Your Weekly Flathead Valley Land Use Planning Brief

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Here’s your [fashionably late in the day] Monday primer about the Land Use Plan updates in Columbia Falls, Kalispell, and Whitefish. There is a lot of activity this week. Read below for information on upcoming meetings and to find out what happened last week.

Columbia Falls

We summarized the city’s wastewater treatment plant capacity limitations in this blog post.

The city’s Land Use Plan consultants release the results of their initial survey on January 6. Click here to view the results.

Upcoming:

• Columbia Falls City Council meeting, Tuesday, January 20, 2026 at 7 p.m., Columbia Falls City Hall (130 6th St W, Columbia Falls).

  • Further consideration of future development in light of the city’s wastewater infrastructure limitations. Read our blog post on this here.

• Columbia Falls City Council and Planning Commission: Joint Meeting, Monday, January 26, 2026 at 7 p.m., Columbia Falls City Hall (130 6th St W, Columbia Falls).

  • Discussion of the Land Use Plan existing conditions and community survey results.

Last Week:

• Nothing last week.

Kalispell

Upcoming:

• Nothing this week.

Last Week:

• The Kalispell Planning Commission reviewed and approved the city’s draft Land Use Plan, forwarding it onto the Kalispell City Council for adoption.

Whitefish

We summarized the city’s Land Use Element Open House in this blog post.

Upcoming:

• Whitefish City Council Vision 2045 Work Session, Tuesday, January 20, 2026 at 5:30 p.m., Whitefish City Hall (418 E 2nd St, Whitefish).

  • The Whitefish City Council will take its first look at previously approved (by the Planning Commission) sections of the Land Use Plan, providing direction to staff for updates. It is expected that much of the discussion will focus on the Economic Development Element.