Flathead Advocacy Group Commissions Survey Ahead of Land Use Plan Approvals

A local advocacy group released survey results on Monday detailing Flathead County voters’ outlook on housing and zoning, with group leaders urging city leaders to incorporate the results into their state-mandated land use plan updates. 

Livable Flathead — which aims to sustainably address the challenges of growth in the Flathead Valley — hired a professional polling firm, Embold Research, to survey residents across the county on questions related to affordable housing, including policies to potentially be woven into new land use plans for Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Kalispell.

Embold Research surveyed 615 registered voters in Flathead County online from Feb. 20 through Feb. 25. Respondents were equally spread across age groups — age 65 and older had the largest respondent group at 33% — and roughly 70% of participants indicated that they own their apartment or home, according to the results.

Nathan Dugan, executive director of Livable Flathead, asserts the survey results provide a “mandate to officials in the county” that more homes need to be built and more types of homes need to be available to meet the needs of all residents. Dugan is also on the board of local housing affordability advocacy group Shelter WF, which helped draft survey questions.

Roughly 67% of respondents said there’s “not enough” housing options “to meet the needs of Flathead Valley residents across family sizes and income levels.” Additionally, 80% of participants indicated that either they or someone they knew had been impacted by a shortage of affordable housing in the valley in recent years, according to survey results. 

When it comes to new housing in the valley, almost 70% of respondents believed “redeveloping existing land within cities” should be prioritized, compared to 16% of respondents who believed “developing open space outside city limits” should be promoted. 

“Our greatest takeaway is that a significant number of Flathead County voters want to see the Flathead continue to grow in ways that reduce sprawl into open spaces and agricultural lands,” Dugan said.

Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Kalispell are three of the 10 cities tasked by the state to adopt a new land use plan, which will guide growth over the next 20 years, and update local zoning and subdivision regulations in accordance with 2023 legislation, the Montana Land Use Planning Act (MLUPA). 

The goal of MLUPA is to “front-load” public input for development by shifting major community discussion and approval to the initial, broad plan and zoning creation phase. The intent is to streamline the approval process for individual projects to an administrative staff level with less public notice, aiming for faster housing development by making site-specific rules predictable. These administrative development approvals will be dictated by the growth policy being created through public participation, both now and as it’s updated every five years.

Each city mandated to do the update has held a variety of public participation sessions and opportunities to incorporate feedback from the community, but Livable Flathead is hoping to make one last push to coalesce public sentiment before city leaders begin approving new land use plans. 

“We want to provide our local government decision-makers with the best possible information for them to make decisions on land use plans and zoning throughout the valley,” Dugan said.

Disagreement over interpreting public feedback and accurately depicting what the community envisions for its future has been a source of contention as Whitefish’s planning commission has worked to update its 2007 growth policy.

Keegan Siebenaler, executive director of Shelter WF, said Livable Flathead’s survey results indicate that “the support for density in workforce housing has always been a silent majority.”

“When you go to a community meeting for a new development, it feels controversial because those living directly next to the project show up,” Siebenaler said. “The larger but diffuse benefits of more workforce housing go unheard. We hope that this survey can be a voice for the silent majority of Flathead Valley residents that would like to see more affordable and inclusive communities.”

The policy question that received the largest overall consensus among survey respondents related to mixed use zoning and to spreading economic development across cities — a topic that has warranted extended discussion in Whitefish. 

Roughly 84% of respondents either strongly or somewhat agreed with the following: “Allowing small businesses like corner stores, restaurants, coffee shops, and pharmacies in most places within our cities with some constraints could create additional small business opportunities and more vibrant neighborhoods.”

When asked, “what types of business do you want within walking distance of your home,” just over half of respondents selected “restaurants, coffee shops, and bakeries,” while 35% selected “personal services” like barbershops, beauty shops, tattooing and laundromats. Nearly 40% of respondents selected “none of these, I do not want any business within walking distance of my home,” according to the survey results. 

Dugan said a top policy push for Livable Flathead is for all cities to allow up to four units per lot in all residential areas.

Roughly 54% of respondents either strongly or somewhat supported “allowing up to four small homes to share a property in all residential neighborhoods, except for the most rural areas on the edge of town.”

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