Council approves Kidsports land deal

Kalispell will spend $2.26 million to buy a permanent school trust land easement for the Kidsports youth athletic complex.

The City Council approved the milestone purchase 6-3 on Monday, with a majority agreeing to spend down $2.275 million from the Airport Tax Increment Financing District.

“It feels good to be going out at the end of the year with a great accomplishment like this,” council member Tim Kluesner said. “Merry Christmas to everybody.”

Kalispell will hold the permanent easement as long as the 123 acres of school trust land continue to be used for park or recreation activities. The land cannot be used for anything else without reverting to the state of Montana, city officials have said.

The outcome caps several years of negotiations between Kalispell, Kidsports and the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation to secure a permanent home for the popular athletic complex in north Kalispell.

“We’re making that asset permanent,” council member Wayne Saverud said.

Without an easement, Kidsports faced a mandatory mid-lease reappraisal in 2016 that threatened to “triple or worse” its annual lease payment and make the land unaffordable for the nonprofit youth sports organization.

Councilman Phil Guiffrida III said buying the permanent easement with tax increment money fulfills an old goal of relocating sports fields away from the city airport in south Kalispell. That was a major goal in creating the tax increment district and was never fulfilled, with some of the fields never rebuilt by the city and the others built on leased land, he said.

“I firmly believe the relocation requirement of the urban renewal plan has not been met. And to meet that we have to use the funding mechanism set up by that plan, which is the TIF,” Guiffrida said.

Others disagreed.

Mayor Tammi Fisher, Kari Gabriel and Bob Hafferman voted against the purchase after wrestling with their desires to purchase the Kidsports easement and their views that the wrong financial approach was being taken.

Hafferman said he couldn’t go along with the “conjured-up interpretation” of an old urban renewal plan used to justify the easement’s purchase with tax increment money.

He argued Kalispell should either return the tax increment to the city, county and schools and get them all to collectively buy the easement, or else take formal steps and amend the urban renewal plan — which had a main goal of upgrading the city airport to B-1 design standards — to authorize the purchase.

“I’ve got to vote no on this interpretation that is conjured up with words that are not there ... No matter how many people are for it,” Hafferman said.

Gabriel said she hoped to see a mix of funding sources tapped to buy the easement. “I just consider it an inappropriate use, gutting the TIF to do this,” Gabriel said. “I support Kidsports, I love what they do, and I think we need to go ahead with this project. But I think we’re funding it incorrectly.”

Fisher agreed with Gabriel: “I really want to pay for this easement, I just am not convinced this is the mechanism by which to do it ... I don’t think it comports with my understanding of what we can do.”  

Supporters of the easement purchase stressed that the Airport Tax Increment Financing District will continue to generate about $500,000 a year until the district sunsets once and for all in 2020. The city can borrow against that future revenue if needed to pay for any projects that may materialize, including the city airport, they said.

A formal memorandum of understanding outlining what Kidsports will do in exchange for Kalispell buying the $2.26 million easement could not be ironed out in time for Monday’s vote, leaving that end of the equation somewhat open-ended for now.

Preliminary talks have focused on Kidsports raising “dollar for dollar” matching funds to improve the athletic complex with more sports fields, more parking and better roads and completing Four Mile Drive to connect it to Stillwater Road.

There has also been talk about the nonprofit sports organization giving a share of its user fees to Kalispell to help offset the $140,000 to $180,000 a year the city has been spending to maintain the facility.

With the easement acquired, Kidsports Director Dan Johns said, “What I do now is go make sure I have a pair of pants with good knees and start asking for money.”

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