City council still stuck on steep slopes issue

Some 'CAO Lite' amendments pass, Walgreens developer is likely to get an exemption

By RICHARD HANNERS / Whitefish Pilot

The Whitefish City Coun-cil struggled one more time with its contentious Critical Areas Ordinance during its Oct. 20 meeting as it considered six amendments aimed at simplifying the ordinance and reducing the number of affected lots.

In the end, the councilors unanimously approved five of the amendments and left the hardest one for additional deliberation. The amendments had failed to get the required four votes at the council's Oct. 6 meeting.

One of the amendments that passed requires a 20-foot setback at the top of the bank above the Whitefish River, which creates a hardship for developer Bill Halama.

Halama has already spent significant funds building a pad and laying utilities for a 25,000-square-foot commercial center near the new Walgreens store. There is consensus among the councilors to provide Halama an exemption, which could be included in the ordinance's second reading.

Most of the debate was over the proposed amendment that would exempt single-family homes on existing lots of record from some of the ordinance's steep slope requirements.

The Whitefish City-County Planning Board had recommended limiting the requirement for a more expensive site-stability analysis to steep slopes within 400 feet of Whitefish Lake or 200 feet of other water bodies.

But councilors Nancy Wood-ruff and John Muhlfeld said Oct. 6 that they wanted all properties in the city's jurisdiction with slopes steeper than 40 percent to undergo the analysis. Councilor Nick Palmer disagreed, saying the CAO is meant to protect water quality, not the safety of structures on steep slopes.

Muhlfeld pointed out that although homes in Grouse Mountain Estates homes are built on solid bedrock, the hill has 2-3 feet of overlying soils with the potential to erode.

Randy Overton, the consulting hydrologist who helped draft the CAO, reviewed the proposed amendments and advised the city to require site-stability analysis for steep slopes everywhere.

The council will likely take up the steep slopes issue further during work sessions.

In other city council news:

? A rezone request for three properties in Haugen Heights was approved 4-2 with councilors Shirley Jacobson and Palmer opposed. The request failed to get the needed four votes on Oct. 6.

Robert McDaniel II, Ronald and Mary Behrendt, Frank McHugh and Cheryl Dohizel asked for the 46 acres to be changed from agricultural to WSR, for one-acre minimum.

City planner Wendy Compton-Ring said the properties were 1,200 feet from city sewer, beyond the 500-foot mandatory hook-up limit, and Muhlfeld brought up continuing concerns about the site being developed with septics. Several councilors also expressed concern about what might happen to the site if it falls under county planning jurisdiction.

? A preliminary plat request for the Pine Grove Estates encountered much debate but passed unanimously. As a minor subdivision, a public hearing would not be required, but developer Tina Lawrence had requested a variance from city road standards, and the council chose to take limited public input.

Lawrence said she wanted a narrower road with bioswales instead of curbs and gutters because she was trying to protect large old-growth trees and maintain the site's rural character.

Public works director John Wilson, who was absent, had expressed concern about future connectivity if land between Pine Grove Estates and downtown Whitefish eventually develops.

The council changed the conditions to make the subdivision's road privately owned and maintained but open to the public, as it is in Iron Horse, and to require a stormwater retention pond in addition to the bioswales.

? The Montana Municipal Insurance Authority honored Whitefish with its Award For Loss Control Achievement for second-class cities. Whitefish has incurred the lowest average dollars for workers compensation for the past five years.

City clerk Necile Lorang, who accepted the award for the city at the annual meeting of the Montana League of Cities and Towns on Oct. 9, was elected to the MMIA board of directors during the meeting.

? Councilor Muhlfeld will represent the council on a multi-agency group dealing with fire hazards in the wildland interface.

? The council approved developer Kelcey Bingham's request to annex the 27-acre Coldwater Basin subdivision on lower Big Mountain Road.