By Giacomo Tognini | Forbes
In the bucolic ski town of Whitefish, Montana, tucked between the Rocky Mountains and Glacier National Park, a long-brewing battle over affordable housing reached a boiling point last week. A proposal for a new development that would have built 318 new housing units—including 48 townhomes and condos marked for affordable rates—was defeated on February 7 in a 5-1 vote by the city council after nearly three hours of public discussion.
The vote came after months of heated debate that split the town of about 8,000 people, pitting neighbors against one another. The city’s billionaire residents, self-made insurance moguls and married couple Mark and Robyn Jones (estimated net worth: $2.2 billion) and the NHL’s Las Vegas Golden Knights owner Bill Foley ($1.5 billion), all opposed the project.
Foley, age 77, is the owner of the Whitefish Mountain ski resort and a ranch nearby, in addition to four restaurants in town. The Joneses’ own a home on 260 acres of land near the ski resort as well as nearly 126,000 acres of timberland, dubbed Flathead Ridge Ranch, that they purchased in 2021. All of those properties, except for the restaurants and the Joneses’ ranch, lie north of Big Mountain Road, where the development would have been located. Foley sent representatives from his businesses to speak out against the project in city council and planning board meetings, while Mark Jones sent an email to the council threatening to pull his philanthropic support for affordable housing elsewhere in the town if the project wasn’t stopped.
