How should the city of Kalispell look?

City Council wrestles with architectural, landscape standards

Hard-and-fast rules? Or flexible guidelines?

Or both?

The Kalispell City Council wrestled with those distinctions last Monday as its looked over a proposed set of architectural and landscaping standards for new commercial and multiple-family development projects.

The proposed standards are a combination of existing city laws, a few minor changes to those laws, and strong suggestions on how developers are to deal with parking, sidewalks, landscaping, lighting, sign, public spaces and building exteriors on commercial and multifamily complexes to be built in Kalispell.

The standards do not address new single-family houses and duplexes because the sheer numbers and variety of situations would be more than the city government could realistically handle.

Right now, new developments in downtown Kalispell must pass a city staff review and a citizens architectural review board before building permits can be obtained. The proposed new standards would cover all of Kalispell, not just the downtown area.

The city's planning board and architectural review committee worked several months on the standards, which will go to a formal City Council vote on Dec. 5 or later.

"What we're trying to do is to have an easy-to-read document for developers," Mayor Pam Kennedy said.

Council members chewed over how far the city should go in enforcing the standards, or in merely using them as suggestions to developers.

"This document appears to be more 'shoulds' than 'shalls,'" council member Duane Larson said.

City planner Narda Wilson replied: "Some of them are 'shalls' and some of them are 'shoulds.'"

Paul Wachholz, the city's architectural review committee chairman, said the standards' creators tried to provide flexible guidelines, but also wanted something enforceable so people could not ignore the standards.

"It's not an exact science," Wachholz said.

The fuzziness of what would be enforceable bothered councll member Bob Hafferman. "There's too much potential for things to be determined by whim, and I'm against that," he said.

Council members wondered whether too-strict architectural and landscaping standards - such as those addressing landscaping requirements for big parking lots - might scare potential developers from working inside the city limits, opting instead for a looser Flathead County regulatory environment.

However, most appeared to favor the standards, wanting the city's staff to fine-tune some language and to reconcile some minor differences with existing city laws.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com