At public visioning workshops in September, participants guided city staff and the supporting consultant team in beginning the future land use mapping process. Participants were asked to distinguish different areas from one another on the basis of land uses and physical character to determine what type of future development should occur in specific parts of the city. The community was also invited to participate in an online version of the workshop activities during the month of October.

Using this input, in combination with housing needs projections from the newly updated Whitefish Housing Needs Assessment and draft Housing Element, as well as population projections from the Montana Department of Commerce, the consultant team has developed potential future growth scenarios. The city now seeks community feedback on these potential scenarios, ensuring that the Future Land Use Map reflects the community’s emerging vision.

The public is invited to an interactive open house from 5:30-7:30 on Tuesday, November 18 in City Council Chambers at Whitefish City Hall at 418 East 2nd Street in Whitefish. The open house will feature posters of land use scenarios arranged in various stations, staffed by city staff and consultants to solicit input. Attendees are free to come and go as they please during the allotted time to review information and ask questions at their own pace. There will be no formal presentation. FREE childcare will be provided. Sign up for childcare at the following link:

https://secure.rec1.com/MT/whitefish-mt/catalog?filter=c2VhcmNoPTM5OTQ2MDY=

The consultant czb, LLC will be discussing the land use element with the Planning Commission as the first part of the meeting.

There was a great deal of public comment regarding the draft transportation element at the Planning Commission's November 5, 2025 Vision Whitefish 2045 Meeting. After the public comment period, the Planning Commission moved to close public comment and continue their discussions to a November 19, 2025 meeting at 6PM after czb LLCs presentation. The most recent transportation element draft and all public comment is linked from the agenda

The Draft Transportation Element is linked from the agenda located HERE.

At a July 16, 2025 Vision Whitefish 2045 Meeting, the Community Development Board reviewed the Public Facilities Element of Vision Whitefish 2045 and made minor modifications.

At the time of the review of the public facilities element, there were placeholders for the sections on public water, public sewer and stormwater. This is because updated infrastructure master plans were in the process. Final drafts of these infrastructure plans have been completed since this time. Although staff is still communicating with engineering consultants on minor revisions, we believe the plans have been completed enough to prepare a draft of the related plan sections.

Due to staff being at several professional conferences in the month of October, the October 15, 2025 Vision Whitefish 2045 meeting has been rescheduled for Wednesday, October 1, 2025 at 6PM to discuss these plan sections. Please submit any comments you may have on these plan sections by Friday, September 26, 2025.

The public water section can be viewed HERE.

The wastewater and stormwater section can be viewed HERE.

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Meeting ID: 240 582 184 483 2

Passcode: JT6ES6kW

The City of Whitefish is hosting two identical community visioning sessions on land use on September 16th and 17th upstairs in the Whitefish City Hall City Council chambers from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. as part of its ongoing comprehensive plan update. Choose the day that works best for you!

The purpose of the sessions is to collaboratively map the city of Whitefish and distinguish specific areas on the basis of land uses and development character. The mapping exercise will consider both current conditions and future opportunities. In addition, the public will identify categories of street types present to consider transportation and mobility issues. This work both builds upon and advances past visioning efforts to plan for future growth and development, keeping the community involved in the development of the City’s required Future Land Use Map.

Free childcare will be available for both nights of the visioning sessions – please register ahead of time at the following link:

https://secure.rec1.com/MT/whitefish-mt/catalog

The city will also provide online opportunities to participate and provide input later for those that cannot make one of the sessions.

At a June 18th 2025 Vision Whitefish 2045 Meeting, the Community Development Board discussed and voted to approve the draft hazards section. As the discussion of that element occurred late in the evening after lengthy discussion of the water quality section, the Board later did not believe they had ample time to completely review the hazards section and address all comments. At the request of a board member, the hazards section has been again added as an agenda item and a special meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday, August 27, 2025 at 6PM.

The agenda (with link to meeting materials) is posted HERE.

At a May 21, 2025 Growth Policy Meeting, the Community Development Board voted 4-2 to adopt a significantly revised version of an economic development element that had been submitted by the organization called Heart of Whitefish rather than the City Planning Staff’s version of the chapter.

Following that meeting, staff has received a large number of public comments, primarily concerns regarding the content of the changes and how the Heart of Whitefish version had been accepted in entirety without it being indicated during the public review period or any public notices of the meeting that it might be considered by the Board as an alternate version for adoption. At the June 2, 2025 City Council work session and regular meeting, a considerable number of people expressed similar concerns to the City Council, with a few other individuals testifying in favor of the process and the changes.

The City Council later recommended the Community Development Board revisit the economic development plan element and go line-by-line through the Heart of Whitefish changes. As a result, this item will be a topic of discussion by the Community Development Board at their August 20, 2025 Vision Whitefish meeting, beginning at 6PM.

The staff memo for the upcoming meeting is located HERE.

The most recent version of the economic development element is located in "Documents / Draft Plan Chapters" on the right hand side of this page and is linked HERE.

Staff's analysis of the Heart of Whitefish's revisions and all public comment is located HERE.

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At a June 18th 2025 Vision Whitefish 2045 Meeting, the Community Development Board discussed and approved the draft hazards section. As the discussion of that element occurred late in the evening after further discussions of the water quality section, the Board did not believe they had ample time to completely review the hazards section and address all comments. The hazards section has been again added as an agenda item for further review following the economic development element discussion.

Proposed additions to the hazards section and staff's analysis is located HERE.

Video of work sessions are posted on this webpage when they are available.

JULY 23, 2025 UPDATE:

At their July 16, 2025 Vision Whitefish 2045 Growth Policy Update Meeting, the Community Development Board approved the Public Facilities Element with minor revisions. The approved plan element can be viewed HERE.

Public Comment can be viewed HERE.

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Staff has completed the Draft Public Facilities Element and has posted for review and comment. This detailed plan element meets the requirements for local services and facilities set forth by the Montana Land Use Planning Act as described HERE.

Please note there are placeholders for water and sewer. This is because the water, storm water and wastewater master plans are in the final stages but are not yet complete, and staff is still submitting comments to the consultants who are preparing them. We will release these sections individually when they are complete.

This Public Facilities Element can be viewed HERE.

The Public Facilities Element will be discussed at a JULY 16, 2025 Growth Policy MEETING beginning at 6PM.

Please submit any comments by July 7, 2025.

Comments should be sent to atiefenbach@cityofwhitefish.gov

June 25, 2025 Update. At their June 18, 2025 Work Session, the Board made additional edits and accepted the most recently revised version of the ENRH Element as can be viewed HERE.

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The HAZARDS section of the Environment, Natural Resources and Hazards Element has been posted for public comment. This section has already gone through review within city departments and agencies such as Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation (DNRC), Big Mountain Fire District, Firesafe Flathead and the US Forest Service. Pertinent comments and changes have already been incorporated into the most recent draft. THE HAZARDS ELEMENT WILL BE DISCUSSED AT A WEDNESDAY, JUNE 18TH COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BOARD WORK SESSION AT 6PM.

The Draft Hazards Element, including all maps, is available HERE.

PLEASE SUBMIT ANY COMMENTS BY MONDAY, JUNE 9 at 5PM.

At a May 21, 2025 Work Session, the Community Development Board moved to place the water quality section of the Environment, Natural Resources and Hazards Element back on to the June, 18th work session agenda to address comments submitted by a Board member. Staff is presently assessing these suggested edits.

All information regarding this upcoming meeting can be found HERE.

JUNE 3, 2025 UPDATE

At a May 21, 2025 Work Session, the Community Development Board preliminarily approved the Economic Development Element Vision Whitefish 2045 with rewrites as submitted by Heart of Whitefish. There has been a significant amount of public comment since this time, and the economic development edits was a topic of robust discussion during a June 2, 2025 growth policy update to the Council. All drafts will come back in front of the Community Development Board in a finished document toward the end of the process, likely in winter or spring 2026, and the City Council is the final approval authority of Vision Whitefish 2045.

The most recent version of the economic development element is located in "Documents / Draft Plan Chapters" on the right hand side of this page and is linked HERE.

All public comment is located in "Documents / Public Comments / Economic Development Public Comments" on the right hand side of this page and is linked HERE.

Video of work sessions are posted on this webpage when they are available.

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The Montana Land Use Planning Act (MLUPA) has specific requirements regarding economic development. These include assessing existing and potential commercial enterprises, summarizing job composition and labor force, assessing local constraints to commercial enterprises, inventorying existing and potential commercial sites, and analyzing local facilities and financial feasibility of supporting existing and potential commercial enterprises for the projected population.

Due to the expertise needed for this analysis, staff retained a consultant to complete the study. The consultant reached out to more than 30 business and industry stakeholders over a 6-month period, met with many stakeholders individually, held two group economic forums and coordinated extensively with staff. Seventeen stakeholders participated. Based on the study and the existing growth policy, Staff drafted initial goals and objectives, and these were presented to the Community Development Board along with the report in two separate public meetings - April 18 and June 20 of 2024.

In September of 2024, several members of the Community Development Board began mentioning their desire to discuss the economic development goals and objectives further. This topic was raised at each subsequent work session, although the Economic Development Element had not yet been completed. At a March 19, 2025 work session intended to discuss the Natural Resources Section of Vision Whitefish 2045, the Board again raised the economic development goals and objectives. The Board moved to put this topic on the agenda for a May 21, 2025 work session at 6PM. At least one Board member has noted their intent at this upcoming work session is to give direction to staff regarding whether Whitefish aspires to be a “rapid growth” or “moderate growth” community.

Planning Staff had initially hoped to present this draft plan element later in the process, while the land use and housing elements were underway. However, staff did not want the upcoming discussion at the work session to occur with limited information or uninformed participation, so we decided to get in front of it, finish a draft of the plan element chapter, and get it out for review so all interests were informed equally. The chapter draft was also sent out to the participating stakeholders and the consultants for comment. Please note the Economic Development Element as prepared by staff does not mention moderate versus rapid growth scenarios – it recommends strategies to increase economic diversity and access to daily goods and services - which were overwhelmingly mentioned by participants during recent visioning sessions.

HERE is the staff report and completed economic development element.

HERE is the economic development study which was completed and presented to the Board in June which was used the primary resource for this plan element.

If you have any written comments on the Economic Development Element, please submit them to Alan Tiefenbach at atiefenbach@cityofwhitefish.gov by 5PM ON FRIDAY, MAY 9, 2025.

You can attend this meeting virtually.

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Staff is completing the Environment, Natural Resources and Hazards Element of the Plan. This is the first complete plan element chapter draft released for review! This plan element is expected to be rather detailed (40 pages +/-) and packed with information. To make it more digestible, staff is releasing it in three sections. The first section was the environment section, which has already been released and discussed at two separate community development board work sessions. The Natural Resources section is the next section complete for review. This section is scheduled to be discussed at a March 19, 2025 work session. Please submit any comments you may have on this section by WEDNESDAY MARCH 5 AT 5PM. The section has been posted in the documents on the website and can also be accessed HERE.