City wants more input for urban renewal plan

With three open houses scheduled, Kalispell city officials say they want more public input to help flesh out the recently expanded West Side Urban Renewal Plan.

The first open house is tonight.

“There’s no large presentation, just an opportunity for people to share information and get feedback,” Community Development Manager Katharine Thompson said of the open houses.

The city wants feedback and ideas from property owners in a Core Revitalization Area that runs from the western city limit to the eastern city limit, bordered to the north by Washington Street and to the south by Center Street.

“There’s been a lot of under-investment in that area over the last 25 years,” Thompson said. “We want to know what the community would like that area to look like, and what kind of development the city should be encouraging in that area.”

Open houses will run from 4-7 p.m. in council chambers at Kalispell City Hall and have been scheduled for tonight and Monday and Tuesday.

The Core Revitalization Area covers about 1,100 parcels and more than 400 property owners who should have received a city mailing informing them of the open houses.

As part of the expansion of the West Side Urban Renewal Plan, city planning staff interviewed about 80 property owners.

“We’re opening it up to the greater community,” Planning Director Tom Jentz said.

The renewal plan’s boundary was expanded to include the Flathead County Fairgrounds and a 1.3-mile block of land that runs along the railroad tracks from Seventh Avenue West to the eastern city limit.

The plan identifies more than a dozen instances of blight that city staff found in the expansion area, from a rundown-looking county fairgrounds to spotty sidewalks, old infrastructure and vacant properties.

It also spells out some new goals and programs to improve the area.

Goals include removing the railroad tracks, improving street connectivity in areas split by the tracks, installing new sidewalks, improving the fairgrounds, replacing aging water and sewer lines, cleaning up suspected Brownfield sites and redeveloping nearly 19 acres of vacant lots and buildings.

Following the public feedback, the city plans to hire a consultant to draw up concepts and “start putting some life and color to what solutions could look like,” Jentz said.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.