UPDATED HOUSING ELEMENT POSTED FOR PUBLIC REVIEW!

Updated December 23, 2025

On December 9, 2025 a draft housing element was posted for public comment. This preliminary draft had been prepared by staff over a period of several months using the results of visioning sessions, the 2007 adopted growth policy, approximately 30 community plans from other jurisdictions and recent Whitefish housing needs assessments and studies. When the preliminary draft was completed, staff included the Whitefish Community Housing Committee as an advisory committee in two internal work sessions. At these work sessions, staff and the Committee worked together to arrive at mutually agreed upon housing goals and objectives.

Due to time constraints, the draft was released for public review ahead of a December 17th, 2025 Planning Commission Vision Whitefish 2045 meeting before staff was able to refine and tie together all the edits made by the Community Housing Committee. At the December 17, 2025 meeting, staff gave a presentation on the housing element, the Planning Commission heard public comment, and the meeting was adjourned to allow the Planning Commission adequate time to digest all public comment and reconvene with their recommendations on the draft housing element at an upcoming JANUARY 7, 2026 MEETING STARTING AT 6PM.

Below is a link to the most recent housing draft, with some additional staff edits. As the Community Housing Committee only had time to make their revisions to the proposed goals and objectives, this is where nearly all the revisions are contained. Staff did some minor rearranging and consolidation, added narratives below each goal to be consistent with formatting of other plan elements, and proposes adding back a small amount of language which was in staff's original draft but did not make into the version completed by the Community Housing Committee. All revisions between this version and the previous version are noted in purple text (or green when text is relocated).

THE COMPLETE PLANNING COMMISSION PACKET INCLUDING THE DRAFT ELEMENT AND PUBLIC COMMENT IS LINKED IN THE AGENDA HERE.

------------------------------------------------------------------