Happy Friday, Beacon readers! Lauren Frick here, and after a few Friday Roundups diving into the worlds of sports, arts and entertainment, I think it’s time we restore some balance in the universe with a dispatch from my city government beat — you’ve guessed it, it’s MLUPA time (seriously, hold the cheers … I’m trying to get to the rest of the Roundup).

ICYMI, Whitefish, Columbia Falls and Kalispell are three of 10 cities that must update their growth policy and zoning and subdivision regulations per Senate Bill 382, also known as the Montana Land Use Planning Act, also also known as MLUPA.

Whitefish’s multi-year process to update its 2007 growth policy document — a planning document intended to guide the city through growth and development over a 20-year-period — may finally be coming to a close soon.

During Whitefish’s policy update process, a mix of planning commissioners, residents and local advocacy organizations have been at odds, largely over different interpretations of public feedback and accurately depicting what the community envisions for its future. Density, housing projections, mixed-use development and affordable housing have all served as points of disagreement.

This expansive community conversation has culminated in more than 900 pages of public comments and resulted in a final product that currently hovers around 320 pages, Alan Tiefenbach, a long-range planner for the city who is also the case manager for the growth policy update, told city councilors at their meeting on March 2.

Over the last month, city councilors have been brought up to speed on the contents of the planning document through a series of workshops, which have also included city staff and/or public concerns with growth policy edits made by the planning commission.

While councilors asked questions and had moments of brief back-and-forth discussion, any substantial conversation or direction to city staff on controversial pieces in the growth policy has yet to be seen. But that will change at Monday’s meeting.

The city council will meet at 7:10 p.m. on Monday, March 23 with a one item agenda: the second public hearing on the growth policy (also known as Vision Whitefish 2045 Community Plan). With an extensive conversation ahead, the discussion will likely spill into the April 6 regular meeting.

The city council had its first public hearing for the growth policy on March 2, but the time was solely dedicated to public comment, which included presentations from two local groups who have been vocal throughout the policy update process: Heart of Whitefish and Shelter WF. 

Don Arambula, a principal for the Portland-based firm Crandall Arambula, spoke on behalf of Heart of Whitefish, a nonprofit organization dedicated to advocating for the economic health and vitality of downtown Whitefish and its small businesses. Arambula gave councilors a final pitch to protect the city’s downtown by eliminating mentions of additional retail in neighborhoods throughout the policy.

“When we talk about neighborhood-serving retail, this is what we call experiential retail,” Arambula told councilors on March 2. “So the coffee shops, the little cafes, all the things that they’ve identified, there’s not a big market for that. If you look at all the shopping trips people make in the community, that’s about 12% of those trips, and downtown is depending on that 12%.

“So you’re going to cut that pie into smaller and smaller pieces. Our fear is not that you don’t want to see people have access to those business services in the downtown, but it’s the death by 1,000 cuts. Downtown’s don’t die all at once. It takes years.” 

Keegan Siebenaler, executive director of local affordable housing organization, Shelter WF, presented results from a recent survey of registered voters in Flathead County that asked questions related to affordable housing, including policies to be woven into the new land use plan. 

“We think that allowing missing middle housing types across the city is the only equitable solution,” Siebenaler said. “A lot of people will be upset if they are the only one that is upzoned. The way we minimize the impact on any particular neighbor is by distributing growth across the city and allowing it to happen gradually.”

City councilors on Monday will consider the comments of Heart of Whitefish and Shelter WF, along with the countless residents and other local organizations who have offered their perspectives in this three-year long process. Even when the city council gives the final OK to the growth policy — whether that be Monday or in April — work will still be full steam ahead, as councilors will need to switch gears to new zoning and subdivision regulations. The city council will also meet at 5:30 p.m. on Monday, March 23 for a work session on these regulations. 

Well, I’ll see y’all at Whitefish’s city council chambers, but first, here’s the rest of today’s Daily Roundup.