Businesses oppose plan for median

A proposed landscaped median on U.S. 93 in south Whitefish has drawn a consensus from business owners along the highway - they don't like it.

"I'm absolutely against it," Bob DePratu said at a meeting Tuesday morning organized by the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce.

DePratu, owner of the DePratu Ford Volkswagen dealership, said he regards the median plan as a taking of property because it doesn't allow southbound left-hand turns into Wright's Furniture, his next-door neighbor.

"To get to Wright's, traffic would have to drive through our lot and we would have to turn our display area into a street, and that constitutes a taking," DePratu said.

The city has a committee working on the median project, which so far is a concept with no available funding.

The proposed greenbelt dividing the four-lane highway coming into Whitefish from the south - between Montana 40 and 13th Street - is a city-driven project. It's not affiliated with the Montana Department of Transportation, but the state highway commission ultimately would need to approve it.

Former City Council member Doug Adams, a landscaper by trade, is spearheading the effort. He said studies have shown that medians make a highway safer because it eliminates "suicide lanes." He also maintains the median, with attractive trees and shrubs, would create a showcase at one of Whitefish's most-traveled entrances.

SEVERAL Whitefish business owners disputed the safety argument.

Jeff Jensen of Whitefish RV Park and Holiday Plaza said he doesn't believe allowing U-turns for those who need to backtrack to a business is safe. "I don't understand how it could be safer," he said. "Connecting parking lots [to use as makeshift frontage roads] would be an unsafe situation."

Jensen said he remembers when the medians were removed at the Montana 40 and U.S. 93 junction because of numerous accidents.

Recreational vehicles often travel in caravans, Jensen said, and stacking them up in traffic or having them backtrack could be a problem.

Rocky Mountain Lodge would have access only for vehicles traveling south, yet most visitor traffic is northbound into Whitefish.

"If we don't get different cut-outs, our property values may go down," Rocky Mountain Lodge general manager Dennis Drumheller said.

Chalet Motel owner Dale Dennis echoed Drumheller's concerns, noting a fair amount of motel business is generated from drive-by traffic. Without proper access, motels stand to lose business, he said.

Don Kaltschmidt of Don K Chevrolet serves on the median committee because the city wanted U.S. 93 South businesses represented.

"I tried to go in with an open mind," he said. "But I can't figure out a way that it would work. I haven't talked to one business that's for it."

Adams said he's surprised at the amount of negative reaction and maintains the added aesthetics and safety "outweigh the cons.

"Anytime there's anything new, people fight it because they're fearful of what the results might be," Adams said. "They ought to look at other towns and cities because this is done all over the place."

Adams said businesses could work together to connect parking lots, and such shared connections, along with a slower highway speed limit, would benefit business owners.

"I'd venture to say the great majority wouldn't be negatively affected," he said.

A decade ago, city officials envisioned a raised, landscaped highway median, but the state wouldn't consider it until average daily traffic was roughly 30,000 vehicles. That figure is "fairly subjective," Whitefish Public Works Director John Wilson said.

Traffic on U.S. 93 South is still somewhat less than 30,000 daily vehicle trips.

Business owners were opposed to medians back then, too, as plans were finalized for the U.S. 93 rebuild in that area. A 1992 Daily Inter Lake article noted a stormy City Council meeting during which business owners argued medians would complicate access and hurt business.

Instead of pursuing the median, the city in 1998 embarked on an extensive landscaping plan that created winding sidewalks and ornamental greenery along both sides of U.S. 93 south to Montana 40. The city paid half of the $700,000 project and property owners were assessed the other half through a special improvement district.

Part of the new committee's work will be getting support from business and property owners along the highway corridor. Funding also needs to be found; the project would cost more than $1 million.

The project currently is at a standstill because there's no money to hire a consultant to help the city work through state requirements, Adams said.

"If the council can find a way to fund it, we can move forward," he said.

Three public hearings will be required once the project solidifies.

The chamber is gathering input from business owners to present to the City Council at its Nov. 19 meeting.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com