ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND HAZARDS TO BE DISCUSSED AGAIN AT AUGUST 20, 2025 COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BOARD MEETING

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.