Whitefish Moving Forward with Depot Park Townhomes After Lien Is Cleared

A nearly decade-long journey to bring workforce housing to a parcel of land formerly known as the “Snow Lot” took another step forward on Monday following almost two years of legal limbo.

Whitefish city councilors at their regular meeting Monday night unanimously voted to authorize City Manager Dana Meeker to enter a consultant agreement with Encompass Design, Inc., the firm that helped design the Depot Park Townhomes in 2018. The council’s unanimous approval also allows city staff to proceed with the submission of building permit applications for all 22 housing units in the residential project.

Encompass Design, Inc. (EDI) was one of the earliest entities attached to the project aimed at bringing more affordable, deed-restricted homes to the Whitefish community — a project whose road to completion has only grown longer as it faced unexpected rises in costs and legal troubles. 

The property, a 1.64-acre piece of land north of Railway Street and east of Columbia Avenue, was once used by the city to store snow cleared from downtown. In keeping with the city’s 2017 Strategic Housing Plan, the land was identified as a high priority project for the development of workforce housing.  

In 2018, the city engaged Homeword, Inc., a Missoula-based nonprofit organization, to facilitate a community discussion regarding the development of the city-owned parcel. Working with EDI, Homeword conducted an extensive public engagement process that included design workshops with neighboring property owners, the former Whitefish Strategic Housing Committee, and interested community members. 

What resulted was a conceptual design that featured two-bedroom townhouses spread across an 11-lot subdivision, and all of them will be deed-restricted for ownership for people making between 80% and 150% of the area median income.

The land parcel was transferred to the Whitefish Housing Authority in 2020, with the organization entering an agreement with the city to carry out the project’s development in accordance with the community-approved designs. About two years later, a preliminary plat for the 22-townhome planned unit development was approved, with the final plat approved by the city in summer 2025.

A January 2025 $1.5 million ruling against the housing authority in a defamation lawsuit, however, essentially brought the project to a complete halt.  

When the housing authority expressed an inability to continue the project — especially under a May 2027 deadline —  the city council in July 2025 voted 3-2 in favor of Meeker exploring negotiating a developer agreement with the nonprofit Housing Whitefish to complete the project. 

Since then, little had happened with the project because of the $1.5 million judgment lien on all of the housing authority’s properties, including the Depot Park Townhomes. 

Now, the property is free of the judgment lien and the city is pushing forward, especially as multiple local organizations like Housing Whitefish and Habitat Flathead this year have expressed interest in developing the project.

“City staff have confirmed through a local title company that the title on the Depot Park Townhomes property, now owned by the City, is free and clear of any lien or judgement lien,” Meeker wrote to city councilors in her October city manager’s report.

City staff hope to present a request for proposal (RFP) to develop and construct the Depot Park Townhomes project to city council at its next meeting, Nov. 16, Meeker said.

“We are at a stage where we are ready to get this built,” Meeker told councilors Monday.

When EDI entered an agreement with the Whitefish Housing Authority years ago, it didn’t provide the housing authority with rights to the building plans, Meeker said. This means for the city to have the building plans, it would need to contract with EDI to complete the project or a potential builder or developer.

After consulting EDI, housing organizations, and local financial institutions in preparation for the issuing of the RFP, city staff determined it would be most effective and efficient to contract directly with EDI to serve as the city’s architect for completion of the project.

“We decided that it would be best for the city to contract with EDI, so that we can utilize a design that’s gone through a very extensive public review process and received all its necessary approvals,” Meeker said. “It’ll also ensure that we’re actively engaged during this project through reviewing approvals for any type of value engineering that may be proposed, and construction management will allow the city to submit building permits earlier instead of waiting for responses from potential interested parties on the RFP.” 

“This is important because our building code does change Dec. 1 based on the new adopted code by the state of Montana,” she added. “So by us applying for those building permits, we’ll have this project, really, building permit ready for whoever does come out as the qualified builder or developer.”

The city has $918,439 available for the Depot Park Townhomes project, which has been appropriated in the fiscal year 2027 budget. The EDI consultant agreement, building permit fees, and impact fees will be funded from these remaining resources. To date, the city has contributed roughly $1.9 million to the project, according to city documents.

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