Media
Relevant News Regarding Responsible Growth
Proposal would allow state trust lands to be sold for real estate development
By Ellis Juhlin, Austin Amestoy October 9, 2024
Public land managers want to make it easier to develop and sell state trust lands. They say it will help address housing shortages but lawmakers are divided on supporting it. MTPR’s Austin Amestoy sat down with reporter Ellis Juhlin to discuss this proposed legislation, and how it fits into national trends of public land use.
By Burning Down Buildings, Insurers Want to Change How They’re Built
By Emily Flitter July 15, 2024
The insurance industry is setting homes on fire – just to make a point. The fires are controlled, kindled in a research lab or staged at training facilities used by fire departments. They are designed to simulate the conditions that help wildfires spread through neighborhoods and cause what the insurers call a “conflagration event,” like the one that killed 102 people and destroyed the Hawaiian town of Lahaina on Maui last August.
‘Think like an ember’ this fire season
By KELSEY EVANS 06.18.2024
Now is the time to prepare homes, make emergency plans and communicate with neighbors, according to wildfire experts who spoke at the Living with Wildfire seminar in Whitefish last week.
Wildfire Preparation, Adaptation, Focus of Free ‘Living with Wildfire’ Seminar in Whitefish
BY MIKE KORDENBROCK
Topics covered include the creation of defensible space, the home ignition zone, implementing fire resistant landscaping, developing a wildfire preparedness plan and home insurance questions related to wildfire risks.
Public gets involved in Whitefish’s Vision 2045 plan
By JULIE ENGLER 03.06.2024
Whitefish hosted the first of several visioning sessions to gather public input for the growth policy update. A total of 110 citizens showed up for the session which was hosted for two nights, Feb. 21-22 at City Hall.
A ‘cowboy ski town’ where high earners can’t afford a home faces a housing battle
By Shannon Pettypiece 03.03.2024
A pandemic-fueled real estate boom in mountain and resort locales is pricing out even high-income professionals and dividing communities over how to rein in housing costs.
Railroad Street ballpark-housing decision tabled
By AVERY HOWE 02.14.2024
The youth baseball field on Railroad Street will stay a baseball field, at least until Columbia Falls City Council can find another place for the kids to play ball. The city has received interest from Northwest Montana Community Land Trust partnering with Habitat for Humanity to turn the 1.3 acre lot into housing. Their current rough draft proposal is an eight-unit development..
Nonprofits Partner to Add Affordable Homeownership Opportunities
BY MAGGIE DRESSER 02.11.2024
As the tight real estate market persists in northwest Montana, two local housing nonprofits have officially partnered to create permanent affordable homeownership opportunities in the Flathead Valley.
Whitefish City Council Approves 18-Unit Addition to Alpenglow Apartments
BY MIKE KORDENBROCK 02.06.2024
A proposal to build additional affordable housing on the site of the Alpenglow Apartments was approved Monday night by the Whitefish City Council, and the director of the nonprofit leading the effort said the goal is to be ready to break ground by the winter or spring of 2025.
Judge blocks two pro-construction housing laws
By Eric Dietrich 01.02.2024
Court order keeps two of four laws challenged by Bozeman homeowners group from taking effect Jan. 1.
A Gallatin County District Court judge has blocked two laws passed by the 2023 Montana Legislature that aimed to promote housing affordability by forcing cities to permit denser development in existing neighborhoods.
Homeowner group files court challenge against pro construction housing laws.
BY ERIC DIETRICH,
A lawsuit filed Friday by a coalition of homeowners challenges the constitutionality of four bipartisan laws passed by this year’s Republican-controlled Legislature in an effort to tackle Montana’s housing shortage by encouraging proactive land use planning and making it easier to build homes in situations where construction has been hampered by local zoning rules.
Whitefish Council Approves Hiring Short-term Rental Enforcement Officer
By Triston Scott, 11.22.23
In a show of force Monday night, residents bemoaned the city’s depleted housing inventory and urged officials to crack down on hundreds of illegal rentals…
Initial impacts appear after Montana Legislature’s action on housing development.
By Jonathon Ambarian, 11.22.23
During the Montana Legislature’s 2023 session, lawmakers passed a series of bills intended to make a dent in the state’s housing shortage by encouraging more housing development. However, it’s been an open question how quickly those changes will have an effect…
Whitefish takes aim at illegal short-term rentals. Housing advocacy group estimates upwards of 500 illegal short-term rentals in the city.
BY JUSTIN FRANZ,
While many homes that hit the market during Montana’s pandemic real estate boom ended up in the hands of new arrivals, others were turned into short-term rentals to take advantage of the state’s growing popularity among travelers — even if local zoning laws don’t permit such uses in some areas. Now Whitefish is looking to crack down on illegal rentals in hopes of adding housing for its workforce.
Whitefish Planning Board Recommends Approval of 42-Unit at 800 Edgewood Place
BY MIKE KORDENBROCK
The proposed housing project would include eight affordable units and is located just south of where a 146-unit development was approved by the city council in June.
The Whitefish Planning Board at an Oct. 19 meeting recommended the city council approve a zone change and planned unit development request related to a development project that could bring 42 units of housing to about 1.66 acres of land north of the railroad tracks on the 800 block of Edgewood Place.
Backing the project are developers Holbrook McCartney and Whitefish City Councilor Ben Davis …
New Land Development Review Procedures Confuse and Concern Residents
BY ROBERT HORNE, JR.,
It was starting to sink into folks that several cities in Montana, including Kalispell and Whitefish, would be conducting long range planning and site-by-site land development review under a new set of rules
Anyone attending the City of Whitefish’s Growth Policy Kick-Off on the evening of Aug. 24 got a lot more information than they bargained for, and many found it upsetting.
The Kick-Off began with a straight-forward and factual presentation by city staff. Attendees learned what a growth policy is, what it is used for, and how the process will be conducted over the coming months…
Can Affluence and Affordable Housing Coexist in Colorado’s Rockies?
The outdoorsy lifestyle of Colorado mountain towns has become a magnet for the new remote-worker class, upending life for those already rooted there.
Whitefish City Council Votes to Approve Multi-Family Housing Development
The Whitefish Corridor Community — proposed by Columbia Falls developer Mick Ruis — will bring 146 rental apartments to the city, 44 of which will be deed-restricted units.
Vail approves $165M project to include workforce housing
The Vail Town Council finalized its agreement with Triumph Development earlier this month for the redevelopment of the Timber Ridge Village apartments in West Vail.
The project — with an estimated $165 million price tag — is the largest capital project that the town has ever undertaken, according to Vail Mayor Kim Langmaid. Additionally, through a unique private-public partnership model that will allow local businesses to buy into the project, it represents a new path forward for creating workforce housing.
Whitefish Planning Board Votes In Favor of 146-Unit Whitefish Corridor Community Development
The development will appear before the Whitefish City Council at its June 19 meeting.
The Whitefish Planning Board voted by a 4-0 margin to recommend approval of a developer’s requests related to an apartment development that could bring 146 units of housing to Whitefish, including 44 permanently deed-restricted units for people making between 60% and 80% of the area median income.
Bozeman, Montana: How to Ruin a Perfectly Good Mountain Town
Twenty years ago, I lived in a town named Bozeman. Sadly, it no longer exists.
In the 1990s, Bozeman was a magical place with dive bars that smelled like New Orleans in the summer and trailheads that were empty on a Sunday morning. Sometimes, I would take off to Yellowstone National Park for a long weekend in August and not even reserve a campsite. A southwestern Montana cowtown just 80 miles from Yellowstone, Bozeman had it all–uncrowded rivers, affordable homes, and $5 burritos.
Growing Pains and Construction Projects Lay Ahead for Flathead Valley Schools
As the region anticipates yet another year of development, its educators wrestle with how to accommodate its increasing student population.
For Principal Kerry Drown, one question hangs over the future of Whitefish High School: “Where do we put all of these kids?”
Drown sits at the helm of the city’s public high school, which has seen an 18% enrollment increase over the past decade and is now pushing the limits of its building’s capacity. In recent years, the school has been forced to adopt space-saving measures, such as requiring teachers to share classrooms and wheel their supplies around on carts…
Guest column: Local officials know what their communities need
Last week, Gov. Gianforte’s Housing Task Force released its draft recommendations to address housing in Montana. These include forcing every community to allow accessory dwelling units (ADUs) on every residential lot, removing local restrictions on how small lots can be, and stopping local governments from requiring parking spaces for new development. These recommendations to remove local regulations are not surprising because the Task Force began with the assumption that local regulations are the primary cause of the housing crisis in Montana.
Shelter WF Enters New Year With New Coordinator, and Policy Focus
Kendall Schneider has seen some version of this before. The struggle to find housing, the frustration when businesses are closed down outside their regular hours because they can’t find and keep staff, the good friends and hard-working people who pack up and leave a place they love for a place where they can afford to live.
Schneider, 25, is the new coordinator for Shelter WF, a nonprofit formed in March of 2022 with the mission of confronting housing inequality and empowering grassroots participation in the processes that determine the fate of housing development…
How to Save a Ski Town
All over the West, a housing crisis is causing workforce shortages, crippling local businesses, and threatening the culture and existence of mountain towns as we know them. But amid the doom and gloom, some people are fighting for solutions.
County planning board holds vote on KM Ranch Road project
A proposal that could add more than 200 housing units to KM Ranch Road and has drawn the ire of neighbors heads before the Flathead County Planning Board for a decision Wednesday.
Montarise Developments, LLC is requesting a zone change for three parcels of land totaling 155 acres just north of the county landfill boarding U.S. 93.
The county planning board meets at 6 p.m. in the second floor conference room of the South Campus Building at 40 11th St. W. in Kalispell. Recommendations from the planning board are forwarded to the Flathead County Commissioners for final consideration.
Though the issue before the board is only a zone change, Montarise representatives have presented information on further plans involving 268 housing units and 20 acres set for commercial use …
A Town’s Housing Crisis Exposes a ‘House of Cards’
In the Idaho resort area of Sun Valley, there are so few housing options that many workers are resorting to garages, campers and tents …
Decision on KM Ranch Road development pushed after hours of public comment
Representatives of a potential development on a 155-acre chunk of property on KM Ranch Road say it would provide needed housing for the Flathead Valley. But neighbors of the project say it’s not responsible growth to bring in more than 200 housing units to the area….
Whitefish Council Approves Edgewood Development
The project includes 30 units of housing, including six deed-restricted units, spread across a trio of buildings.
Kalispell Council Approves New Housing Developments
The Kalispell City Council this week approved the final plat for a rent- and age-restricted senior housing subdivision on a 1-acre lot north of the Gateway Community Center supported by Montana Board of Housing tax credits.
Amid housing crises vacation towns limit short-term rentals
In the Colorado ski town of Steamboat Springs, motels line the freeway, once filled with tourists eager to pitch down the slopes or bathe in the local hot springs.
Now residents like Marc McDonald, who keep the town humming by working service-level jobs, live in the converted motels. They cram into rooms, some with small refrigerators and 6-foot-wide kitchens, or even just microwave kitchenettes. Others live in mobile homes.
By JESSE BEDAYN
Daily Inter Lake | August 23, 2022
Study says Whitefish needs 1,000 more homes by 2030
Whitefish needs to add more than 1,300 homes in the next eight years to keep up with housing demands, according to a draft update of the city’s Housing Needs Assessment.
At least 75% of those homes need to be priced below market rate, the study also notes…
By JULIE ENGLER
Daily Inter Lake | August 19, 2022
Planning board rejects massive Columbia Falls subdivision east of Flathead River
After a marathon meeting that ended just before midnight, the Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board voted against a massive subdivision east of the Flathead River on Tuesday night …
By CHRIS PETERSON
Daily Inter Lake | August 10, 2022
Where wildfire meets population growth
For the second summer in a row, a wildfire has destroyed homes near the shores of Flathead Lake, offering a stark reminder of the danger fire poses to one of the fastest-growing areas in the state.
By Justin Franz
Montana Free Press | August 4, 2022
Keep Local Control
The last state Legislature, led with the help of elected representatives from Kalispell and Columbia Falls, demolished the ability of local communities to enact ordinances that required big development to include a small portion of homes deeded affordable to people who work in the area…
By BY MIKE JOPEK
Flathead Beacon | July 27, 2022
Montarise: Community Group Grows Frustrated After KM Ranch Road Hearing Postponed
The Flathead County Planning Board pushed its hearing on the controversial KM Ranch Road development to September, angering local residents who have organized in opposition to the project…
By DENALI SAGNER
Flathead Beacon | July 18, 2022
River Highlands: Major housing development proposed near Columbia Falls
By CHRIS PETERSON
Daily Inter Lake | June 25, 2022
The KJEZ Good Morning Show
Glacier Bank Community Conversations / June 2022
Climate Smart Glacier Country Richard Hildner connected with John Hendricks and Robin Mitchell during the KGEZ Good Morning Show Glacier Bank Community Conversation on Monday June , 2022 to remark on Living With Wildfire forum on Tuesday June 28 in the O”Shaughnessy Center in Whitefish from 6:30pm – 8:30pm.
Fire in Paradise, a Year After the Devastating Camp Fire
We encourage you to watch the film, “Fire in Paradise.” FRONTLINE examines who’s to blame for the devastating fire and why it was so catastrophic.
 
“The issue wasn’t how fast we notified the public of the fire, it was how fast we could get them off the hill.”
Popularity’s Slippery Slope
Montana Public Radio / March 7, 2022
Whitefish has a reputation as a charming ski destination in Montana’s northwest corner that welcomes wayward strays, whether that’s for a season or a lifetime. That attitude has helped grow small businesses and local watering holes, and keep friendly faces on the slopes and behind the bar. But in recent years, more and more people have been drawn to the good thing Whitefish has going on. Locals fear that surging popularity — and skyrocketing cost of living — could push out the very characters that make this place so special.
Debate Over Whitefish Development to Extend into February
BY MIKE KORDENBROCK
Flathead Beacon|January 25, 2022
Mountain Gateway a catastrophic wildfire risk
By RICHARD HILDNER
Whitefish Pilot | January 12, 2022 1:00 AM
Whitefish deserves better than Mountain Gateway
By CAROL ATKINSON
Whitefish Pilot | January 12, 2022 1:00 AM
Mountain Gateway Project Misguided
The infrastructure is not in place for this immense development
BY AARON PITMAN
Flathead Beacon|November 15, 2021
Citizens group forms in opposition to proposed housing development
By HEIDI DESCH
Whitefish Pilot | October 27, 2021 1:00 AM
Citizens group forms to oppose Mountain Gateway project
By LYNNETTE HINTZE
Daily Inter Lake | October 24, 2021 12:00 AM
What does Whitefish deserve?
By CAROL ATKINSON AND MIKE JENSON
October 13, 2021
It’s an important question. Especially these days as Whitefish grows exponentially and garners national media attention. We’re certainly not the first such community to struggle with growth issues — density, traffic, environmental impact, housing costs. And we won’t be the last. But each of these communities — including Whitefish — really has only one chance to get it right. To preserve their community’s essence and quality of life. Our chance is now.