Specialty grocery, auto shop could fill Baker Avenue site

The Whitefish City-County Planning Board April 18 voted to recommend a zoning change for the former Master Plumbing site on Baker Avenue.

The property is currently zoned as industrial, but the owner asked to use the conditional zoning provision in city code to rezone the property to a more restrictive mix of industrial and secondary business districts. The new zoning would allow the property to have a range of available future uses compatible with both types of zoning.

“This type of conditional zoning is not used very often,” planning director Dave Taylor said. “This is a blend of industrial and business. This is a creative zoning method that is almost always on a zoning boundary.”

The two lots of 1.87 acres is bordered by both industrial and secondary business zoning.

The owners are proposing professional offices and furniture/manufacturing/sales in the existing building, according to the city staff report. They are also planning new buildings with uses that could include a specialty food market and a fine auto restoration business with auto sales.

The type of businesses proposed are compatible with the current businesses along Baker Avenue and would not compete with those in the downtown business district, Taylor noted in his staff report.

As part of the conditions for the zone change, the owner agreed to a list of permitted uses on the property that fit with the businesses intended for the site. The owner voluntarily removed allowed uses typically in the industrial zoning including heavy equipment sales, nurseries, research laboratories and building supply outlets.

Eric Mulcahy, who represents the owner, said the plan is to give the building and the vacant lot to the south a facelift and provide the opportunity to house several types of businesses.

City staff recommended the zone change.

“The uses are compatible to what is surrounding the property,” Taylor said. “Rather than taking the property out of the industrial zoning, this will add business — there’s not much industrial-zoned properties in Whitefish.”

The city council is set to hold a public hearing on the request May 6 at city hall.