• pedestrians, bicyclists, parks, historic properties, and visual resources in the downtown area.
• The Whitefish Downtown Business District Master Plan was adopted. The plan identifies goals for land use, social, economic, and pedestrian facilities which are not compatible with the proposed action

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) determined that additional study of feasible alternatives for US 93 is needed in the Whitefish Urban area. A Whitefish Transportation Planning study is uderway. Contact Jeff Key at Robert Peccia & Associates for more information (406-447-5000).

Whitefish West

There were changes to the proposed action and affected environment within the Whitefish West project area as well. However, the Re-Evaluation concluded that these changes would not result in new significant impacts that were not previously evaluated in the FEIS. Changes include:

• Changes to the proposed action to provide improved safety and meet current design standards, which would result in greater impacts to businesses, residences, historic properties, water resources, and hazardous materials sites west of the Whitefish River. These impacts are consistent with the type and nature of impacts described in the FEIS for the overall Somers to Whitefish West corridor and the FEIS adequately addresses mitigation for these impacts.

• Wetlands and threatened and endangered species that were not identified in the FEIS. The impacts to these resources are similar in type and nature to the impacts described in the FEIS for the overall Somers to Whitefish West corridor and the FEIS adequately addresses mitigation requirements.

If the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) concurs with the Re-Evaluation, final design and construction of the Whitefish West project can proceed under the original FEIS.

What's Next...
Current Proposed Action

An Environmental Re-Evaluation for the US 93 Whitefish Urban and Whitefish West projects has been prepared. The purpose of the Re-evaluation is to assess whether the 1994 US Highway 93 Somers to Whitefish West Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) is still valid, up-to-date, and complete.

The Re-Evaluation considers two primary questions:

• Are there changes to the proposed action that would result in new significant impacts that were not evaluated in the FEIS?
• Are there changes to the affected environment, such as new information, circumstances, laws, regulations, or local ordinances that would result in new significant impacts that were not evaluated in the FEIS?

A Citizen’s Working Group (CWG), representing Whitefish businesses and residents, was formed to assist in the Re-Evaluation. The CWG provided valuable input on the design and comparison of current conditions with those described in the FEIS.

The US Highway 93 project is split into the Whitefish Urban and Whitefish West project areas (project limits are described on the individual linked pages).

Whitefish Urban

The Re-Evaluation found that there are substantial changes to the proposed action and the affected environment within the Whitefish Urban project area, which would result in potential new significant impacts not evaluated in the FEIS. These include:

• The FEIS Record of Decision in the Whitefish Urban project area no longer functions at an acceptable level of service, therefore, additional turn lanes and widening were evaluated to provide the desired level of service and traffic operations. These changes would result in greater impacts to buildings,