Kalispell sets up its new planning department
Kalispell soon will have a new planning department, which the city hopes will result in better customer service and keeping pace with growth.
The city's new department starts July 1, the day after the Tri-City Planning Office dissolves.
The Tri-City office for Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls is closing because Whitefish wanted to create its own office.
Kalispell's new department will meld the existing city building department with planning services and will give the city two full-time planners and a planning director.
The new department will include planning, zoning and building services. The current city structure places building and zoning under the fire department.
The city will spend about $179,000 more per year on the new department. That figure includes equipment, such as vehicles, and other costs such as furniture for the additional employees.
An anticipated increase in building permit fees will pay for the new department.
Increased permit fees will generate about $283,000 more in budget year 2005-06, City Manager Jim Patrick said. The City Council earlier this month gave initial approval to the higher fees.
Property taxes will not increase as a result of the new department, Patrick stressed.
The $132,000 of taxpayer money currently used each year to cover Kalispell's portion operating costs for the Tri-City office will not increase and will roll over into paying for the new planning department.
Five of the six Tri-City employees will move over to the city. One office assistant was let go due to cost concerns, Tri-City Planning Office Director Tom Jentz said.
Jentz will head the new Kalispell office. Narda Wilson and Mark Crowley, planners at Tri-City, will serve as the city's two planners.
Tri-City Office Administrator Michelle Anderson and GIS Specialist Carol "Cookie" Davis, a part-time employee, will join the planners in working for Kalispell.
Is there a workload big enough for Kalispell to necessitate three full-time planners?
"You bet there is," Patrick said. "The growth and development have just not slowed down."
A healthy growth rate is 1 percent, while Kalispell is at 2-4 percent, Jentz said. The city makes up about 48 percent of the Tri-City workload, Patrick said.
Kalispell will benefit from having two planners (Wilson and Crowley) focusing exclusively on the city and a department head (Jentz) who will handle planning and building issues, Patrick said.
"Right now we fall into a matrix of who's most needy instead of looking at where we want to go," he said of the Tri-City structure.
Patrick gave the example of the growth policies for Kalispell and Columbia Falls.
Both cities needed to update these master plans. But the Columbia Falls plan hadn't been updated since the 1980s. Kalispell's most recent plan is from 2003. So Tri-City tackled Columbia Falls before getting to Kalispell's.
Having a planning office for Kalispell alone will help alleviate those kinds of problems and should also speed up the process of getting building and zoning issues and permit applications handled, Patrick said.
In addition to the five Tri-City planning employees moving to the city, two full-time positions will round out the new department.
The city has hired retired Kalispell police officer Paul Jacobs as the new code enforcement officer. He will handle nuisance abatement, such as checking that city sidewalks are properly shoveled and that people don't have junk cars in their yards.
Kalispell also will hire a building inspector who will join the city's other two inspectors. That position has not yet been filled.
The building and planning employees will stay in their current office locations, at 248 Third Ave. and 17 Second St. East, respectively. The city hopes in the future to consolidate the department offices into one building.
Reporter Camden Easterling can be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at ceasterling@dailyinterlake.com