MLUPA 2/5: How it works:
Plan for 20 Years of Growth: Cities must use data to project population and plan to accommodate it.
Zone for Needed Homes "By-Right": Update zoning so the required homes get permits automatically if they meet the rules—no endless public hearings. Fewer delays=lower costs.
The first posts in Livable Flathead's series explaining how the Montana Land Used Planning Act affects planning locally in the Flathead Valley. Follow @livableflathead.bsky.social for more!
We ran it back!
Am I the only one noting that after demonizing China for years, Trump seems to be letting them off lightly, while going full tilt against Canada? Is it Musk's business interests? Have Chinese players been buying Trumpcoin?
People sitting around a table at an organizing event. Graphic to promote Giving Tuesday.
It's Giving Tuesday!
This Giving Tuesday, your support helps us continue our vital work advocating for smart housing policies, connecting communities, and empowering residents to shape the future of our town.
I am hopeful that the Mayor will step in an make this appointment upon his return, sooner than later.
Weak stuff from Councilor Sweeney last night, who apparently doesn't want a lifelong local voice with a different perspective on housing issues to be on the Community Development Board. We all call ourselves Democrats, but the generational divide here is stark.
Happy Thanksgiving! I'm thankful that Whitefish proper is far from "built out" as some might try to have you believe. Let's make a plan to build denser and up rather than sprawl outward onto our prime 🦃 grazing fields. flatheadbeacon.com/2024/11/28/d...
Politics should run through relatively small donations from individuals. Want to win a race? You've got to get out and talk to people, inspire them to donate, volunteer, and vote for you. Billionaires consolidating outsized power by controlling politics with their money is very 1800.
Tired of daily fundraising emails after the longest election period in the world ends? I sure as hell am. We need to get money out of politics. That money is so much better used for other things than for dictating political party agendas and supporting a party's preferred candidates.
My cats did not appreciate the first song. But overall great to have some new Kendrick!
Work requirements for housing subsidies is simply a cruel policy that increases homelessness. Some [not insignificant] portion of the population who benefits from these subsidies are disabled and/or elderly. You throwing your grandma out on the street?
Having a roof over your head is proven to facilitate improving drug and mental health issues, and housing first saves governments money.
List of proposed HUD policies.
Two Trump policy dreams that have the complete opposite effect and cost us more money. Not a lot of good stuff in here, unsurprisingly. www.npr.org/2024/11/22/n...
I'm in Bentonville today for the Urban Land Institute Northwest Arkansas Place Summit. I'll be sitting down to talk Montana state-level zoning reforms with Senator Forrest Mandeville from 12:30 - 1:30 PM this afternoon. Looking forward to sharing these bipartisan wins with folks in Arkansas!
Term limits for everyone.
If Mitch McConnell blocked a Supreme Court nomination for 6 months, then we sure as hell can expand the court. Time to do it.
Now do a Supreme Court expansion 🤞
We are about to confirm a bunch of lifetime appointments to the federal bench fyi.
Something something Make America Healthy Again
This ain't no Reagan map. Sorry Donny.
What a shocking development.
Think Whitefish should stay basically exactly the same as it is? Well, I sure hope that you like sitting in traffic and hate open spaces. That's where this is headed right now. It's time to email atiefenbach@cityofwhitefish.org and ask him to use a more realistic model.
Whitefish's current model projects the following population increases, well below historical and recent averages. C'mon man. This is cherry-picking the worst model to obtain the desired outcome, limited growth well into the future.
Whitefish is severely underbuilt inside of its existing city boundaries. We will need to exceed historical population increase trends to catch up and get to where we need to be. We'll need to factor in the inevitable wave of climate migration from the desert.
The fine print: we might build some housing for our workforce...as long as it is on agricultural land outside of our precious city.
It's common political rhetoric in Whitefish that people who work here, especially in our service industry, should be able to live here. The number of jobs in Whitefish isn't in the report, but it's estimated that 76% of workers commute into Whitefish. I'm sorry, that's more than 2,145 people.
We're cooked. A thread.
