ADOPTED BY CITY COUNCIL ON 11/21/2022

View the plan draft here.

The draft plan will go in front of the city council on Monday, November 21, 2022, for potential adoption. This plan will set the tone for (affordable) community housing planning during our upcoming growth policy update and has potential repercussions for low- and moderate-income households in Whitefish.

It is important to note that the planning forecast is for the next 5-10 years - a potentially significant challenge for funding when relying only on city, philanthropic, and grant funds. Private, for-profit funds will likely be needed to ensure that Whitefish is able to build the 975 affordable homes that it needs in this timeframe.

Overall, we really like the plan but we do have a few concerns that will need to be addressed prior to its implementation:

1. “Utilize density bonus/incentives, not upzones, for prime community housing locations.” (page 29)

   • We believe that a combination of upzoning and a density bonus structure is needed - density bonuses typically apply to much larger projects, while upzones would apply to smaller projects that would allow community housing to be integrated within our neighborhoods. This differentiation, which is alluded to in the plan, must be very clear during the growth policy update process.

2. The outlook for affordable housing in Whitefish is bleak, but attainable if we chip away over time. The 2022 Housing Needs Assessment Update, which is referenced in the plan, indicates that 975 of the 1,310 homes needed in Whitefish by 2030 need to be affordable. This represents ~75% of home needs.

   It is likely that developers will continue to offer 10-30% of their proposals as affordable housing for the foreseeable future. Although a good goal to shoot for, we’re concerned that aiming for a 75:25 ratio of affordable:market-rate homes risks making the perfect the enemy of the good. That is to say, more of the status quo that sees countless affordable homes denied each year through the planned unit development process.