Hockaday rezoning supported

The Daily Inter Lake

The Kalispell Planning Board recommended Tuesday that four lots on Second Avenue East owned by the Hockaday Museum of Art be rezoned from residential use to public use.

If the City Council approves that rezoning, the museum plans eventually to expand its 8,400-square-foot building by 13,000 square feet.

Currently, the Hockaday is on the northernmost two lots on the west side of Second Avenue East between Third and Fourth Streets East.

The museum also owns two lots immediately to the south that currently hold houses.

The Hockaday is not big enough to display a huge segment of its Montana and American Indian paintings, sculptures, pottery and other items.

And it lacks room to sufficiently handle children's art programs and school field trips, according to Lucy Smith, the museum's executive director.

Consequently, the museum wants to tear down the two houses to build more museum space and a parking lot.

The expansion's estimated cost is $5.6 million.

The city of Kalispell is making a $5.6 million request for federal stimulus money to expand the museum. However, the museum is not assuming the federal money will materialize.

The Hockaday has raised roughly $500,000 so far. But it has not begun intense fundraising yet.

The museum's tentative timetable calls for the two houses to be demolished, the parking lot to be built, and some landscaping - including a possible gazebo - to be tackled on the south side of the current museum building this year.

The landscaping and gazebo are placeholder measures until money is raised to expand the museum. New construction might begin in possibly three years.