How many roads, how many stoplights?

Town Center traffic questions dominate hearing

Two proposed traffic lights dominated a Monday public hearing on how a 485-acre mall-and-housing project should be set up.

Little else was discussed at the Kalispell City Council meeting.

"For you, the crux of the matter is how to handle traffic on [U.S.] 93," Kalispell Planning Board chairman Bryan Schutt told the council.

At a yet-to-be-set date, the council will begin discussing whether to annex Glacier Town Center north of West Reserve Drive and east of U.S. 93, plus how the project should be laid out.

Monday's hearing was the latest episode in what has become an eight-year saga.

Wolford Development, now known as Wolford Development Montana, first proposed a shopping mall in January 2000. What began as a concept for an indoor shopping mall has changed over the past eight years into Glacier Town Center.

The centerpiece is to be a 577,000-square-foot outdoors shopping complex anchored by three 100,000-square-foot stores.

The project also calls for 632 new housing units. Wolford Development also is hunting for a grocery store that could be built in three or four years - a grocery store that would become the only one in Kalispell north of Idaho Street.

At full build-out, the project would have 1.823 million square feet of office and commercial space, 282 single-family houses, 150 townhouses, 200 apartments and 72 acres of parks.

About 60 people showed up at Monday's council hearing.

Twenty-six people spoke. They included five Wolford Development Montana representatives, two Citizens for a Better Flathead speakers, and one official each from the Kalispell Planning Board, Kalispell Area Chamber of Commerce and the Flathead Business and Industry Association.

No one opposed the mall or most of Glacier Town Center's preliminary plans. Many praised the overall project. Some called for slower deliberations on some aspects.

The biggest dispute focuses on three access roads that would connect U.S. 93 with the proposed mall to the east.

Wolford Development wants to install traffic lights on two of the three proposed intersections.

One would be at Rose Crossing after it is extended west from Whitefish Stage Road. The other would be on the southernmost of the three access roads.

However, some people want to keep traffic lights off that stretch of U.S. 93, arguing for a nonstop, high-speed highway between West Reserve Drive and Whitefish.

At the hearing, two people besides Wolford Development's representatives spoke in favor of installing the two lights.

Eight people - including Schutt and two Citizens for a Better Flathead representatives - opposed the lights. Although they support most of the Wolford project, Planning Board members are leery about installing traffic lights on U.S. 93, but could not agree on a Plan B.

The Chamber of Commerce and business association took no positions on the lights. Several other people spoke about traffic concerns, but took no clear positions on the lights.

Schutt cited Spokane, Coeur d'Alene and Missoula as cities where commercial areas ended up snarling traffic on major arterial highways.

"Once we give up the free-flowing character of the highway, we'll never get it back … If we don't set the line here, what are we going to say to the next developer who wants traffic lights?" Schutt said.

Rod McKeever said U.S. 93 "is supposed to move people," arguing that shoppers should use side roads to get to the mall.

Brian Beck countered: "Stoplights aren't going to kill anybody … So what if we have to slow down a little bit?"

Schutt said Kalispell's long-range growth plans call for U.S. 93 to be a limited access, high-speed highway between Whitefish and West Reserve Drive.

Ken Kalvig, an attorney for Wolford Development, argued that the growth plans don't specifically forbid traffic lights on U.S. 93 north of West Reserve Drive.

The developer's traffic engineer, Kathleen Krager, said several side roads intersect U.S. 93 between Kalispell and Whitefish - meaning it currently is not a limited access highway.

Also at Monday's hearing:

. Four people called for an independent consultant to be brought in to look at the U.S. 93 situation.

Some council members liked that idea. But they could not figure out how to do that in a timely manner, especially with questions on who would pay for that consultant.

Wolford Development has paid for its own U.S. 93 traffic study. Although it did not do its own study, the Montana Department of Transportation did not find anything wrong with the Wolford study conclusions.

City Manager Jim Patrick said he is thinking about meeting with the state transportation department during the next several days to discuss its views on the Glacier Town Center traffic situation.

But council member Bob Hafferman discouraged that move, contending that a council public hearing is a quasi-judicial proceeding in which non-hearing input is strictly limited, if not forbidden. Patrick said he would think about that interpretation.

. No one from the public spoke about a difference of opinion between the Planning Board and Wolford Development on how many access roads should enter the north side of Glacier Town Center from a lengthened Rose Crossing.

The Planning Board wants six access roads. Wolford Development wants four.

. B.J. Carlson - representing the North 93 Neighbors group that challenged Wolford's initial mall plans and then reached a compromise with the corporation - discussed an agreement in which Wolford will donate five acres in the middle of Glacier Town Center for some type of community facility.

The roads leading to that site are scheduled to be built in Glacier Town Center's third phase, which is scheduled to be tackled about 2014. Carlson contended that those access roads should be built in the first construction phase, likely to end in 2010.

. Doug Rauthe, who belongs to the Housing Affordability Ladder (a local coalition seeking new homes for $150,000 or less in the Flathead) said the group and Wolford Development have begun talks.

. Mayre Flowers, executive director of Citizens for a Better Flathead, argued that the city should adopt its forthcoming transportation plan plus road impact fees before approving Glacier Town Center's preliminary plans.

With road impact fees, new houses and commercial buildings would be charged one-time fees to pay for creating or expanding roads to serve them.

A city committee is expected to have road fee recommendations ready in January or February. Commercial buildings are expected to pay high road impact fees.

. Five people supported putting an overpass-type of intersection instead of a traffic light at U.S. 93 and Rose Crossing.

They contended that Wolford Development should pay for part of such an interchange.

However, Wolford Development representatives said they did not believe such an interchange is the best solution. They also argued it could cripple the project financially.

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