Board to study urban renewal plan

A proposal to overhaul about 60 blocks of north-central Kalispell is going to the Kalispell Planning Board for 60 days of extra study.

The City Council voted 7-1 Monday to send the proposed master plan to the Planning Board with council member Bob Hafferman dissenting. Council member Tim Kluesner was absent.

The area is an east-west strip that straddles the railroad tracks that slice through the northern downtown section.

So far, the plan is fairly general and notes some subjects to be tackled. But specific details have not been hammered out.

The plan has several facets, including tearing down some structures, fixing up others, stressing affordable housing, removing the tracks to create a park, and improving downtown traffic flows. An overall cleanup of the area also is proposed.

The plan calls for Cenex to be moved to Evergreen to eliminate the need for the BNSF Railway tracks.

It also recommends that Flathead County's main library be kept downtown. The library is looking at moving out of its current cramped building.

The plan further recommends that a tax-increment finance district be considered for this area. Under this concept, property taxes collected above a certain amount are set aside to pay for future capital improvements in the district.

Hafferman argued that the proposal will stigmatize homes owned by low-income people and could price them out of a revamped neighborhood. He noted that a similar plan to help Kalispell Center Mall expand to the north never produced that result.

And he is philosophically opposed to tax-increment-financing districts, arguing they are slush funds for future unnamed ventures.

Other council members argued that the proposal could accomplish much for that area.

"If a tenth of this could be accomplished, it would be a good project," council member Wayne Saverud said.

Although council member Duane Larson supported the proposed plan, he agreed with Hafferman in worrying about low-income people being displaced from their homes in that area.

Also Monday, the council:

n Voted 8-0 to annex 10.2 acres owned by New Vistas Assisted Living along the south side of Three Mile Drive, with the land earmarked for an assisted-living complex. The council also gave preliminary approval to low-density residential apartment zoning on that site to allow three to 12 home units per acre.

n Voted 8-0 to support the Missoula-based Sparrow Group's request for federal tax credits for the second 33 units of a 66-unit apartment complex being built on Appleway Drive west of its intersection with South Meridian Road.

The first 33-unit section is expected to be finished in the spring and also has federal approval for tax credits.