Urban renewal plan expansion gathers support

The Kalispell City Council heard from several people who said they support expanding the West Side Urban Renewal Plan during a public hearing Monday night.

The council took no action but will hold a workshop to consider the public comment.

“The plan is a good plan and we support the goals as working goals,” said Joe Unterreiner, president of the Kalispell Chamber of Commerce.

The original West Side Urban Renewal Plan dates back to the 1990s. The development document is meant to help guide future policies and decisions.

A proposal before the council would expand the renewal plan’s boundary to include the 63-acre Flathead County Fairgrounds and a 1.3-mile block of land along the railroad tracks that runs from Seventh Avenue West to the eastern city limit, bordered to the north by Washington Street and to the south by First Street.

City planners have identified nearly a dozen instances of blight in that expansion area and proposed amendments to the plan that spell out recommended goals and programs to alleviate it.

Those goals include removing or relocating the railroad tracks, improving street connectivity in areas split by the tracks, installing new sidewalks, improving the appearance of the fairgrounds and turning the grounds into a year-round event center, replacing aging water and sewer lines, cleaning up suspected environmental contamination at about two dozen sites and working with property owners to redevelop nearly 19 acres of vacant land and buildings.

The proposed expansion area includes a wide range of potential projects to be funded, said senior city planner Sean Conrad. At least one person questioned where that funding will come from.

Kim Morisaki of Montana West Economic Development said her board supports the urban renewal plan expansion and the proposal to remove the railroad tracks and relocate two businesses that use them.

Montana West has about $1.2 million in federal funding to buy land for a rail-served industrial park and is investigating a property that sits adjacent to the Kalispell city limits.

“We believe there are opportunities to encourage rail-related business and industry in a different location, without having it in downtown Kalispell,” Morisaki said.

“This [urban renewal plan] is really an opportunity for council to have a vision of where we want to be in 20 to 30 years.”

Pam Carbonari said the Kalispell Downtown Association also supports an expanded West Side Urban Renewal Plan.

“For many years we have talked about the relocation of the railroad tracks that divide and hinder redevelopment in an area of Kalispell ripe for development. This proposal would finally set forth a plan to make this a reality,” Carbonari said.

“You have our support as downtown businesses to move forward, accept the challenge and assist our community with this much-needed redevelopment,” she added.

The council also heard from Cenex Harvest States and Northwest Drywall & Building Supply, the two businesses that rely on the railroad tracks.

“I see us at a pivotal point and I would like to see the council move forward one way or the other,” Pam Mower, who owns Northwest Drywall with her husband, said of the railroad tracks.

Mower agrees there is a lot of blight in the proposed expansion area.

“We see homeless people walking behind our building and camping there. We’ve had graffiti and had to put up wire mesh on the windows because they’re being broken out. That is what is happening in Kalispell ... I think there’s an opportunity and I hope everybody takes a long hard look at it,” she said.

Mark Lalum, general manager of Cenex Harvest States, restated his opinion that council needs to make a decision about the tracks and if they should stay or go.

“We need to take that next step. I encourage you to do that to see what is possible and what can happen and not keep this topic in limbo for the next 20 years,” he said.

To close the hearing, council member Duane Larson thanked the public for its input.

“I can assure you we will take all of that into consideration at our earliest possible opportunity and hold a workshop to consider all of your comments,” he said.

On a separate but parallel track, the council has yet to make any decision about expanding the West Side Tax Increment Financing District, a financing mechanism created in 1997 to overlay the original West Side Urban Renewal Plan. The tax district holds about $2 million in its fund and is set to sunset in March 2012.

In other business, the council amended and held a first reading of an ordinance that would permit temporary sandwich board signs in parts of downtown, among other changes to zoning regulations.

Council amended the legislation to allow the signs in a larger area than originally proposed, subject to size, time and insurance regulations.

The signs now would be allowed along Main Street from Center to Fifth, east to the alley between First and Second Avenue East North, and west to the edge of the B-4 zone.

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