Mayor & City Council

WHITEFISH CITY COUNCIL June 21, 2021 7:10 P.M. ‘Hybrid’ 1) CALL TO ORDER Mayor Muhlfeld called the meeting to order. Councilors present were Qunell, Feury, Hennen, Davis, Sweeney, and Norton. City Staff present were, City Clerk Howke, City Manager Smith, City Attorney Jacobs, Planning and Building Director Taylor, Public Works Director Workman, Parks and Recreation Director Butts, Police Chief Dial and Fire Chief Page. Approximately 22 people were in the audience, and 5 people attending via Webex. 2) PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE Mayor Muhlfeld asked Dick Zoellner to lead the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance. 3) COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE PUBLIC– (This time is set aside for the public to comment on items that are either on the agenda, but not a public hearing or on items not on the agenda. City officials do not respond during these comments but may respond or follow-up later on the agenda or at another time. The mayor has the option of limiting such communications to three minutes depending on the number of citizens who want to comment and the length of the meeting agenda) Mayre Flowers, Citizens for a Better Flathead, Kalispell, spoke towards the op-ed they had in the newspaper this week. Her concern from the Kalispell transportation plan and the presentation of that plan, when she asked about how that plan was going to support the downtown plan that Kalispell has put into place in 2017, which included a lot of traffic calming landscaping medians, etc. The response she got is that Kalispell was going to need to rethink their downtown plan which was troubling that that plan as drafted right now was not drafted to facilitate and to support the downtown plan. When asked they indicated Whitefish’s draft plan would be completed in January of 2022. There is time now to get ahead of this. She hopes the Council works with the planner to make sure that the transportation recommendations support all the hard work that has been done by the city to have a vibrant and dynamic downtown. Paul McCann, 340 Somers Avenue, has concerns of the parking on the corner of 3 rd Street and Spokane Avenue, the cars park right up to the corner of Spokane Avenue limiting the ability to pull onto 3 rd Street from Spokane Avenue. He asked if staff could look into the ingress and egress issue of that intersection. Mark Owens, 329 Shady River Lane, complimented the Council and Director Workman on how well it has been going at the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). The smell in his neighborhood from the WWTP has been manageable. He wanted to know if there are contingencies on the transition for the new Plant. Joe Courtney, Whitefish, spoke towards expanding to Hwy 40, and the citizens of Whitefish paid for the extension of services. He did not know if the apartment buildings along Hwy 93 paid to connect to services or an SID, really is not helping to extend the services. He has not read anything about SIDs on Edgewood, who are we benefitting by making improvements to the road and the sewer and water out in that district. A bunch of willow trees are going to be cut down on Edgewood between Colorado and Texas Avenue, the road is not going to be widened at all and adding boulevard. All these extension of services and building the city bigger and bigger for years the city has been complaining about people not getting on the sewer system. They are still on septic, look at all that leachate going into the ground, it is bad for the environment. If you look at all the studies that have gone into the drainage that leaks out of the sewer systems that we have now that are existing, there is hundreds of thousands of gallons of drain water and sewage water that leaks out of these systems and now you are going to build new ones further out of town, adding to the cost of the sewer treatment plant another water treatment plan which we have  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES June 21, 2021 already jumped the prices on those and now you are extending services even further which is going to cost taxpayers a lot more money to improve those services. He is wondering how far we are going to go. We have roads and sidewalks deteriorating in this town. Now we are going to build new ones. We are building in new areas of town so fix the things that we have got. We have a tax increment fund that we got rid of last year. 4) COMMUNICATIONS FROM VOLUNTEER BOARDS None 5) CONSENT AGENDA (The consent agenda is a means of expediting routine matters that require the Council’s action. Debate does not typically occur on consent agenda items. Any member of the Council may remove any item for debate. Such items will typically be debated and acted upon prior to proceeding to the rest of the agenda. Ordinances require 4 votes for passage – Section 1-6-2 (E)(3) WCC) a) Minutes from June 7, 2021, Special Session (p.31) b) Minutes from June 7, 2021, Regular Session (p.32) c) Ordinance No. 21-07; An Ordinance amending Title 6, Chapter 1, Section 9, One-Way Traffic (Second Reading) (p.38) Councilor Norton had corrections to the June 7, 2021, Regular Session, page 1, Deputy Mayor Muhlfeld Sweeney asked Bill Nagle to lead the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance. Councilor Norton made a motion, seconded by Councilor Sweeney to approve the Consent Agenda as corrected. The motion carried. 6) PUBLIC HEARINGS (Items will be considered for action after public hearings) (Resolution No. 07-33 establishes a 30-minute time limit for applicant’s land use presentations. Ordinances require 4 votes for passage – Section 1-6-2 (E)(3) WCC)) a) Resolution No. 21-21; A Resolution amending its Extension of Services Plan to extend the City’s urban growth boundary- CLEAN VERSION OF PLAN (CONTINUED FROM MAY 17, 2021) (p.41) Long Range Planner Hilary Lindh gave her updated staff report that is provided I in the packet on the website. At the May 17, 2021, meeting, Mayor Muhlfeld asked staff to provide additional information at the June 21, 2021, meeting; (1) the City of Kalispell Extension of Services Plan, its annexation policy, and extension of services to the Silverbrook Estates development. The Kalispell Extension of Services Plan is a replica of the Whitefish plan. Staff reviewed Kalispell’s annexation policy along with standalone annexation policies for Missoula, Bozeman, and Billings. Staff finds merit and recommends adopting a standalone annexation policy. Staff spoke with Kalispell Planning staff and confirmed Kalispell does not require a Planned Unit Development (PUD) for annexation. The extension of the sewer main to Silverbrook Estates was paid by the developer. The City of Whitefish, like Kalispell, does not pay for extension of roads, sewer, or water mains. The developer or property owner requesting the services must pay for the extension and the connection. (2) City-initiated annexation of contiguous lands. The City of Whitefish follows two of the five different procedures for annexation pursuant to Montana Code Annotated (MCA) Section 7-2-4201 part 43, Annexation of Contiguous Lane; and part 45, Annexation of Wholly Surrounded Land. (3) Flathead County Health Department triggers requiring connection to City services when available. A permit is required through the County Health Department to construct a septic system. The Health Department may deny the permit if an approved municipal sewage collection and treatment system is readily available within 200 feet of the property line, and the owner of the publicly owned system approve the connection. Planner Lindh provided four factors for connections may not be readily available in her staff report provided in the packet on the website. The Health Department will deny a septic permit if the primary purpose of the system is to avoid annexation to a municipality. 2  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES June 21, 2021 (4)The advantages and disadvantages of delineating the Urban Growth Boundary at Emerald Drive versus Blanchard lake Road. Planner Lindh provides detailed maps and description of the advantages and disadvantages in her staff report provided in the packet on the website. In conclusion the staff report found that the 2021 amended Extension of Services Plan is a long-range plan for the extension of services and the acquisition of properties outside the City of Whitefish limits and meets the requirements of the Montana Code Annotated. Staff recommends City Council approve the findings of fact and adopt the extension of services plan with any necessary modifications. Council asked and staff confirmed are we not annexing properties with this resolution; services will only be extended if a property owner or developer who is within the Urban Growth Boundary requests extension of services and annexation; the developer or property requesting the services is responsible for designing, constructing, and paying for the extension. Once staff receives a proposed development, the developer is required to submit plans and specifications to the city. Staff will review the plans and make sure it gets built to city standards. The city will inspect it and if it is approved the city can accept it and then begin maintenance. When a property is annexed staff will usually match the zoning the best they can. Planner Lindh stated staff has had discussions about developing a new transitional zoning district as part of the Hwy 93 South Corridor Plan. The city’s equivalent secondary business zoning has changed since the county assigned the zone to the area south of the Highway 40 intersection. Hotels, auto sales and gas stations are conditional uses rather than permitted uses as allowed in the county. Planner Lindh stated anything that is annexed into the city is under the city’s jurisdiction and would be treated as other properties with high groundwater. The City has water quality standards and more protective wetland regulations than the County. Currently the county does not have restrictions on big box stores. Mayor Muhlfeld opened the Public Hearing. Garth Wells, 5960 Hwy 93 South, owner of Whitefish Marine, has concerns about being annexed without his consent. That is why he is against this resolution. Would his current use of business be grandfathered? He is also concerned with the burden of the cost of connecting to city service; what about the businesses that have a high use of water that are presently on a well? If annexed the resort tax would be a complete detrimental burden of his company, in terms of competitiveness in the open market against other boat dealerships that do not have sales tax. Kyle Hanson, 406 Farmacy owner, 5895 Hwy 93 S., just south of Emerald Drive, opposes the resolution. If this proposal is approved, he chooses not to request services or request annexation. He asked and Mayor Muhlfeld stated he is not subject to City of Whitefish rules, laws, zoning until his property is annexed. Nicole Hanson, 5895 Hwy 93 S., stated they purchased their land knowing they could open their pharmacy because they were outside city limits, and they could meet all of the stipulations or state requirements to get the state dispensary license. Would their business be grandfathered if annexed? Greg Strong, 320 Minnesota, stated generally he is against commercial annexation south of Hwy 40. He thinks it is ineffective, and there is limited upside to the city. It does not solve any of Whitefish’s problems. The key problem is housing. This annexation could be a good arrow to try and generate multi- family. He thinks the City should consider the northwest portion to be high density multi-family with some ancillary retail. Janice McCann, 340 Somers Avenue, stated many of her friends and people that she has heard seem to be up in arms about the appearance of Whitefish Marine. We need to have control over the entrance of our city and that seems to be the hot button for the public right now. She does not think it is a broad perspective and she does not think that changing the growth policy plan is going to cure the aesthetic 3  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES June 21, 2021 problem that we have. Even if we do extend city services, at some point we are going to have to deal with what we have now. She likes the idea of revisiting the multi-family on the northwest corner and using that property more effectively. Just go ahead and keep it, accept that we are going to have an issue with the county city line and that highway 40 is a good place to have it. It is a clear delineation and look at some of the other areas for growth and control. Mayre Flower, Citizens for a Better Flathead, Kalispell, provided written comments to the Council that are appended to the June 21st Council packet on the website. She encourages the city to table this proposal until the city can get some outside professional review of the annexation zoning and growth policy changes. The extension of services revision should be part of the city update of the Whitefish growth policy. She reviewed the results from a survey she sent out; some feel Council needs to slow down and stop for fresh ideas; build needed roads first; Whitefish needs affordable housing and clean industry, not more haphazard sprawling development along Highway 93 and south of Highway 40; show and tell all first; work to level the playing field first. More results of the survey are included with her written comments appended to the packet. Steven Gordon, 219 Dakota Avenue, and 5938 Hwy 93 S. stated we are not talking about zoning. It is already zoned commercial. Those who created the zoning requirements did so to have plenty of green space, setbacks, easements, make it look rural and look good. A business comes in, decided they can do anything they want, and the county does not do a thing to regulate it. This has set a precedence now. Anything goes. Does Whitefish want to let the county do nothing and let what has happened out there continue or do you want some control over it? We are not talking about roads, we are not talking about new zoning, we are talking about protecting property owners who worked hard to maintain a rural look with rural businesses that are low impacts on the highways and on the community. We all like our freedoms, but when you do not follow the rules then someone has to take over the control at some point. He encourages Whitefish to protect the inroads, just to prevent this from occurring. Property owners are disappointed with the county that they pretend they have no authority to do anything. Chris Gentry, 424 Bear Trail, stated he does not know anybody who wants the City of Whitefish to extend past Highway 40. There will always be a county line and a city line. He is opposed to expanding the city further south. The city has plenty of urban boundary around it to expand into. There are a lot of things that do need to be done. He does not believe expanding the city south is one of them. Kevin Gartland, Whitefish Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, 505 Second Street East, stated the Chamber Board met and discussed this issue at length. They discussed the proposal to extend service area boundaries, the opportunities to annex, ranging into implications on businesses that can be affected by involuntary annexation and how the resort tax would affect them and their business. The Board voted 9-1 to oppose the expansion of the city’s urban growth boundary south of Highway 40. The board feels the City has more important priorities including affordable workforce housing, transportation, etc. As a member of the Strategic Housing Implementation Committee, he suggests Council look at the annexation policies. The third goal in the Strategic Housing Plan is an annexation policy. The purpose of which is to preserve the Whitefish community as it grows with the goal to reverse the trend to more second homes relative to primary residences occupied by locals. Some of the implementation recommendations were to develop and adopt an annexation policy requiring 75 to 80% of their homes developed on properties annexed into Whitefish, be deed restricted for occupancy by local residents. They recommend matching the requirements for fully deed restricted workforce housing to the former IZ requirements of 20% and use light deed restrictions on a portion of the homes between the IZ percentage and the 75 to 80% overall goal. The restriction would limit occupancy to residents but not restrict income employment or price. Also recommended amend the extension of services plan to include the annexation policy housing and allow flexibility in meeting the requirements including real estate transfer assessments, off-site developments etc. It would be wise to put this policy into place before opening the door to additional 4  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES June 21, 2021 annexation. The second point the Chamber Board took a vote on was involuntary annex into the City. It is the unanimous opinion of the Board, the language in the Resort Tax reauthorization legislation be cleaned up so that decisions on what goods and services are not made subjectively without input or oversight from the City Council. In addition, the Board believe some portion of the Resort Tax revenues should be dedicated to addressing some of the city’s pressing problems such as transportation and workforce housing. Kirk Demetrops, President of Mid-City Real Estate Partners, based in Atlanta Georgia, came to Whitefish five years ago through a recommendation of a family friend who is now a permanent resident. Whitefish is a second home for he and his family. Last summer he began looking around for a project that would fit his company’s goals and found the site at the intersection of Highway 93 and 40 owned by T. Bauer. Over a six-month process they put that property under contract. In March they submitted a letter along with others asking for the extension of services. T. Baer could not be here but submitted a letter to read into the record. The letter is appended to the minutes. He is not here as an out-of-town developer looking to make a quick dollar. This type of site fits their initiatives in so many ways. He has not done a plan for this property. Once it gains momentum they will start meeting with the community, staff. They believe housing can be a big portion of this development. He believes control is a better solution. Dick Zoellner, 1365 Voerman Road, hates the word annexation. He thinks Council ought to wait on this and think this out. There is a lot of problems that lie ahead. This is always going to be there not matter what happens. Try to get this one right. It is way too important to lose that. A big commercial building cannot go in without a sewer line. Joe Courtney, 535 Colorado Avenue, stated our services are overloaded right now, the bigger we grow the more we are going to need and the more it is going to cost. We have a lot of infrastructure, sewer, water, and the roads that need to be dealt with before we get bigger. Eric Payne, representing the property at 6010 Hwy 93 S., requested the extension of the urban growth boundary. The meeting tonight represents why a decision like this just has to sometimes come down to the experts and to elected officials. No matter what, you are always going to have controversy, you are going to have two sides opinions. He is here looking at it from the better good of Whitefish, the community, not just the people sitting in this room. Currently there are 50+ uses allowed in the county. Tremendous number of them are not applicable to city highway zoning. Things from truck stops, mobile home parks, crematoriums, zoos, just a list of allowed uses. Having 18 months owning this piece of property and looking at multiple uses for it, he has been shocked of the lack of concern for that corridor. He is concerned about the lack of oversight by the county and the planning and zoning department on what is going on at that junction. The County told him it is a weird little spot that they have very little jurisdiction; everything from drainage plan to approving whatever is brought to them, as long as they comply with the zoning and allowed uses. There are neighbors who are really concerned about what is going on in the corridor. They want to be a part of doing the right thing. It is about the community long term. It falls on elected officials to oversee and do the best thing that you can for this community long term. He asks the Council to think about what this decision is going to have on everybody long term, not just short term and what personal opinions are. Paul McCann, 340 Somers Avenue, is for the extension of services all the way to Blanchard Lake Road. We can control growth and that is what he wants to see. Without doing it he does not think we will have much control. Joe Courtney, 535 Colorado Avenue, mentioned he likes the multi-family area being designated in the northwest area. 5  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES June 21, 2021 Rhonda Fitzgerald, 412 Lupfer Avenue, attended via Webex, stated she is hearing a lot of the development that has occurred south of Highway 40 that people would wish as a community we had a little more control over, oppose the idea of annexation and will never annex, and we will never have an opportunity to make an impact there. The idea that this would give us more control is kind of mute. The things we would perhaps as a community want to be able to put in force are not applicable because none of those properties will wish to annex. She thinks extending services south of Highway 40 is going to enable projects that the community probably does not want to see south of Highway 40. She thinks there is opposition from every angle to this idea and she hopes that Council will step back and as a community to work a little harder on what we really want to achieve with a lot more knowledgeable input from experts. City Clerk Howke received six letters from the public that were provided to the City Council prior to the meeting and will be appended to the packet on the website. There being no further public comment, Mayor Muhlfeld closed the Public Hearing and turned the matters over to the Council for their consideration. Mayor Muhlfeld called for a recess at 9:01 p.m. and reconvened at 9:10 p.m. Councilor Qunell made a motion, seconded by Councilor Sweeney to adopt Resolution No. 21-21; A Resolution amending its extension of services plan to extend the City’s urban growth boundary to Blanchard Lake Road and the Findings of Fact in the staff report. Councilor Qunell stated this is not an easy decision. This extension is not about affordable housing, it is not about building roads. We have seen several new businesses go in since the County changed the zoning. He appreciates the fact that the dispensary has made a market improvement in their building, it looks a lot better than what was there before. The Whitefish Marine is an eyesore. We could not have a starker contrast to what happens when we have development standards that people have to live by, and what the county allows. He understands that this resolution does not give the City any control at all. It is only the first step in gaining control. We have two property owners want to develop in this area and they want to have services to that they can do something a little different than what they could get on a well and septic. We would have control over what they could build and how it would look, rather than the alternative. That is what it boils down to. Councilor Norton stated this area has been talked about for at least a decade or more that this was a problem that we needed to address at some point. This was a really hard decision for her because she feels like we are approaching it upon the request of two developers and two development groups. We would not be initiating this at this point unless they wanted to do a project on opposite corners. She feels like we are ready to take it on. She supports the motion to approve to extension of services and extend the urban growth boundary. Councilor Feury read the definition of an urban growth boundary area. He has a hard time in his own brain arguing that we will not see continued growth in this area in the next five to ten years. He does agree in part a lot of this discussion is probably driven by one piece of property. We cannot just service that one piece of property alone, we have to look at the entire area. If we look at all the businesses out there, all of those people say they are Whitefish businesses. Extending to Blanchard Lake Road gives us a reasonable squared out area that we can look at. We do have a lot of things going on in this community, we have a $55 million dollar budget. It is a very complicated process running a city and we have a staff that does it really well. Public Works is telling him that we have the capacity to do this, Planning staff says it is the right thing to do, a Finance Director and City Manager that says this is a good thing for our community. He talked with a lot of people he has served with over his 22 years on Council, almost every 6  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES June 21, 2021 single one of them says we have to pull our head out of the sand. We have to take a look at it. He will support the motion to approve. Councilor Davis stated there are two main beliefs he frames how he thinks about this topic. The first one is his belief that the majority citizens of Whitefish do not wish to see further commercial sprawl down south towards Kalispell. In his own view, he sees Whitefish as a small mountain town with a strong core. There are unique factors that give him pause on how to vote on this. It is the fact that this particular intersection is the de facto entrance as people come into town. The fact that the portion immediately past the corner, under county zoning is very broad and can cover a lot, including a hotel, or a Walmart. He thinks about 10 years or 20 years from now, what happens, and we look back on this decision and think about did we miss something? If he sees a Walmart on that corner, he is going to feel like he missed something. On the other hand, extending city services does facilitate additional development. It allows sewers, a lot more sewer capacity and other things you cannot do on private land. He does not know exactly why it is down to Blanchard Lake Road, in his mind, what we are trying to do here, is to encompass this key section around the intersection. He is unwilling to support the proposal as it exists. He would support it if it were to Emerald Drive but no further. Councilor Sweeney stated he has thought about this for many years now. We have some ability to exercise some influence. If we extend our service boundary, we are inviting people to do the right thing, to come into the city and exercise their good judgement and participate with the city. By having an Extension of Services Planned does not mean that we agree to any and all possible uses for that property. We get to exercise our judgement and our zoning to influence how and when and under what conditions we would allow anyone to annex into the city. That gives us opportunities that we do not otherwise get. If somebody wants to annex, we do not have to annex them, we do not have to provide services. It gives us some control without an overall commitment. He supports the motion to approve. Councilor Hennen agrees with Councilor Sweeney. The city having influence is better than not having influence. Development is coming and we should have a say about what happens. He will support the motion to approve. The motion to approve Resolution 21-21 carried on a 5-1 vote, Councilor Davis voting in opposition. b) Consideration of approving City Manager’s proposed budget as the FY22 Preliminary Budget and setting final Public Hearing on the Capital Improvement Project and FY22 Final Budget for August 16, 2021 (p.134) City Manager Smith gave her staff report that is provided in the packet on the website. Finance Director Dahlman presented the current changes that are provided in the packet on the website. Mayor Muhlfeld opened the Public Hearing. There being no public comment, Mayor Muhlfeld closed the Public Hearing and turned the matters over to the Council for their consideration. Councilor Qunell made a motion, seconded by Councilor Hennen to approve the FY22 Preliminary Budget and set the final Public Hearing on the Capital Improvement Project and FY22 Final Budget for August 16, 2021, not including the 4-mil increase. The motion carried. 7) COMMUNICATIONS FROM CITY MANAGER a) Written report enclosed with the packet. Questions from Mayor and Council? (p.330) None 7  CITY COUNCIL MINUTES June 21, 2021 b) Other items arising between June 16th through June 21 st Manager Smith reported the North Valley Food Bank is celebrating their founder, June Munski Feenan, with a food drive, fundraiser, and open house on June 26, 2021, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. She met with Representative Dave Fern, who confirmed the final phase of Highway 93 West is making some headway with the property owners. The Resort Tax Resolution approving the ballot language will be on the July 6, 2021, Council agenda. Garbage has been an issue over the past two weekends. The City has installed three additional cans on the corner of 1st Street and Central Avenue and have talked to Republic Services about weekend pickup. We do have staff on hand to work the weekends to make sure the garbage cans are empty. Sidewalk cleanliness is also a concern. Some of the garbage cleanup should address it. Generally, business owners are required to keep their sidewalks clean. Staff is going to look at ARPA funds as something we can do to keep sanitation in downtown clean. Juneteenth is now recognized as a federally paid holiday. At this point the state does not recognize it as a state holiday however all of our holidays are federal holidays. She assumes the state will move forward with that in the next legislative session or the city may choose to move forward with it. We will need to negotiate with unions and have our personnel policy updated. She asked if Council would like to continue to have COVID as a standing agenda item. 8) COMMUNICATIONS FROM MAYOR AND CITY COUNCILORS a) COVID-19 Councilor Comments Councilor Norton asked Director Workman if he could look at the corner of 3 rd Street and Spokane Avenue as requested earlier during Communications from the Public. Discussion followed for staff to eliminate COVID-19 as a standing agenda item, look into increasing fees for illegal or non-compliant short-term rentals to $550$500 per night, create an interactive GIS map for short term rentals, look into information redefining short term rentals from less than 30 days to less than 90 days, and dedicating ARPA funds to the Snow Lot affordable housing and radios for the Police Department. 9) ADJOURNMENT Mayor Muhlfeld adjourned the meeting at 10:11 p.m. /s/John Muhlfeld _______________________________ Mayor Muhlfeld Attest: /s/Michelle Howke ______________________________ Michelle Howke, Whitefish City Clerk 8