ShelterWF advocates for specific, implementable reforms that will meaningfully expand the supply of housing in Whitefish and the Flathead Valley. Each policy below is grounded in economic research, real-world precedent from other communities, and the specific conditions and needs of our city.
Whitefish's housing shortage was not created by a single bad decision, and it will not be solved by a single good one. It was created by an interlocking system of regulations, incentives, and political dynamics that—in aggregate—make it extraordinarily difficult and expensive to build homes. Fixing that system requires pulling every available lever: reforming zoning and building codes and tax policy and permitting processes and construction methods and funding for subsidized housing. The good news is we have the tools.
We organize our platform into two categories: policies we are currently fighting for, and policies we have already helped win.
Policies We're Fighting For
1. Legalize Missing Middle Housing Citywide
For decades, strict zoning laws have made it illegal to build anything other than single-family homes on the vast majority of residential land in Whitefish. This artificially limits the number of homes that can exist in our community, driving up prices and forcing our workforce to commute from further and further away.
We advocate for legalizing "Missing Middle" housing, liketriplexes, quadplexes, live-work buildings, cottage courts, and townhomes. These should be approved by right in all neighborhoods.
These home types are called the "Missing Middle" because they sit between a single-family home and a large apartment complex in scale. They offer gentle density that naturally blends into the existing fabric of our neighborhoods. A well-designed fourplex often looks nearly identical to a large single-family home from the street.
Legalizing the missing middle is essential for community retention. It allows young families to buy their first starter home, offers essential workers the chance to live in the community they serve, and gives seniors an opportunity to downsize without leaving their support networks. Our polling found that 54% of Flathead County voters support allowing up to four small homes per lot in all residential neighborhoods except the most rural areas, rising to 65% in Whitefish.
2. Prioritize Infill Over Greenfield Sprawl
Whitefish is defined by its natural surroundings—pristine forests, clear waters, and expansive outdoor recreation. But when we refuse to allow new housing within our city limits, we don't stop growth; we push it outward onto the very landscapes we claim to value.
ShelterWF advocates for land-use policies that direct at least 75% of new housing development to occur within one mile of downtown Whitefish. This means aggressively redeveloping existing underutilized land—vacant lots, surface parking areas, and parcels being used far below their potential—rather than annexing farmland and forests at the city's edge.
Infill development maximizes our existing investments. It is vastly more economically efficient to use the sewer, water, and road infrastructure we already have than to extend those services miles out of town. It reduces traffic, lowers carbon emissions, and keeps wildlife habitats undisturbed. Nearly seven in ten Flathead County voters (69%) said they want growth focused within existing city footprints rather than sprawling outward.
3. Amend Place Types in the Growth Policy to Allow More Housing
The current land use plan for Vision Whitefish 2045 does not allow enough development in existing neighborhoods to meet the city's housing needs. ShelterWF has submitted detailed recommendations for amending the "place type" descriptions in the land use plan. These are the categories that define what can be built in different parts of the city.
Our specific recommendations include:
- adding triplexes, quadplexes, and townhomes to Heritage Urban Neighborhoods and Suburban Neighborhoods within a mile of downtown
- increasing building height allowances to 35 feet in Heritage Urban zones and 42 feet in Urban Edge zones
- allowing multi-family buildings of up to 25 units per structure and 60-foot heights in Mixed Neighborhoods north of the viaduct
- reclassifying certain annexation zones to allow for compact suburban development rather than low-density suburban development.
The core principle is that every neighborhood close to downtown should be able to accommodate modest increases in housing, rather than concentrating all new development on a handful of remote sites and then resorting to annexation when those sites inevitably fall short.
4. Reform the Housing Needs Assessment
The City of Whitefish's 2025 Housing Needs Assessment (HNA) projects a need for only 930 to 1,491 new housing units over the next decade. ShelterWF's independent analysis—published in our Revised Community Housing Needs Assessment—found that the actual need is between 3,230 and 4,044 units.
The HNA's undercount stems from two methodological failures. First, it relies on population growth rates from 2010–2019, a period when growth was far slower than the post-2019 reality of 3.9% annualized growth. Using pre-pandemic trends to project post-pandemic demand is like using pre-internet data to forecast email usage. Second, the HNA ignores commuting demand entirely. Sixty-one percent of Whitefish's workers commute from outside the city. Using survey data from the Columbia Falls Housing Needs Study, which found that 37% of commuters would move to their workplace's city if affordable housing were available, we estimate unmet commuter demand of approximately 1,739 homes.
Getting this number right matters enormously. The HNA determines how much land the city must zone for housing and how much infrastructure it must plan. An undercount of this magnitude means the city will systematically underplan—setting itself up for continued shortage, continued price escalation, and continued displacement.
5. Ensure Equitable Neighborhood Contribution
Solving a housing crisis of this scale requires a citywide effort, guided by a fair principle: no neighborhood should experience rapid, overwhelming change, but no neighborhood should experience zero change.
For too long, land-use policies have been used to protect wealthy enclaves from accommodating new neighbors. When those neighborhoods succeed in exempting themselves from density, the pressure of a growing population doesn't disappear—it gets displaced entirely onto lower-income neighborhoods, accelerating gentrification and displacement in the areas least equipped to handle it.
ShelterWF opposes exclusionary zoning tactics that segregate our community by income. We advocate for a growth policy where every neighborhood in Whitefish takes on its fair share of housing growth. The current approach—concentrating virtually all new housing onto three sites while leaving the rest of the city untouched—is neither fair nor functional.
6. Abolish or Dramatically Reduce Minimum Lot Sizes
Minimum lot size requirements don't just dictate what kind of home you can build—they dictate how much land you must buy to build it. In Whitefish, these mandates often require a quarter-acre or more per dwelling unit, which functions as a hidden tax on homebuyers and a legal ban on affordable starter homes.
When you force every home to sit on a large lot, you guarantee high land costs per unit. The buyer isn't just paying for a house—they're paying for a large quantity of expensive Whitefish land whether they want a big yard or not. This effectively outlaws the small-lot homes, cottage courts, and modest developments that once allowed working people to enter the housing market.
By abolishing or dramatically reducing minimum lot sizes, we can make it legal to build the kinds of homes that working professionals can actually afford. The Montana Land Use Planning Act (MLUPA) identifies reducing minimum lot sizes by at least 25% as one of 14 housing strategies that qualifying cities should pursue.
7. Promote Transit-Oriented and Mixed-Use Development
Housing policy is transportation policy. When we force people to live far from their jobs because they can't afford housing closer in, we guarantee traffic congestion, longer commutes, and increased wear on our roads.
ShelterWF advocates for zoning that integrates housing with commercial spaces and transit corridors. Mixed-use development—such as apartments above ground-floor retail, or housing near bus stops and bike infrastructure—used to be the standard way cities were built. Walk through Whitefish's oldest blocks and you'll see the remnants of this model: the site of Tom's Grocery, the old neighborhood store on Somers Avenue, Snappy's across the viaduct. These neighborhood-serving businesses existed before zoning pushed all commerce onto Highway 93 and Central Avenue.
Our polling found that 84% of Flathead County voters support allowing small businesses like corner stores, restaurants, coffee shops, and pharmacies in most areas within cities. This was the highest level of support for any specific policy tested. Voters don't just want more housing—they want more complete neighborhoods.
8. Limit Maximum Home Size to Incentivize More Units Per Lot
One of the most innovative policies tested in our polling was a concept that limits the maximum square footage of a single-family home but allows greater total square footage when a builder creates a duplex, triplex, or fourplex. For example: a single home might be limited to 2,500 square feet, but a fourplex on the same lot could reach 4,000 combined square feet.
This creates a regulatory incentive for builders to choose more housing units over fewer, larger ones—without banning large homes outright. It nudges the market toward the smaller, more affordable housing types that Whitefish desperately needs while still allowing flexibility.
Fifty-one percent of Flathead County voters and 58% of Whitefish voters support this approach.
9. Strengthen and Expand the Legacy Homes Program
Whitefish's Legacy Homes Program is the city's primary tool for incentivizing deed-restricted affordable housing in private developments. Under the program, developers who designate at least 10% of their units as income-restricted (serving households between 60% and 120% of Area Median Income) receive incentives such as increased building height, reduced lot sizes, and streamlined approvals.
The program has actually performed well in practice. Since the state banned mandatory inclusionary zoning in 2021 (via House Bill 259), the voluntary Legacy Homes Program has produced a higher percentage of affordable units than the mandatory program ever did—a counterintuitive result that demonstrates the power of well-designed incentives.
ShelterWF advocates for expanding the program in several ways: extending eligibility to existing developed lots (not just new developments), exploring new incentives such as reducing or eliminating open space requirements for qualifying projects, maximizing the development potential of city-owned land used for affordable housing, and creating density bonuses for property owners who commit to preserving naturally affordable rental housing.
10. Increase Housing Funding Through Resort Tax Reallocation
The city of Whitefish currently allocates 10% of its 3% resort tax (levied on lodging, bars, restaurants, and retail) to community housing. Given the severity of the housing crisis, ShelterWF supports increasing this allocation and exploring a voter-approved resort tax increase of at least one additional percentage point dedicated to housing.
Our polling found that 60% of Whitefish voters—the highest support of any community surveyed—favor creating new local funding sources for affordable housing. Market-rate housing reforms can do the majority of the heavy lifting, but some households will always need subsidized housing, and the city needs a reliable, growing source of funding to meet that need.
11. Allow Single-Room Occupancy and Alternative Housing Types
Not everyone needs—or can afford—a full apartment. For seasonal workers, young adults just entering the workforce, and individuals on the edge of homelessness, single-room occupancy (SRO) developments, boarding houses, dormitories, and converted motels can provide affordable, dignified shelter at a fraction of the cost of conventional housing.
ShelterWF advocates for revising zoning definitions and standards to explicitly allow these housing types across a variety of districts. We also support enabling employers to offer or subsidize housing for seasonal workers through dormitory-style accommodations and to convert existing motels or lodging into extended-stay housing.
MLUPA identifies allowing single-room occupancy developments as one of its 14 recommended housing strategies.
Policy Wins
ShelterWF has moved from advocacy to results in a remarkably short period. Here are the key victories we've helped secure since our founding in 2022.
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) Allowed By Right
Won: May 2022
ShelterWF considers the passage of Whitefish's ADU ordinance its first policy victory. Before this reform, ADUs—secondary residential units on the same lot as a primary home, such as a garage apartment or backyard cottage—faced significant restrictions on where and how they could be built.
ShelterWF generated letters of support from members and community allies, and Nathan Dugan was advocating for ADU reform even before the Mountain Gateway fight. The new ordinance allows ADUs by right in all residential zoning districts (no public hearing required), eliminates owner-occupancy requirements (so the ADU can be rented even if the owner doesn't live in the primary home), permits multiple form factors (attached, detached, above a garage), and creates a limited deed-restriction program that offers incentives—including larger ADUs and potential impact fee reimbursement—for owners who rent to locals for at least five years.
Shortly after Whitefish adopted this ordinance, the state passed legislation requiring all Montana cities to allow ADUs wherever single-family homes are permitted—validating the approach ShelterWF championed at the local level.
The 2023 "Montana Miracle" Legislative Package
Won: 2023 Legislative Session
ShelterWF secured grant funding to work with a lobbyist during the 2023 legislative session and worked with a broad and diverse coalition to pass a sweeping set of housing reforms. Nathan Dugan's appointment to the Governor's Housing Task Force in July 2022 gave the organization a direct line to state-level policy discussions.
The key bills ShelterWF helped pass include:
Senate Bill 323 requires cities with 5,000 or more residents to allow duplexes anywhere single-family homes are permitted, effectively ending single-family-only zoning across Montana's largest cities. (Whitefish implemented this in January 2024.)
Senate Bill 382 (the Montana Land Use Planning Act / MLUPA) fundamentally restructures how Montana's largest cities plan for growth. It requires cities to project housing needs over a 20-year period, inventory existing housing stock, and adopt at least five of fourteen specific housing strategies. Critically, it shifts public participation to the front end of the planning process—during growth policy creation—and then requires by-right development review (at the staff level, not through public hearings) once policies are adopted. This is designed to prevent the "death by process" that has killed countless housing projects in cities like Whitefish.
Senate Bill 528 expands the ability to build accessory dwelling units statewide, eliminating many of the restrictions that have historically made ADU construction impractical.
Senate Bill 245 allows multifamily and mixed-use developments in previously commercial-only zones.—
HB 492 Parking
Defending the Montana Miracle at the Supreme Court
Ongoing: 2024–Present
When Montanans Against Irresponsible Densification (MAID) filed suit challenging the constitutionality of the 2023 housing bills, ShelterWF sought to intervene as a defendant. The Montana Supreme Court denied full intervention but granted ShelterWF amicus status, allowing the organization to file briefs defending the reforms.
This legal work is critical. A Gallatin County District Court judge initially issued a preliminary injunction against SB 323 and SB 528, temporarily blocking their implementation. The state appealed to the Supreme Court. ShelterWF has been working to ensure these landmark reforms survive legal challenge and remain in force.
The 2025 Legislative Session
Won: 2025 Legislative Session
Building on 2023's gains, ShelterWF expanded its state-level advocacy during the 2025 session. The organization worked to defend existing legislative wins while supporting additional reforms related to impact fee reform, single-exit stairway allowances for residential buildings (which reduce construction costs), and expanded protections for manufactured housing.
Growth Policy Advocacy and Public Accountability
Ongoing: 2024–2026
ShelterWF has been the most active and visible public participant in Whitefish's Vision 2045 Growth Policy process. The organization has submitted detailed public comments on the housing element, the economic development chapter, and the land use plan, backed by independent data analysis.
Key contributions include publishing the Revised Community Housing Needs Assessment demonstrating that the city's HNA captures only 23–46% of actual housing need; commissioning the first independent poll of Flathead County voters on housing policy; successfully pressuring the City Council to reject a biased draft of the economic development chapter that had been rewritten by the Heart of Whitefish interest group; submitting specific, parcel-level recommendations for amending the land use map and place type descriptions; and consistently turning out younger residents, workers, and renters to public comment sessions that had historically been dominated by older, wealthier homeowners.
AARP Community Challenge Grant: "Design Our Future"
Won: 2024
ShelterWF was selected from a pool of 3,300 applicants to receive an AARP Community Challenge Grant in 2024. The organization used the funding to hold "Design Our Future"—a visual design challenge inviting architects, design firms, and students across Montana to submit Missing Middle Housing designs for real Whitefish properties.
Eleven designs were submitted, demonstrating in vivid, concrete terms what duplexes, triplexes, and cottage courts could look like on actual Whitefish lots—within existing zoning and beyond it. The challenge was accompanied by a public panel event featuring experts in housing, transportation, universal design, and community connectivity.
The project served a critical public education function: helping Whitefish residents visualize what Missing Middle housing actually looks like (spoiler: it's not scary) and building community buy-in for zoning reforms that allow these housing types.
The policies above are tailored to Whitefish's specific crisis. But Whitefish doesn't exist in a vacuum. Across the country and around the world, a growing movement of housing advocates, economists, and policymakers is converging on a set of reforms that can unlock housing production at scale. ShelterWF supports these broader reforms because they address the same underlying dynamics that drive our local crisis—and because many of them are already being adopted in states and cities that are further ahead than we are.
These five policies represent the next frontier of pro-housing reform. Some are already making their way into Montana law. Others are ideas we believe Montana and its cities should be pursuing. All of them are grounded in evidence, and all of them would make housing more abundant and more affordable if adopted.
The pro-housing movement's greatest insight is that housing affordability is not primarily a charity problem. It is a supply problem. And supply problems have supply solutions. When we remove the barriers to building—at every level, in every form—housing becomes more abundant. When housing is abundant, it is affordable. When it is affordable, communities can thrive.
That is what ShelterWF is fighting for. Not just in Whitefish, but across Montana—and in solidarity with the growing national movement that believes everyone deserves a place to call home.
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