Board wants bigger renewal area

In a special meeting Tuesday, the Kalispell City Planning Board agreed the Westside Urban Renewal Plan should be expanded to include the Flathead County Fairgrounds and a mile-long block of land that runs to the eastern city limit.

Planning Board members voted 7-0 to recommend expanding the urban renewal plan and adding new goals to combat blight in its boundary.

That sends the proposed expansion back to the Kalispell City Council with favorable recommendations from the Planning Board, city planning staff and the Urban Renewal Agency.

It also sets the stage for the next round of talks about expanding the Westside Urban Renewal Plan and ultimately the Westside Tax Increment Financing District.

Planning Director Tom Jentz said he plans to ask council members to hold a public hearing on the proposed expansion of the urban renewal plan during their Oct. 17 meeting.

Any proposed expansion of the Westside Urban Renewal Plan must be approved through ordinance by city council.

A proposed expansion of the Westside TIF district to cover the same expanded urban renewal plan boundary is a related but separate issue that would have to be approved by the council and ultimately the Montana Department of Revenue.

The Westside TIF, created in 1997 to cover the existing Westside Urban Renewal Plan, is set to sunset in March 2012. Its fund holds close to $2 million that would be disbursed to local taxing entities if the district is allowed to sunset.

Talks of expanding the Westside TIF district are ongoing. But to extend its life beyond March, the city must issue new debt for a project inside its boundaries.

Advocates hope expanding the boundaries of the Westside Urban Renewal Plan and the Westside TIF district will help capture a suitable project to keep the TIF and its annual funding stream alive as an economic development tool for the city.

As part of those processes, city planning staff have identified nearly a dozen examples of blight in the proposed expansion area.

That area includes the 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. It is bordered to the north by Washington Street and to the south by First Street.

Examples of blight include the railroad tracks themselves, nearly 19 acres of vacant land and buildings, a lack of continuous sidewalks, a shortage of north-to-south connector streets across the tracks, the run-down fairgrounds, aging water and sewer lines and about two dozen suspected Brownfield properties with potentially leaking underground storage tanks.

Planning Board members also voted to recommend adding a number of goals to combat blight in the proposed expansion area.

Those goals, which were put forward by city planning staff, include:

 Implementing a program to remove the Burlington Northern Railroad tracks and help relocate the two businesses that use them.

 Working to reopen closed street crossings along the tracks, plan additional street extensions to landlocked properties and construct a bike path connection from Seventh Avenue East North to Woodland Drive.

 Improving pedestrian and bike access throughout the area and targeting programs to install, repair and upgrade sidewalks and trails.

 Encouraging and helping the fairgrounds improve its outward appearance and internal facilities and transform the property into a year-round event center that acknowledges residential areas to the east.

 Implementing a program to replace water and sewer lines more than 50 years old.

 Working with property owners to remove deteriorated and unsafe structures and prepare properties for redevelopment through the creation of a loan or grant program.

 Maintaining a viable city program to help property owners assess, clean up and redevelop Brownfield sites.

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