Council considers rival plan for growth
The Daily Inter Lake
The Kalispell City Council will be briefed today on the city staff's study of a proposed grass-roots plan to change the city's northward growth policy.
No decisions will be allowed at the 7 p.m. workshop session at City Hall.
A new organization - Town Champions - spearheaded by Kalispell residents Roxanna Brothers and Jo Ann Nieman - is circulating two petitions that each need 2,653 signatures by Dec. 26 to set up a November 2007 public vote on a proposal to replace the city's recent changes to its northward growth policy.
If the petitions each collect 4,421 signatures, the matter will go to an earlier public vote with mail-in ballots.
One petition is to revoke the city's policy changes through a referendum and the second petition calls for a yes-or-no vote on the Town Champions' substitute policy.
On Aug. 7, the council changed its growth policy to address almost 13 square miles north of West Reserve Drive, east of the Stillwater river, south of a line roughly defined by Church Drive and Birch Grove Road, and west of U.S. 2.
In broad strokes, the policy proposes that northward industrial growth be kept close to West Reserve Drive, with housing and small neighborhood commercial spots earmarked for that area. Consequently, developers in this currently rural area - who want the area to be annexed for Kalispell's water and sewer services - will be heavily pressured to meet Kalispell's growth-planning goals.
The controversial segment is 600 acres - dubbed "KN-1" - near the northeast corner of West Reserve Drive and U.S. 93. The majority of that land is controlled by developer Bucky Wolford, who has proposed to build an enclosed 735,000-square-foot shopping mall and a 350,000-square-foot retail center there, as well as earmarking 80 acres for other commercial development and 56 acres for a mix of homes and offices.
The city's revised growth policy allows as many as 270 acres of those 600 acres to be used for commercial development, plus another 150 acres for a mix of residential, commercial, office and industrial uses.
Meanwhile, Town Champions' proposal largely mirrors the city's policy - except for the KN-1 area.
The group's proposed changes would restrict commercial development to 36 acres of the 600-acre site and would limit any commercial building or set of connected commercial buildings to a maximum of 60,000 square feet.
The initiative also calls for any annexation to be studied for its long-term and short-term effects on jobs, taxes, city services and businesses in Kalispell.
ALSO TODAY, the council will be briefed on potential impact fees on new buildings that could be charged for police and fire protection.
An advisory committee has been researching that subject, which is similar to a new storm-water drainage impact fee and modified water and sewer impacts fees that the council recently approved.
An impact fee is a one-time charge against a new house or new building absorbed by Kalispell, through construction or annexation, to offset the cost of the city having to provide extra services because of it.