Council candidate wants clarity and fairness

As a developer, Bill Kahle knows the value of regulations — they protect property values and ensure that Whitefish remains a place where he wants to raise his family.

But as a Whitefish City Council candidate, Kahle wants to make sure the city's regulations are needed, effective and fair.

Kahle first came to Whitefish in 1989 to visit a former college roommate. He said he fell in love with the place and visited regularly until he moved here with his wife Sharon in 1992.

"It was a quality of life decision," he said.

They both found jobs at the golf course — he bartended and she baked desserts. He also worked at the Hellroaring Saloon and at the Lakestream Fly Fishing Shop.

After a few years, Kahle returned to California, where he had worked in construction with his brothers, and found work in real estate development. Then, after a short time with the family business in the Chicago area, Kahle returned to Whitefish to raise his family, including four boys, ages 6-13.

Kahle has been involved in several infill developments in Whitefish over the past few years — the Zane Ray office building and a residential project, both in the Historical Railway District; Baker Commons, where the city's new Emergency Services Center is under construction; the 37-lot O'Brien Bluffs subdivision; and most recently Conductors Row, also in the Railway District.

Kahle cited three reasons for throwing his hat in the ring for city council — to improve regulatory clarity, to expand the local economic base and to promote a good school system.

"I would support a bond for a new high school," he said. "Our school district has a legacy of producing quality graduates. As a councilor, I would be a loud advocate for the school district."

Saying he'd hate to see regulations become a burden on the citizens of Whitefish, Kahle also recognizes that new regulations need to be enforced to address growth in the community.

"But they need to be sensitive to economic needs," he said, citing the financial burden of the city's dark skies initiative, which went into effect in mid-August.

Environmental regulations, such as the critical areas ordinance (CAO) and lakeshore regulations, need to be based on "Whitefish-specific science" to be credible, he said, and they need to be clear and fair.

"I agree with the need for a CAO and lakeshore regulations," he said. "But we need specific scientific testing to show there is a problem."

He said he'd like to see a section in the regulations describing how they would prevent undesirable effects, along with an ongoing testing protocol to show that the ordinance is accomplishing a desirable goal.

As for the CAO, as it currently exists, "They tried to use science, but they borrowed from other municipalities," Kahle said. "Whitefish is unique — all 40-percent slopes are not created equally, so they cannot be enforced equally."

And as for the recently updated lakeshore regulations, "I haven't seen any extensive scientific testing on Whitefish Lake showing contamination and the source of the contamination."

Kahle thinks in some ways, the lakeshore regulations don't go far enough. He cited old septic systems on lakeshore homes up and down the lake that threaten water quality.

Overall, Kahle supports the downtown streetscaping project, but he opposes widening the sidewalks because of traffic concerns on Central Avenue and because water dripping off storefront awnings in winter and spring will likely create ice dams on the expanded portion of the sidewalk.

He said he wasn't sure if streetscaping will save downtown retail, but he didn't feel it will hurt the historical character of downtown. And he said his vote on a downtown parking structure would've been based on economic factors — could the city afford it?

Kahle served on the steering committee several years ago that helped draft the city's new growth policy. A big concern of citizens at the time was how fast Whitefish was growing, but his favored solution was infill rather than growth-metering — and his developments reflect that belief.

"I like sequential development, not sprawl," he said. "A developer should have to show traffic connectivity and some public good to expand outside the city limits."

He noted that the city's growth policy was written during a "huge boom," and steering committee members were advised not to overreact and to focus on what they wanted the city to look like in the future.

"I haven't yet seen a comprehensive view of what Whitefish should look like," he said. "We shouldn't focus on metering growth — the market will do that. We should focus on how we want the city to look. And the growth policy needs to be continuously updated — it's a dynamic document."