District looks to expand school parking lot

Kalispell Public Schools is looking into purchasing two homes to expand the Flathead High School parking lot.

Approximately $1 million has been earmarked to expand parking from a $28.8 million high school district bond issue. The district’s goal was to acquire properties as they became available on the market in the area of properties bordered by Eighth Street West and Fifth Avenue West to expand an existing parking lot owned by the school district and used by Flathead High School sophomores.

If a successful transaction is made, this would be the first purchase of homes to get the ball rolling in adding about 27 parking spaces.

The two homes, located on Fifth Avenue West, are on a piece of property adjacent to the school parking lot. The property contains two rentals, a main house and an alley house owned by Bill and Sue Schottelkorb and Ivan and Connie Lorentzen.

The property owners approached the district with an offer to sell for a purchase price of $150,000.

“That falls along the line of what was originally budgeted,” Kalispell Public Schools Director of Business Services Gwyn Andersen said during the Jan. 10 school board meeting.

Some trustees along with district Superintendent Mark Flatau, were pleasantly surprised to receive an offer so soon following the passage of the bond issue in October.

Ivan Lorentzen, who is a former trustee on the Kalispell school board, said he knew that parking has been an issue discussed over many years, “including when I was a member of the board.”

Lorentzen said during a phone interview Tuesday that with passage of the bond issue combined with one of the rental properties being vacated, the timing was right.

“It was convenient time for us to sell if they were interested in buying, otherwise we’d advertise to re-rent the property,” Lorentzen said.

Flatau said the district hasn’t sought out property owners to sell.

“We don’t want to put any pressure on folks,” Flatau said in a phone interview Monday. Flatau has also emphasized before that the district will not try to claim eminent domain on properties. “If they want to approach us, and if it makes sense to us, we’ll have a conversation.”

At the Jan. 10 board meeting, trustee Bette Albright said she thought the deal, if successful, sends a good message to the public, specifically the west-side neighborhood around Flathead. A parking shortage at the school has been a long-standing issue and a point of contention in the west-side neighborhood. In 2015, a paid permit parking district was created in an attempt to deal with traffic congestion in the surrounding neighborhood, and the school district created some additional parking spaces in front of the high school and an on-site staff parking lot at Elrod Elementary.

Reporter Hilary Matheson can be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.