Housing, lake quality key issues in Whitefish election

The issues facing the Whitefish City Council in the coming years have familiar themes: affordable housing, Whitefish Lake quality and managing growth.

With council member Pam Barberis dropping out of the race, the three candidates running for three vacancies face no opposition. They include Ryan Hennen, Melissa Hartman and incumbent Andy Feury. The terms of Feury, Jen Frandsen and Barberis expire the end of the year.

Absentee ballots go out Oct. 18 for the Nov. 7 municipal election.

The affordable housing saga evokes déjà vu for Feury, who has been involved with Whitefish city government for well over two decades.

“We’re facing the same problems — the high cost of land and neighborhood opposition to higher density,” Feury said. “Those have to be overcome.”

Inclusionary zoning, which requires a given share of new construction to be affordable by people with low to moderate incomes, is one idea that’s been tossed around for years and resurfaced again recently as a housing task force honed in on possible solutions.

“Inclusionary zoning should at least have a spot at the table. It’s worked well in other communities,” Feury said, adding that the council has been “lambasted” in the past by the business and development community for considering an inclusionary zoning mandate.

Hennen said he’s personally familiar with housing challenges in Whitefish as he and his wife consider buying a home there. They rent a home in Whitefish but haven’t been able to afford buying a house there.

“I don’t know if there’s an easy solution to it,” Hennen said, adding that he’s doing his homework to learn all he can about the housing issues in Whitefish.

Whitefish will need about 245 housing units per year, or a total of 980 housing units, to meet the demand through 2020, according to a recent housing study. Of those units, about 605 should be provided at more affordable prices than supplied by the market to meet the full range of needs of the local workforce, the study recommended.

Hartman believes the answer to solving some of Whitefish’s housing issues will be “an assortment” of different resources.

“There are so many different ways to tackle the problem,” she said. “I support infill so we minimize sprawl to protect wilderness space.”

The quality of Whitefish Lake is another issue at the forefront of local government in Whitefish. A 2012 study that pointed to aging septic systems near the lake that are threatening water quality was the impetus for a subsequent preliminary engineering report that outlined septic and sewer alternatives for Lion Mountain and possible incentives for utility connection and annexation.

Discussions with Lion Mountain residents have made headway, Feury said.

“We [recently] had a positive meeting with Lion Mountain [residents],” Feury said. “There’s a portion of people who understand they’re affecting the lake … once we took annexation off the table and made a provision for delayed annexation, I hope we can move forward.”

Connecting to city services isn’t cheap, though, Feury acknowledged. It will average $20,000 per household.

Hartman said she supports dealing with septic issues on Lion Mountain sooner rather than later.

“The lake is the crown jewel of our community,” she said.

Hennen wonders if there is any kind of funding that could soften the financial blow of the utility hookups for neighborhoods such as Lion Mountain.

Although the relationship between Whitefish and Flathead County has soured in recent years as the two governments vied for planning control of the 2-mile “doughnut” outside of Whitefish, it’s still worth pursuing ways to work together, Hartman said.

“It would be great [for the city] to have more input on corridor plans,” she said, referring to the county’s current proposed corridor plan for 1.5 miles along U.S. 93 south of Whitefish city limits. “It’s still part of our community, and they benefit from city services. We need to keep open a dialog and try to find that common ground, try to build a relationship instead of being adversary.”

Feury agreed.

“We’ll continue to extend the olive branch to the county,” Feury said. “It’s not right we can’t sit down to the table.

“Obviously there’s a fundamental difference between the city and county on how we view land use,” Feury continued. “The county is a property rights group; in Whitefish we happen to believe good planning is extremely important to orderly growth of our community.”

Hennen also acknowledged the need for better rapport between the city and county.

Hartman said she believes Whitefish has done a good job with creating infrastructure to handle growth, such as road improvements and corridor plans for Wisconsin Avenue and U.S. 93 West.

“I have a high degree of respect for the current council. I had a wonderful opportunity last year to knock on doors and hear their primary concerns,” Hartman said about her run for a state senate seat last year. She lost the election to Keith Regier. “We talked about everything from the environment, to growth and taxes.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.