Whitefish City Council Approves Increased Boat Launch Fees
The first fee hike in nearly 10 years, which will take effect this summer, was approved to better support the city’s Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) prevention program
By Lauren Frick
Whitefish city councilors on Tuesday night unanimously approved the city’s first increase to its boat launch fees since 2017, along with introducing specialized fees for non-residents.
The first fee hike in nearly 10 years, which will take effect this summer, comes after city staff suggested an increase in revenue was needed to better support the city’s efforts to safely launch while protecting Whitefish Lake through its vigorous Aquatic Invasive Species (AIS) prevention program.
The city’s current fee structure consisted of a $10 per launch pass, $50 season pass and $50 punch card, along with $125 commercial launch permits. In 2025, this collection of fees generated $32,590 in revenue for the city, which only covered roughly 27% of the cost to run the ramp and perform inspections and decontaminations at City Beach and Whitefish Lake State Park, Parks and Recreation Director Maria Butts told the city council at its Tuesday meeting.
The cost to fund seasonal staff who perform inspections, decontaminations and facility maintenance averages $119,000 annually, with Whitefish Lake Institute contributing $17,500 to the cost of running the decontamination station, according to city documents.
Under the new fee structure, projected summer 2026 revenue is estimated to be $79,795, which Butts said would cover about 80% of the cost to perform AIS inspections and decontaminations by city staff.
The fee change results in a $5 increase in per launch fees for residents, in addition to a $50 increase to season launch passes. Non-residents, which the city defines as any boat not registered in Montana, will now be charged a separate, higher fee, culminating in a $50 per launch fee and $250 season pass.
In addition to new non-resident fees, the city’s commercial boat launch permit program is seeing the most change with the new fee structure.
The city’s commercial boat launch permit program was first established in 2017 with nine permits issued that year. In 2025, there were a total of 24 permits issued.
Commercial permit holders use the launch heavily, with city staff at a city council workshop last month saying the city’s extremely low fee of $125 does very little to make up the difference in the wear-and-tear the boat launch takes from all the use.
City staff at the workshop proposed a new commercial tiered fee system, with fees ranging from $250 to $1,000 depending on the permit type, number of launches per season and permit quota. City councilors, however, showed concern that the fee increases were still too low, emphasizing that non-residents and commercial entities who use the lake the most should carry the brunt of the cost as opposed to residents.
City councilors on Tuesday night approved a commercial permit fee structure that established several of the commercial fees at $500, with an additional fee of $15 per launch.
“We removed the inclusion of the punch card with the commercial base fee,” Butts said. “Instead, commercial users will be required to pay the resident day launch fee for each launch fee.”
“This method will naturally require commercial users to pay for the level of impact their business has at the boat launch, instead of staff trying to estimate tiered levels of use,” she added. “This method will also allow staff to gather better data on the number of commercial launches at City Beach each year.”
While the city council approved of the new fees, several councilors expressed a desire to further explore the definition of resident versus non-resident, saying out-of-state users of the lake can just register their boat in Montana to get the lower fee.
“At some point in the future, I think we ought to consider residents being Montana residents, and you have to be both a Montana resident and a Montana boat to get the break would be my view,” Councilor Frank Sweeney said.