New life for the TIF district

New life may have been found in the nick of time for Kalispell’s embattled West Side Tax Increment Finance District.

Several projects have surfaced in the ongoing quest to extend the life of the district.

Projects include setting up a revolving loan fund to demolish and remediate vacant or under-utilized buildings to reduce blight, looping a dead-end water main along Colorado Street for better water pressure and fire protection, and improving the intersection of Appleway Drive and Meridian Road.

The Kalispell City Council has voted to use $750,000 in tax-increment revenue to establish the loan fund. The water-line work has a price tag of $188,000 and the intersection job is estimated at $75,000.

These projects at least seem to have some validity, particularly compared to the previous outlandish proposition to build a parking lot to serve no one.

The newest proposals actually may do what tax-increment districts are supposed to do: eliminate urban blight and raise the value of property in a district.

Financing the projects would extend the life of the tax-increment district for years (otherwise the district will sunset in March) and allow the district to be expanded. And that expansion is seen as pivotally important in redevelopment dreams well beyond the west-side district.

The City Council takes up the issue again on Monday night with a public hearing on the plan to add the projects to the West Side Urban Renewal Plan.

Adding these projects to the plan is the first step toward making them eligible for tax increment revenue generated by the West Side Tax Increment Finance District.

We reluctantly were willing to go along with the parking-lot deal if it were the only way to preserve and expand the district. But we’re more enthusiastic about the newest projects and their prospects for keeping the tax-increment district going and becoming a springboard for development in Kalispell.