Adoption delayed for Whitefish stormwater law

By LYNNETTE HINTZE

The Daily Inter Lake

It may be next year before the Whitefish City Council adopts a stormwater law that sets restrictions for construction on slopes.

The council on Monday took some testimony and then continued a public hearing and vote to Dec. 4 or later. Real-estate agents and developers urged the council to thoroughly study the ramifications of several amendments that have been offered as a compromise on the slope issue.

"I think you need to go back to the planning board. This is more than an amendment," cautioned Sean Frampton, the lawyer representing a Whitefish couple who sued the city over the proposed 30 percent slope restriction. "I think the law will require you to go back to the planning board."

After the planning board rejected the stormwater law in October largely because of the slope issue, the city regrouped and developed an alternative plan that still provides a "substantial measure" of protection for water quality and environmentally sensitive areas.

Two key amendments address the slope issue.

The first removes the 30 percent slope limitation for existing lots of record. Under this option, structures could be placed on any slope with no limitation on existing platted and unplatted lots. Strict standards for erosion control, prevention of calculable sediment and nutrient loading, site stabilization and revegetation also must be met.

For all new developments and newly created lots, however, the 30 percent limitation would still apply.

The second pivotal change reduces the slope standard in protection zones from 30 percent to 15 percent.

"This means that on any slope over 15 percent, standards for tree

removal, grading, erosion control and revegetation would apply," Whitefish Planning Director Bob Horne said.

Other changes from the planning-board draft include:

. A sunset date, because "even though this ordinance is being reviewed through the regular ordinance process, it is still very much an interim ordinance," Horne said, until it can be replaced by a comprehensive critical-areas ordinance once the Whitefish growth policy is completed.

. Review of reasonable-use exemptions by a site-plan review committee instead of solely by the city zoning administrator.

. Clarification on the allowable removal of vegetation from a protection zone. Only dead and downed materials could be removed. Trees found by a qualified landscape architect or arborist to be diseased or hazardous could be removed, but removal of healthy trees for view enhancement would be prohibited, as would the pruning of live limbs.

. The developer could choose a groundwater hydrologist from a list of professionals prequalified by the city.

Because the alternative plan calls for no sedimentation and nutrient loading, council members questioned how enforceable the law would be.

Realtor Phyllis Sprunger, representing real-estate agents and developers, urged the council to spend more time to develop a workable plan. The 15 percent standard wasn't in the original proposal, she noted, and warrants more study.

Sprunger said she and her constituents want to see the slope issue separated from the stormwater law. She also stressed the need for a preliminary review process, better definition of impact standards and an appeals process.

Whitefish Lakeshore Protection Committee Chairman Jim Stack said his committee hadn't received a copy of the amendments and suggested the hearing be extended until the committee had a chance to study the proposal. He also wondered how enforceable some elements, such as tree delimbing, would be, since the lakeshore committee has struggled with tree-removal violations.

Stack pointed to a voluminous drainage plan that governs the Tahoe Basin that straddles Nevada and California and wondered if Whitefish could study that plan.

"Rather than reinvent the wheel," perhaps the Tahoe plan could be a foundation standard for Whitefish, he said.

Both versions of the stormwater law are available on the city's Web site, www.whitefish.govoffice.com

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com