AARP Community Challenge Grant

Shelter WF was chosen as one of 343 recipients of the 2024 AARP Community Challenge Grant.

"The AARP Community Challenge grant program is part of the nationwide AARP Livable Communities initiative that helps communities become great places to live for residents of all ages. The program is intended to help communities make immediate improvements and jump-start long-term progress."

The reason we applied for the grant was to help Montanans reimagine how housing could look in their neighborhoods by focusing on accessibility, affordability, and community connectivity. Shelter WF was chosen out of a pool of 3,300 applicants to be awarded the AARP 2024 Community Challenge Grant. We immediately began reaching out to different designers and architects, encouraging them to participate.

Learn more about the AARP Community Challenge: https://www.aarp.org/livable-communities/community-challenge/

The Design Challenge

The design challenge focused on home types called "Missing Middle Housing." Missing Middle Housing are homes that land between large single-detached homes and large apartment buildings. The Missing Middle Housing type is largely illegal to build "by-right"(aka what is loud to be built within the zoning code without a public hearing). Missing Middle Housing types give people more choices on the type of homes that they can live in. 

A total of 11 designs were submitted for the visual housing design challenge. Each designer could choose from Option 1 and/or Option 2. 

Option 1: Individual Plot Design: Design housing that adheres to current zoning regulations for one of two common zoning districts in Whitefish with high potential to create more housing options close to downtown, WR-2, or WB-2. Specific zoning information will be provided to those who choose this option.

  • WR-2: Single-family dwelling and duplex - 6,000 sq. ft., Two-family townhomes - 7,200 sq. ft., attached one-family townhome or subplot 3,600 sq. ft.
  • WB-2: a minimum 10,000 square foot lot

Option 2: Neighborhood Block Design: Design a neighborhood block. This option will ignore current zoning limitations, encouraging innovative and potentially paradigm-shifting approaches.

 

Option 1 contestants were: Workaday Design, Kimberly Marland, Zia Walker, Stasia Muhlner, and Anthony Adelmann 

 

 

 

Option 2 contestants were: Mark Waldo, Win Parker, Kimberly Marland, Sherri Sadino, Workaday Design, WGM Group

 

 

As part of the AARP Community Challenge Grant, we also put on a panel event with Thomas Shea, Jaden Woeppel, Terese Miskulin, Antonia Malchik, and MaryBeth Morand. They spoke about so many great topics that show the interconnectivity of housing, transportation, community connectivity, and more! We would love to see a whole day if not a whole weekend, spent discussing these topics. These topics are important when looking at Montana's Growth Policy Updates. We hope to see more discussions around Universal Design and how we should work towards that being the norm, not the exception! To see the event that we filmed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiAGukZ0EnY 

Check out the "Design Our Future Magazine"

https://www.shelterwf.org/design_our_future_magazine