Kalispell City Council

Residents steer talk to traffic concerns

Several residents with homes along narrow Northern Lights Boulevard asked the Kalispell City Council on Monday to improve the road to address the heavy traffic.

"Our goat trail of a street is getting more and more dangerous every day. … There's too much traffic on that road right now," said Greta Duncan, one of the residents.

The 18-foot-wide two-way street with no sidewalks is part of the traffic detour during the massive upgrades under way on Meridian Road, which is a major north-south artery. That detour is expected to remain until summer.

The detour also has increased the number of trucks along Northern Lights Boulevard, which rarely had them when Meridian Road was open. The boulevard also is a popular route for children going to and from Kalispell Junior High School.

The residents want the city to upgrade and widen this road. However, only a few feet are on each side of the street to accommodate widening.

Police officers have increased their presence along the road during heavy traffic times, issuing so many tickets for stop-sign violations that the department is getting complaints, police Chief Frank Garner said. Speeding is not a problem because of the street's narrow width and heavy traffic, he said.

Garner suggested that the residents wait until Meridian Road reopens and see whether the problems on Northern Lights Boulevard diminish. If not, the issue can be re-addressed, he said.

Also at Monday's workshop session - in which decisions are not allowed legally - the council:

-Received a trial balloon from the owners of 8.7 acres of land east of the north end of Hathaway Lane. Lee and Linda Hershberger wanted to see whether the council is inclined to reverse a 2005 rejection of a proposed subdivision there, which would have been annexed into Kalispell.

The Hershbergers want to build houses on 21 lots of Flathead County land, of which one corner barely touches Kalispell. The Hershbergers want to annex the land into Kalispell and hook up to the city's utilities.

In 2005 and on Monday, several Hathaway Lane residents opposed the subdivision because its sole entrance would be through Hathaway Lane. That would increase traffic on Hathaway Lane, which forms a T intersection with U.S. 2. Residents said the extra traffic would increase the danger to cars turning from U.S. 2 onto Hathaway Lane and from Hathaway Lane onto U.S. 2.

Hathaway Lane is also outside of Kalispell.

The Hershbergers recently obtained a Montana Department of Transportation letter that said the intersection - in its present state - would not become more dangerous with cars from 21 new homes regularly using it. The Hershbergers presented this letter to get a feel for whether the council would be more receptive this year to the proposed subdivision and annexation.

Some council members wondered whether the state Transportation Department covered all the appropriate intersection traffic scenarios. Other than that, council members gave no obvious clues about how they feel about reopening this issue.

"It's kind of back in your court if you want to do something," council member Duane Larson told the Hershbergers.