Planning Board backs pre-release facility
The Kalispell Planning Board voted Tuesday night in favor of a 40-bed pre-release center for male offenders at the old Montana Department of Health and Human Services building at 2282 U.S. 93 South.
The board will recommend that the City Council re-zone the 1.78 acre site from general business to public use and issue a conditional-use permit for the facility's operation.
"I think for the public good we need it," said planning board member C.M. Clark. "I don't know where else we'd put it."
The planning board passed the measure above the objections of nearby business owners and tentative concerns from some board members about maintenance standards, the potential of future expansion, and other siting possibilities.
But future expansion would require public approval and the permission of the city, according to Community, Counseling and Correctional Services CEO Mike Thatcher.
Community, Counseling and Correctional Services is the Butte-based nonprofit that in December was awarded the state contract to operate the planned Kalispell facility,
"I think this is the most attractive site," said Thatcher, whose nonprofit has already taken a 'significant" financial risk in seed money for the building.
Other sites proposed in bids rejected by the Department of Corrections are all in south Kalispell near U.S. 93 and within about a mile of each other, the board heard.
The Montana Department of Corrections requires that pre-release centers - which provide an alternative to direct release from prison and provide supervision as inmates readjust to society - be placed in areas with access to city sewer and water. Law enforcement and ambulance response times must also be within a certain limit.
City zoning restrictions and siting constraints imposed by a local 12-member working committee bar the facility from being built in residential areas or next to schools, said Kalispell planning director Tom Jentz.
The working committee was appointed jointly by the city and county in January 2008 and tasked with determining whether public support for the project and the proposed location exists.
Pre-release center residents generally aren't allowed to drive, necessitating proximity to job centers and public transportation, further restricting siting options.
The planning board recommended that City Council approval of the pre-release site be subject to certain conditions - including reorienting some of the parking spaces and modifying the landscaping.
Thatcher said Community, Counseling and Correctional Services is prepared to spend $3 million to renovate the 12,750-square-foot building that formerly housed the Department of Health and Human Services offices and to add a 4,750-square-foot outbuilding for shower, kitchen, and laundry services.
"The design… would very much look like the existing building itself," Jentz said.
The city also would require Community, Counseling and Correctional Services to begin the project within 18 months and to make a payment in lieu of taxes to the city for the facility's impact on routine uses of city services. The operation would be tax-exempt if it were owned by a nonprofit.
Final action on the proposals is tentatively set for the City Council's April 6 meeting, but could be pushed back if a work session with council members is scheduled.
If the City Council approves the zoning changes and conditional-use permit, it will commission Montana State University-Billings to conduct a survey of everyone within a half-mile radius of the old Department of Health and Human Services building.
The project will proceed only if the working committee determines the survey reflects community support for the proposed site.
During the time scheduled for public comment, the board heard mixed opinions on the proposed site from residents and nearby business owners.
"I just think being the main artery into Kalispell, there's got to be a better location," said Vaughn Penrod, who owns Penco Power Products with his brother, Kirk. Penco is located immediately south of the proposed site.
"I don't think it fits," he said.
The board also heard objections to the proposed site from a person representing the owner of two adjacent vacant lots, who was concerned the presence of a pre-release center would make the land harder to develop, and the manager of Murdoch's Ranch and Home Supply.
Representatives from Swank Enterprises and Jackola Engineering and Architecture, which is located next to the proposed site, spoke in support of the project. Both firms are expected to receive building contracts from Community, Counseling and Correctional Services.
Flathead County has about 1,300 people in the state corrections system - the fourth highest of any county in Montana. Lake and Lincoln counties contribute another 650 offenders.
During the past seven years, more than 900 offenders from Flathead County have spent time in pre-release centers at Missoula, Bozeman, Butte, Billings, Helena and Great Falls.
Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com