Public hearing ahead for Town Center

Project returns to council Jan. 7

The dispute is nominally over two traffic lights, but the lights are just one symptom of a bigger issue concerning the proposed Glacier Town Center mall-and-housing complex.

That's the future overall traffic flow in, out and through a new major chunk of northern Kalispell.

Some Kalispell City Council members said Monday they don't want U.S. 93 to bear the brunt of Glacier Town Center's traffic, saying the flow should be spread out.

Traffic on Whitefish Stage Road also was brought out as a concern.

The council plans to hold a public hearing on the overall Glacier Town Center project on Jan. 7, but does not plan to make any decisions then.

If annexed, Glacier Town Center would be the core of the part of Kalispell that will grow north of West Reserve Drive.

The 485-acre site's developer, Wolford Development Montana, briefed the Kalispell City Council about its plans at a Monday workshop session - which included raising points where the developer disagreed with the city's planning staff and Planning Board.

The major disagreements are both traffic-related.

One is whether traffic lights should go on two of three new access roads extending east from U.S. 93 into Glacier Town Center. Wolford Development wants the lights. The planning staff and Planning Board have qualms about the lights affecting traffic flow on U.S. 93, although the board split on how to address the matter.

The second is how many access roads should enter the site from the north. Wolford Development wants four. The city planning staff and Planning Board recommend six.

Glacier Town Center is located north of West Reserve Drive, east of U.S. 93 and west of Whitefish Stage Road.

The project's centerpiece is to be a 577,000-square-foot outdoors shopping complex, anchored by three buildings of roughly 100,000 square feet each. The project also calls for 632 new homes. And Wolford is hunting for a grocery store that would become the only one in Kalispell north of Idaho Street.

The Planning Board and developer more or less agree on the proposed zoning, zoning modifications and most of the preliminary plans for the project, which is expected to take to at least 2020 to finish.

However, Glacier Town Center is a major piece in a traffic-flow puzzle emerging north of West Reserve Drive. The other pieces include:

. Rose Crossing would be extended west from Whitefish Stage Road to U.S. 93 as a major arterial road.

. The already annexed Valley Ranch subdivision just north of Glacier Town Center likely would include 200 to 300 homes.

Previously, the city staff limited Valley Ranch to one intersection with U.S. 93 - one that would allow only northbound traffic to enter and leave that subdivision.

If the staff sticks with that requirement, that will funnel the majority of Valley Ranch's traffic through either Rose Crossing or Glacier Town Center.

The city staff wants six or seven Valley Ranch streets to connect with Rose Crossing - which is the basis for its recommendation for six northern access roads into Glacier Town Center. The idea is to provide additional north-south through streets in this segment of Kalispell between Whitefish Stage Road and U.S. 93.

Wolford Development's traffic engineer, Kathleen Krager of Denver-based Krager & Associates, said the developer's studies included Valley Ranch traffic and concluded that four northern access roads are best for Glacier Town Center.

. Whitefish Stage Road would have to be widened to accommodate turn lanes for Rose Crossing and another eastside access road into Glacier Town Center. Council member Wayne Saverud voiced concern about increasing traffic on the narrow Whitefish Stage Road.

. Glacier Town Center also would have a southern access road connecting with West Reserve Drive and two southeastern access road linking with the Semitool plant's area.

. An extended Rose Crossing and two new streets south of it would be built to provide the access roads from U.S. 93 into Glacier Town Center.

The Kalispell Planning Board and its staff have long called for the fewest traffic lights possible between West Reserve Drive and Whitefish.

That's because the eventual U.S. 93 bypass around western Kalispell would connect with U.S. 93 at West Reserve Drive. And the board wants fast, unimpeded traffic to flow between Whitefish and the bypass.

But Wolford Development wants traffic lights at Rose Crossing and the southernmost U.S. 93 access road to help vehicles enter and leave Glacier Town Center's west side. Krager said Wolford Development's proposal would lead to the least traffic delays entering and leaving that section of U.S. 93.

Wolford Development submitted its traffic recommendations to the Montana Department of Transportation for review. While the state did not do its own study on the Glacier Town Center-U.S. 93 traffic light situation, it concluded that Wolford Development's traffic calculations appeared solid, agency spokeswoman Charity Watt Levis said.

The Planning Board split on what its own traffic-light recommendation should be, and punted that issue to the City Council.

Several traffic light and intersection scenarios are currently in play for the council's eventual decision.

On Monday, Mayre Flowers, executive director of Citizens for a Better Flathead, requested that the council:

. Study the cumulative effects of all of the new northern Kalispell housing and commercial subdivisions on traffic flows on Whitefish Stage Road, U.S. 93 and other area streets.

. Seek funding to build a Rose Crossing overpass or underpass with U.S. 93.

. Put Kalispell's long-delayed street impact fees in place.

Each new house and commercial building in Kalispell would pay a one-time fee to help fund road improvements needed to serve the newly constructed or newly annexed buildings.

The road impact fees likely will be steep for commercial buildings, with payments increasing with a building's size and its likelihood to draw traffic.

A committee is studying proposed fees and is expected to present recommended fees to the council in January or February.

That committee already presented a set of fees to the council several months ago. But the council balked at what some huge commercial buildings would be charged, and sent the matter back to the committee.

A road impact fee would be assessed when a building permit is granted. City officials believe that the first building permit for Glacier Town Center is several months in the future.

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