Kalispell council OKs permit for Depot Place

Kalispell City Council gave its support to Depot Place on Monday, approving a conditional use permit for the proposed senior apartments.

The apartments will be built at the northeast corner of East Center Street and Third Avenue East North.

“This is a great location for senior living, so close to downtown, the grocery store and pharmacy. It will be a very good addition to and extension of our downtown,” council member Jim Atkinson said of the project.

The permit passed 6-0 with council members Wayne Saverud and Kari Gabriel not present. Bob Hafferman abstained from the vote because a family member will work on the project.

The three-story, 40-unit apartment building should be completed by this time next year, said Alex Burkhalter, the project manager with Sparrow Group, an affordable housing development firm in Missoula.

“Hopefully we’ll see some equipment on site and be breaking ground by the end of this month or the first week of the next,” he said.

The estimated $3.9 million construction project was awarded tax credits from the Montana Board of Housing.

One- and two-bedroom apartments would be available for people 55 and older who earn up to 60 percent of area median income. That’s about $24,300 a year for one person and $27,780 for a couple.

Rents would range from $425 to $650 with all utilities included, Burkhalter told the Kalispell Planning Board in July.

Final plans for the apartment building include 39 parking spaces — about twice the number that Kalispell requires — and a pullout for Eagle Transit buses.

“A regularly scheduled bus was a major selling point for us on this site,” Burkhalter said.

He added that some apartments could be rented out to younger adults with disabilities, in response to a question from council member Randy Kenyon.

IN OTHER business, council members voted 7-0 in support of a zoning text amendment that would let Kalispell Center Mall replace a broken electronic reader board in its sign without having to bring the non-compliant sign up to code.

That replacement normally would be considered an “alteration” and cause the sign to lose its grandfather status.

The proposed amendment — which requires a second reading — would let businesses repair or replace reader boards without having to bring non-compliant signs up to code as long as the new reader board is of the same size and color and meets light intensity requirements.

Cary Weyrauch complained to council that years ago he was forced to lower a non-compliant sign 18 inches.

“I paid to do it and who really cared? They kept saying, ‘It’s the council’s wishes.’ You’re allowing this, I’d like to be paid back for what I had to do for my sign to be conforming,” Weyrauch said.

While supporting the zoning text amendment to make it easier for businesses to update and maintain signs, some council members suggested it may be time to revisit sign regulations.

“I think we’re too tight on some of these things,” council member Tim Kluesner said.

COUNCIL members voted 7-0 to accept a $31,500 grant from Montana Department of Commerce. It will help with the creation of a core area revitalization plan for Kalispell’s railroad corridor.

The money lets the city hire a consultant to do a market analysis for the 365-acre planning area. That analysis will include retail-, office- and residential-development opportunity assessments.

The consultant also will explore the feasibility of removing the railroad tracks that run through Kalispell, relocating two businesses that still use the tracks and developing a “linear park” or walking and bike path in place of the tracks.

The revitalization plan is on track to be completed and presented back to the council for consideration by year’s end.

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