Questions arise about whether public had time to review project

Questions surfaced at a Tuesday Kalispell Planning Board meeting whether the city's staff gave the public adequate time to study the huge, complicated Starling housing project prior to a public hearing.

Some West Valley residents said the information was too much to absorb in the 15 days that one copy was available for the public in the city's planning office. An electronic copy was put on the planning department's Web site about a week ago.

The city staff and planning board said the planning department met the legal requirements for providing information to the public. Board members noted that the Starling project in general has been heavily publicized for months.

But they added that improvements should be explored to help the public study thick planning documents with adequate time prior to government action, especially since many people work from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. when the planning office is open.

"If we don't have the information out there, it breeds negativity. It breeds suspicion," said board member Bryan Schutt.