-regulatory policy goals into clear, enforceable zoning laws, the city can effectively safeguard our small-town character and protect our downtown core from out-of-scale development. We thank the City Council for its ongoing leadership and dedication to keeping Whitefish a vibrant, historic, and livable community.  

Mayre Flowers is co-executive director for Citizens for a Better Flathead.