Commercial CUP fees lowered

Whitefish City Council unanimously passed a resolution at their April 2 meeting to lower the fee charged for a commercial conditional use permit.

The fee is now $1,980. Previously the fee was $3,000 plus an additional $130 per acre. The new fee is calculated based on costs for a legal ad, printing fees and 24 to 30 hours of staff time at $50 an hour.

“These fees are estimated to cover the expected costs to cover the time in addressing a commercial CUP,” noted city planner Wendy Compton-Ring. “It is reasonable to expect an applicant to pay for the time and expenses for their projects and not the citizens of Whitefish.”

Changes to the city’s CUP fee scale were suggested in February after Graham Hart wrote the city an email asking why Whitefish’s fees were higher than other Montana cities. Hart was trying to start a small brewery and the CUP fee of $3,430 would have been one of his most expensive start-up costs.

“I was born and raised in Whitefish and I love it here,” Hart wrote. “It disappoints me to see that the city is making it so difficult for me to start this business.”

The commercial CUP rate in Kalispell is $400 plus $50 an acre. In Missoula the fee is about $1,600, and in Bozeman it’s $1,500 plus $25 an acre.

In a February memo prepared by city planning director David Taylor, he notes that commercial CUPs are required for projects that could have impacts on neighboring properties. The established fee is set “via a trade off between actual costs to the city and the desire to promote development.”

“Some cities subsidize planning fees more than others,” he said. “Ultimately, if the developer doesn’t pay, then the general taxpayer does.”

At the April 2 meeting, councilman Bill Kahle was glad to reduce the CUP fee, but called it a “somewhat arbitrary” number.

“How do we know that number is where it needs to be?” he said.

City Manager Chuck Stearns disagreed, saying the new fee was based on costs incurred and the staff’s efforts.

Mayor John Muhlfeld said the city’s fee schedule may need further evaluation, but that he thinks the city has made good and appropriate changes in recent years.

“I think we are staying on top of it the best we can,” he said.

In other city council news:

• A resolution was passed to establish a two-hour parking limit on the block of Central Avenue between Depot Street and Railway Street, in the O’Shaughnessy Center parking lot and on the north side of Railway Street between Central and Baker Avenue. An additional handicapped parking space will be added near the O’Shaughnessy.

• Approved an amended PUD for Lot 1 at Cougar Ridge to build a triplex.

• Voted to increase the parking limit to three hours for the lot at Second Street and Spokane Avenue.

• Voted against increasing impact fees. Council will look at the topic again during the five-year review.