Flathead Valley City Planners Give State Legislators Progress Report on Housing and Zoning Reform

City planning staff from Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls on Thursday reported to a handful of state legislators on their respective city’s progress with 2023 legislation, the Montana Land Use Planning Act (MLUPA), and shared the challenges faced while bringing each city’s growth policy and zoning and subdivision regulations into compliance with state law. 

The Flathead Valley representatives were part of a larger, two-part panel on the implementation of MLUPA, which featured each of the 10 cities mandated to comply with the legislation, at the Local Government Interim Committee’s May 28 meeting in Helena. 

MLUPA, which passed in May 2023, details a set of requirements for evaluating growth over the next 20 years. It aims to address the housing crisis by easing development standards and streamlining approval of individual projects, shifting the authority to an administrative staff level with less public notice.

While the panelists were separated based on community size — with cities like Helena, Missoula and Bozeman participating together and Columbia Falls, Kalispell and Whitefish comprising a separate group — many echoed similar sentiments. 

The mix of planning and development managers largely supported MLUPA’s larger goal of creating more housing across the state and making development processes more predictable, noting their appreciation for the extensive public participation process required through the legislation. However, the city staff members also painted a picture of the obstacles faced throughout the ongoing, multi-year process.

Concerns voiced by the panelists included: the immense time crunch to update both the growth policy and land use plan, as well as the zoning and subdivision regulations; worry from residents on a more limited public notice and participation process moving forward; and a muddied appeals process that some cities feel could open them up to legal liability or ultimately slow down development. 

A key challenge mentioned by most cities on the panel was navigating the costs associated with MLUPA in the timeline required by the legislation, which several categorized as an unfunded mandate. 

Panelists noted their respective cities paid for advertising and additional communication methods to properly address the public participation needs, while others accrued costs through hiring consultants or additional planning staff in order to complete the legislation’s requirements by the May deadline. Many city officials mentioned they likely could have completed all the required work through their in-house planning departments, but the time crunch didn’t make that feasible. 

Columbia Falls, which doesn’t have a planning department and contracts both a city planner and city attorney, was especially reliant on grants to make its way through the MLUPA process. Still, even with the promise of those funds, the city still encountered roadblocks, City Manager Eric Hanks told the committee. 

“We were very fortunate and supportive of the PRO Housing grants that the [Montana Department of Commerce] and the [Montana League of Cities and Towns] coordinated, but they were significantly insufficient for what we really needed to do,” Hanks said. “This scale of planning effort, we had to downscope two preliminary engineering reports for our wastewater and water studies, as well as our land use planning consulting contract to a minimal contract just to stay within our budget. We had to sacrifice other priorities within the city because of an unfunded mandate of this study in this timeline.”  

In January 2025, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a second round of Pathways to Reducing Obstacles to Housing (PRO Housing) grants, which are meant to support communities’ work to reform outdated and restrictive zoning regulations in an attempt to increase housing supply. 

The Montana Department of Commerce was earmarked to receive $7 million of the $100 million in grants, with $5 million set to be distributed to all the cities participating in MLUPA. The city of Kalispell is set to receive the highest dollar amount of any city in the state at $1,095,555. The city of Whitefish and Columbia Falls are set to each receive $391,270.

With the tight MLUPA deadlines, however, city planning staff on Thursday told legislators they had to proceed without the funds. As of the May 28 meeting, the cities were still awaiting reimbursement, with one panelist describing the situation as an uncertain and ambiguous one. 

“We used a consultant on our land use chapter just because of the tight timeline; there was just no way for us to get that done … so there was a significant cost to the city on that stuff,” Whitefish Planning and Building Director Dave Taylor said. “We were definitely thankful for the PRO Housing grant, and hopeful that that will eventually come to pass.”

Jennifer Olson — the interim executive director of the Montana League of Cities and Towns, which is working with the state to distribute the grant funds — praised the PRO Housing grants, noting the funds were an unprecedented amount for city planning-specific appropriation and were fundamental to supporting MLUPA. 

Olson told legislators and city staff that the league and the state “are still working through the process of making sure that that money gets to the right places and spaces,” saying they are “working really hard to get that done.”

“There are planning funds out there, federal government has been supportive in doing that, but that is kind of like a one-time shot in the arm,” Olson said. “I want to underscore that is a really good start for us, and it really came at a perfect time for our cities that are going through MLUPA to help with that, so that’s why we’re working really vehemently and hard to make sure that that funding gets to where it needs to go to reimburse all of these cities.”

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