Differences emerging over plans for U.S. 93

Will highway segment go commercial? Decision by planners may take awhile

On paper, the planning boards for Kalispell and Flathead County have different long-range visions for U.S. 93 just north of the city.

A county-oriented proposal visualizes a commercial strip along the west side of U.S. 93 between Church Drive and Tronstad Road.

An evolving draft city plan wants to limit that same land to single-family residential use.

However, at a Tuesday meeting of the Kalispell board, Planning Director Tom Jentz said the city has contacted some - but not all - of the landowners along that strip and was told that those contacted didn't have long-range plans for commercial development on their lands.

Kalispell planners are putting together a long-range growth policy extending roughly three miles north of the current city limits, which straddle Reserve Drive. The Planning Department hopes to have that policy ready for public hearings by late spring.

City government expects Kalispell to slowly expand north as individual landowners seek annexation into the town - an expansion expected to take many years.

The evolving growth policy will map out housing types and other developments that the city wants if and when a given area is annexed.

In general terms, the potential policy leans toward a mix of industrial uses; spread-out single-family homes; more densely packed single-family homes, duplexes and multi-family buildings; and some light commercial and office uses between Reserve Drive and a line roughly following Rose Crossing if it extended to US. 93.

Between that line and a line roughly following Church Drive and Birch Grove Road, the city's Planning Board leans toward limiting that area to single-family houses, with no more than four an acre.

Tiny commercial zones - along the lines of convenience stores and gas stations - would be allowed at some intersections.

The board wants to keep commercial development away from almost all of U.S. 93 North between West Reserve Drive and Church Drive. And it wants grassy buffer zones between the highway and housing subdivisions on either side. The board also wants to limit roads branching off U.S. 93.

Meanwhile, a group of farmers and other landowners northwest of Kalispell have mapped out the proposed 3,800-acre Riverdale Neighborhood Plan to guide potential development when they sell their lands - possibly several years from now - when they retire or decide farming has become too unprofitable.

Most of the Riverdale region is outside the area into which Kalispell expects eventually to expand, and it is to be set aside for housing construction.

Also, the proposed Riverdale plan sees the west side of U.S. 93 - between Tronstad Road and Majestic Arena - as a strip that would not prohibit commercial development with a landscape buffer between it and the highway.

The city's long-term expansion policy does not address U.S. 93 between Church Drive and Majestic Arena.

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