U.S. 93 strip zoning tabled by council

With a packed chamber anxiously awaiting their decision, the Whitefish City Council on Aug. 2 unanimously postponed a decision to amend zoning regulations for the U.S. 93 strip.

Two years have passed since the city began work on revising the regulations, including several trips to both the Whitefish City-County Planning Board and the city council and a 4-3 division by the ad hoc committee assigned to review the regulations.

Thirty-three people spoke during the Aug. 2 public hearing, including several members of the ad hoc committee. Twenty-seven opposed loosening restrictions on retail sales on the U.S. 93 strip, which many believe will harm downtown businesses. Six supported changing the regulations to encourage economic development.

With two councilors absent, the council voted to send the draft regulations back to city staff with directions to strip out all references to shopping centers and shopping malls and to continue the public hearing when the draft regulations come back to the council on Aug. 16.

The councilors also reached consensus on the need for a corridor study aimed at protecting the aesthetics of the south entry to the city, while acknowledging that finding money for the work would be difficult. They also called for some way to enforce zoning regulations ahead of time, such as a zoning compliance permit.

A long history

As brought to the council, the zone text amendment would increase the number of permitted uses in the WB-2 district to include convenience stores, sporting goods stores and personal services. Allowed conditional uses would increase to include department and discount retail stores, as well as shopping malls and shopping centers with retail.

The original intent of establishing WB-2 zoning was to protect retail businesses in the downtown area. The WB-2 district was created in the 1980s for businesses that needed large display, parking or storage areas, or outdoor commercial amusement and recreational activities. The downtown WB-3 district was intended to be the center of financial, retail, commercial, governmental, professional, institutional and cultural activities.

Over the years, however, numerous businesses that didn't conform to the WB-2 regulations cropped up along U.S. 93, including hair salons, sporting goods stores and flower shops. This came to a head two years ago when the Army-Navy Surplus owners sought a building permit for a new store, and the developer of the 3.5-acre Riverview Plaza next to Walgreens requested expanded retail on the strip.

Planning staff suggested revising the WB-2 zoning to address the inconsistencies, but when the planning board forwarded its recommendations to the city council in late 2008, the councilors opted to create an ad hoc committee to do more work on the amendment.

The ad hoc committee, however, could not reach consensus. The majority members — city councilors Turner Askew and Phil Mitchell, Holiday Plaza owner Jeff Jensen and Riverside Plaza developer Bill Halama — recommended expanding retail uses along U.S. 93. After holding two public hearings on the committee's recommendations, the planning board voted 5-2 on July 15 to forward the draft text amendment to the city council.

The downtown side

The minority members of the ad hoc committee — downtown businessman Henry Roberts, downtown property owner and developer Ian Collins, and at-large member Brian Schott — sharply criticized both the amendment and the committee itself in a July 27 position statement.

Saying the zone text change "is an extremely important issue, which should not be decided simply by the structure of a committee," the three pointed out that every vote that dealt with expanding retail in the WB-2 zone went 4-3, with Halama and Jensen siding with Askew and Mitchell.

The minority report claims "a mountain of evidence" exists showing that 'retail strip mall developments on the outskirts of small communities erode and ruin downtown centers," including "plenty of good examples in our own valley."

On the other hand, the minority report claims, "no evidence, other than the word of the WB-2 representatives, was ever offered that showed there was a benefit to the Whitefish community or existing downtown businesses to make these zoning changes."

Citing the city's Downtown Master Plan and Growth Policy, Roberts, Collins and Schott said "a decision of this magnitude should be based on a comprehensive plan, not the 'gut feeling' of a handful of people who stand to benefit from these changes."

The three said the conditional-use permit process required for some new uses under the amendment "cannot be trusted to adequately mitigate the impact of retail strip mall development on the downtown." "History," they said, "has taught us that very few CUP applications for developments like this are ever denied."

Roberts, Collins and Schott blamed a lack of zoning enforcement for creating the inconsistencies on the U.S. 93 strip, and they called for the council to look at the "intent and purpose" of each permitted or conditioned use rather approve the amendment wholesale.

In a full-page ad in the Whitefish Pilot, the Heart of Whitefish downtown merchants group warned that the text amendment could change Whitefish from "a town with a distinct and economically healthy downtown" to "just another retail strip mall and sprawl town."

The merchants group said increasing retail uses on the U.S. 93 strip could encourage formula stores, which are not owner-operated; decrease property values downtown; increase traffic congestion on U.S. 93, which lacks a frontage road; cause Whitefish to lose tourist dollars, as the city loses its appealing small-town character; promote strip development south of Highway 40; and lead to empty storefronts or lots downtown, a trend that is hard to reverse.

"Time after time, all across North America, downtowns have been cannibalized by retail strip malls," the merchants group said. "Not surprisingly, strip mall developers have been telling the city council this won't happen in Whitefish, without providing any supporting evidence."

The existing zoning regulations are working, the merchants group said, claiming that many successful U.S. 93 strip businesses "originated from downtown locations and moved to the strip after they outgrew their downtown site."

Supporters speak out

Tim Babiak, who owns a commercial building on the U.S. 93 strip and supports the amended regulations, emphasized the importance of promoting economic development and jobs. He said he wanted to see residents shop in Whitefish, not driving south to Kalispell.

"Businesses on U.S. 93 are locally-owned, too," he said.

Babiak called the Heart Of Whitefish ad "a disservice to the community by discouraging growth." He also noted that downtown already benefits from street improvement and parking projects paid for by the city.

Robin Sherwood, who owns Sherwood Sports Bar & Grill, also supported changing the regulations. Noting that downtown businesses stay busy and are doing well, Sherwood suggested allowing some big box stores in Whitefish.

"It could create more traffic on U.S. 93," he said, adding that the stores could be ones that don't directly compete with downtown businesses.

Praising the "healthy dialog," Halama cautioned that it could lead to misconceptions about the proposed zoning changes. The conditional-use permit process for big box stores — those over 15,000 square feet — presents "a difficult hurdle," he said, so the proposed changes don't allow everything. Halama also called for more enforcement of zoning regulations, especially architectural review.

"I don't want the strip to have ugly strip malls," he said. "But not all strip malls are ugly."

He also emphasized that "it's not a zero-sum game" between downtown and the U.S. 93 strip — "if one improves, so could the other," he said, calling the economic forces "a symbiotic relationship."

Jensen said he built the Holiday Plaza back away from U.S. 93 to help make the entry to Whitefish "beautiful." He also questioned the contention that Mountain Mall hurt downtown when it was built.

"We need to provide businesses the opportunity to choose if they want 45 mph traffic," he said.

Councilor Mitchell said the ad hoc committee met five times and tried to make the regulations address the nonconforming businesses. The Party Time rental store, for example, wouldn't work downtown, and while sporting goods stores might be contentious, the point was to address Army Navy, which was already on the U.S. 93 strip.