Council OKs pre-release zoning

The Kalispell City Council voted Monday night to allow a 40-bed prison pre-release center for men in the old Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services building at 2282 U.S. 93 South.

Despite continued opposition from adjacent business owners, an ordinance rezoning the 1.78-acre site from general business to public use passed its final reading by a vote of 6-3.

"These people are coming here anyway. They come back to family and friends," council member Hank Olson said. "They are low-level offenders who, with some help, hopefully can become good citizens again."

Two motions to delay the vote, one until a state study on the site is completed and one until two other potential locations are considered, were defeated.

"I don't have any other choices … and I can't in good conscience accept this site because it's the only one proposed to me," said council member Tim Kluesner, who supports the concept of a pre-release center in Kalispell but not the proposed location. "I think the community deserves to come up to speed with the rest of us … and that's going to take a little more time."

The bid accepted by the Montana Department of Corrections to run the facility included only one proposed site.

However, sites proposed in other bids rejected by the department all are in south Kalispell near U.S. 93 and within about a mile of each other. Several bidders considered the Department of Public Health and Human Services building.

Community, Counseling and Correctional Services - the Butte-based nonprofit that in December was awarded the state contract to operate the planned Kalispell facility - is prepared to spend $3 million to renovate the 12,750-square-foot building.

The firm plans to add a 4,750-square-foot outbuilding for shower, kitchen and laundry services.

Kluesner was joined in his opposition to the rezoning by council members Wayne Saverud and Robert Hafferman.

"My objection is to the process used to essentially subvert our zoning regulations," Hafferman said. "We subverted the rules in order to satisfy a government entity. I don't think this is right."

Several south Kalispell business and land owners, who long have opposed the proposed location, spoke against the site on Monday.

"We should be heard. I would ask that you do hear us," said Vaughn Penrod, who has argued that a pre-release center doesn't fit with the city's stated vision for development in south Kalispell.

Penrod and his brother Kirk own Penco Power Products immediately south of the proposed pre-release center.

The representative of a nearby landowner voiced concerns about decreased property values and the owner of commercial property on nearby Kelly Road spoke about competition for scarce jobs.

"Our own law-abiding citizens should not have to compete with convicted felons for jobs," said Mickey Lapp, who has said she has already had one potential client decline to rent because of fear that work trucks would be vandalized.

Kalispell attorney Rich DeJana, who has been retained by the Penrods, said Monday the site-selection process violated state rules. He said a local working committee, not the company bidding to run the facility, is supposed to select the site.

DeJana, who said Helena officials considered six sites before settling on a location for their pre-release center, said he expects to send a letter addressing the problem to the Department of Corrections and does not know if litigation will follow.

"What I want you to hear me say is, don't punish my clients or the rest of the neighborhood with the perceptions this facility creates," DeJana told the council.

Monday's vote came after council members approved a conditional-use permit for the facility's operation on April 6.

Before the project proceeds, a local working committee (appointed jointly by the city and county in January 2008) must find that an independent survey of residents within a half-mile of the currently empty building shows support for the proposed site.

The first portion of the survey, which is being conducted by Montana State University-Billings, already is under way, said Bonnie Olson, Flathead County District Court administrator and the chairwoman of the committee.

The exterior of the main building will remain much the same, the council heard Monday.

Community, Counseling and Correctional Services will be required to reorient some of the facility's parking spaces, modify the landscaping, and make a payment in lieu of local taxes to the city for the tax-exempt nonprofit's impact on city services.

Pre-release centers hold inmates nearing the end of their prison sentences and help them readjust gradually into society. Flathead County, which contributes a significant number of offenders into the state corrections system, is the only large county in Montana without a pre-release center.

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com