Give us affordablehousing

The majority of central Kalispell's residents believe that the town needs houses available for less than $150,000.

A city of Kalispell survey showed that 70 percent of 1,751 responses contend the city's biggest housing need is providing homes for less than $150,000.

Surveyed people also said the greatest barrier to owning a local home is the down payment.

And at least 50 percent of the responses from renters said they are interested in programs to help them buy homes.

Kalispell's community development department - which conducted the survey - discussed those results with about a dozen people Tuesday at a forum on improving the section of town roughly straddling the BNSF Railway.

A second forum is scheduled at 7 p.m. today at the United Way office in the Gateway West Mall.

The survey's purpose was to provide feedback to the city government as it considers upgrading homes and businesses in the downtown area.

The city wants to attempt some type of formal revitalization effort for that area.

In rough terms, this area could be described as several blocks south and southwest of Kalispell Center Mall, the area north of the mall up to Washington Street, and the area straddling the lightly used railroad track from the city's eastern edge to where it ends west of the mall. The mall itself would not be part of the zone.

The city hopes to map out some plans for this area by next spring.

The city mailed out about 6,000 survey forms to homes stretching from the east side to west side of central and north-central Kalispell. And 1,751 forms were returned.

The actual proposed revitalization area holds 1,877 people in 961 homes.

In that area, 49 percent of the homes are single-family houses, while the overall city's homes are 60 percent single-family houses.

Also, 38 percent of the proposed area's homes are occupied by owners, while the citywide percentage is 56 percent.

The single-family house and owner-occupied percentages drop west of Meridian Road, and increase south of the proposed revitalization area.

The proposed revitalization area is envisioned as continuing its current mix of businesses and homes, with no one being forced to move elsewhere, city officials said.

On Tuesday, people attending the forum and city officials viewed Kalispell's lack of "affordable housing" as a major economic obstacle to this area and elsewhere in the Flathead.

"I don't think we as a community can stand by and condone people living in substandard housing," City Manager Jim Patrick said.

Local housing experts note that Flathead County's median income is $49,000 annually - meaning half of the workers earn more and half earn less. House-buying formulas say a family earning $49,000 a year can afford to buy a home worth up to $150,000.

Houses selling for $150,000 or less are rare in Flathead County.

And local developers usually build houses in the $160,000-to-$225,000 range as their cheapest offerings.

People at Tuesday's forum offered suggestions on housing and economic development issues for the proposed revitalization area, including: n Increasing housing density as a way of cutting construction costs.

. Constructing three-, four-, or five-story buildings to hold homes.

. Having the city and BNSF Railroad remove the track poking into north downtown, and putting a ribbon-like park with bike paths in its place. Such a move would require relocating at least two businesses west of the Kalispell Center Mall that rely on that track.

. Setting up a program where people can use "sweat equity" to raise a down payment to buy a house. Sweat equity would include efforts to remodel or upgrade a house being sold.

. Setting up community land trusts in which a nonprofit organization would own land, and a family would buy a house on top of that land. That would remove land costs from the house's price.

. Relaxing the city's parking restrictions to help businesses in that zone.

. Converting the proposed revitalization area into a tax-increment financing district. Under this concept, property taxes collected above a certain amount are set aside and used exclusively to boost development in that district.

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