Council will hear lumberyard response

The Kalispell City Council wrestled Monday with how to approach a lumberyard's upcoming appeal on whether its sprinkler system is adequate.

No date has been set for the appeal hearing.

But council members, City Attorney Charles Harball and the appealing party - Wright's Kalispell Lumber, represented by attorney Bill Astle - agreed Monday the lumberyard can send a memo stating its position to the council prior to the hearing, because the city's fire department had already sent its own memo.

Beyond that, both sides agreed not to communicate with the council prior to the hearing to preserve the quasi-judicial integrity of the proceeding.

City fire inspectors filed three violation notices between April 9, 2003, and April 30, 2004, saying that the company's lumber complex at 800 W. Idaho St. does not have an adequate sprinkler system.

Without adequate sprinklers, the lumberyard presents a major fire hazard and should be vacated, fire officials say.

The lumberyard disagrees and is taking its case to the council.

All sides discussed Monday what sort of communications would be allowed prior to the hearing when the council is in a quasi-judicial - not legislative - mode.

Council members discussed where the fuzzy line exists between its legislative functions, in which communication with anyone is routine and legal, and quasi-judicial functions, where legal restrictions limit communication.

This distinction gets blurred in land-use issues. No concrete conclusions were reached.

Also Monday, the council discussed a proposed potential swap of a city parking lot with some downtown land owned by Valley Bank. The parking lot is at the northwest corner of Main and Third Streets. The Valley Bank land that could be swapped is one block south of its main building.

The bank's main building is a roughly 8,000-square-foot former Safeway store that Valley Bank bought and converted in 1964. The cramped bank wants to expand to a 13,000- to 15,000-square-foot structure. Bank officials are looking at expanding the current building or constructing a bigger one, likely downtown.

Council members said they want to keep Valley Bank downtown, but they wanted the bank to brief them more in detail about what it wants to do.