Consultant: City should build on its strengths

Downtown Kalispell is on solid footing but it has potential to be even better.

That's the verdict a consulting firm delivered to about 300 people Monday night when the city of Kalispell and the board of the Business Improvement District showed off a plan of action for revitalizing the downtown.

"Downtown Kalispell is relatively healthy at this point," Doyle Hyett told listeners at the Kalispell Center Mall. He went on to outline a strategy to improve downtown and work toward an economically viable future.

Hyett is the chairman of the board of HyettPalma, a Virginia-based company that specializes in downtown economic enhancement plans. The city and the business district each paid $20,000 for HyettPalma to conduct the study.

The firm's strategy included changes or additions the city could make in the near future, such as increasing signs downtown, as well as long-term projects, such as a performing arts center, that the city should consider pursuing.

Hyett told the crowd that among the downtown revitalization plans he's worked on, one truism has emerged: "You can't be a first-class city without a first-class downtown."

Hyett said creating a first-class downtown for Kalispell means building upon the city's strengths: historic architecture, museums, art galleries, dining facilities and natural beauty.

To capitalize on those, Kalispell could add signs downtown and near the entrances to the city to draw people in. Merchants could improve their sales and reputations by advertising their unique businesses. The city and merchants could work together to bring more art to downtown, whether public art such as murals on buildings or art sold on consignment in stores.

Visual art would bring people downtown, Hyett said.

As for the performing arts, a center to house them is something the city should look into, he said, and downtown is the best place for such a facility.

An arts center might be a long time coming, Hyett acknowledged. In the meantime, the city should use existing venues, such as the KM Theatre.

Hyett also addressed another hot issue - how to solve the parking problem.

An easy answer is to change the current parking signs' wording to be more business-oriented. For example, the signs might say parking spaces are for customers rather than simply stating there is a two-hour limit. Careful word choice can influence people's parking behavior, Hyett said.

Other solutions include a parking garage, encouraging business owners and employees not to park in coveted spots in front of the business, and to crack down on the two-hour limit.

Hyett said the city ought to consider a license-plate recording system to enforce parking limits rather than relying on chalking tires, a system people have figured out how to beat. Using the "rock and roll" technique, people often rotate their tires once they've been chalked so the city can't tell how long vehicles have been parked.

Another solution is to add diagonal parking on Main Street.

"The American buying public loves diagonal parking," Hyett said.

But diagonal parking likely would have to wait until after the U.S. 93 bypass is put through in some years and such a change is subject to Montana Department of Transportation approval, he said. The city asked for approval in the 1990s, but the state denied diagonal parking because it would slow down U.S. 93 traffic, Mayor Pam Kennedy said.

The firm's other suggestions include encouraging housing downtown, bringing in more restaurants and imposing strict architectural standards.

Hyett also addressed Kalispell Center Mall's possible demise should the Glacier Mall be built north of town. Downtown business owners shouldn't fret that customers will abandon the core of Kalispell because services and goods offered on and near Main Street are different than those in a mall, he said.

As for the train tracks near the Kalispell Center Mall, forget about moving them, Hyett said, noting that relocating the tracks would cost more money than the project would be worth.

Whatever suggestions the city of Kalispell and the Business Improvement District's board choose to take, the moves will have a thrown-stone effect, Hyett said. By targeting the core downtown area, or throwing a stone at it, the effects of improvements there will ripple outward to the rest of the city, he explained.

To many people in the crowd, the analogy fit and had them ready to implement the strategy.

"I'm really encouraged," Kennedy said, "because I believe the actions he listed out for us are ones that are doable."

And some of the ideas, such as the signs, wouldn't cost a lot of money to have an impact, she said.

"It provides a great to-do list," Joe Unterreiner, Kalispell Chamber of Commerce president, said of HyettPalma's strategy.

The business district board plans in about six months to hire a director to implement the action plan, board chairwoman Judy Larson said. In the meantime, the board will have no shortage of people who want to work on the plan.

"The interest is there," she said. "And more importantly, they're willing to help."

Reporter Camden Easterling can be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at ceasterling@dailyinterlake.com