Your Weekly Flathead Valley Land Use Planning Brief

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This is your Monday morning primer about the Land Use Plan updates in Columbia Falls, Kalispell, and Whitefish. Read on below for what happened last week, upcoming meetings, and other pertinent information.

We recently published a blog post exploring the Flathead Valley’s housing shortage based on housing need studies in Columbia Falls and Whitefish, and the draft housing element in Kalispell. Click here to read this blog post.

Columbia Falls

Community Land Use Survey Live Through December 11, 2025

Upcoming:

• Nothing this week. The next Land Use Plan discussion is anticipated to occur at the Columbia Falls Planning Commission meeting on Thursday, December 11, 2025.

Last Week:

• The city hosted a “Utility Infrastructure” Open House on Thursday, November 20, 2025. This meeting focused on studies of the city’s current public water and wastewater/sewer systems.

  • Key takeaways:

    • The city will need to upgrade certain areas of its water system to meet current needs, though most of the system demonstrates good flows and other important characteristics.

    • The city will need to add water storage as its current storage is nearly at maximum capacity.

    • The city’s sewer/wastewater system is nearly at capacity during its peak month in July. It is anticipated to reach peak-month capacity between 2028 and 2030.

    • We will write more about this open house on our blog once the slides from the open house are available.

  • A second open house that focuses on studies into future growth needs will take place in early February 2026.

Kalispell

Upcoming:

• Nothing this week. The next Land Use Plan discussion is anticipated to occur at the Tuesday, December 9, 2025 Kalispell Planning Commission meeting.

• We anticipate that a full Land Use Plan draft will be available in the next 1-2 months. At that point, the entire Land Use Plan will be reviewed by the Planning Commission prior to advancing to the City Council for adoption.

Last Week:

• Nothing last week. The Kalispell Planning Commission held a work session following its November 12 meeting to discuss draft chapters relating to Economic Development and Natural Resources.

Whitefish

Upcoming:

• Whitefish Community Housing Committee meeting to begin work on the draft Housing Element, Monday, December 1, 2025 at 2 p.m., Whitefish City Hall (418 E 2nd St, Whitefish)

• Whitefish Community Housing Committee meeting to finish work on the draft Housing Element, Monday, December 8, 2025 at 2 p.m., Whitefish City Hall (418 E 2nd St, Whitefish)