Council to hold final vote on downtown plan

The Kalispell City Council is facing what could be the final vote to adopt a revised downtown plan after three years of drafting, deliberation and consideration of public comment.

A resolution to adopt the plan was tabled at a Nov. 20 meeting because councilors received a slew of substantive public comment at the eleventh hour, said Charlie Harball, Kalispell’s city attorney.

“They had some new comment come in and they want to make sure that all the comment that comes in they give full consideration to,” Harball explained.

Harball doesn’t anticipate any amendments to the plan at this point, and said the councilors on Monday would be facing an up or down vote on the plan as currently written. He said they could table it again if they receive another large tide of public comment, but as of Thursday morning that hadn’t yet happened.

The meeting is at 7 p.m. on Dec. 4 in the City Hall Council Chambers.

The plan is an expansive document that suggests various infrastructure and cosmetic changes that will make Main Street more hospitable for local commerce. Suggested changes include chopping the number of traffic lanes downtown from four to three in order to widen sidewalks by 6 feet, and the possible construction of a parking structure.

The lion’s share of criticism the plan has received has been focused on the way traffic flows through downtown. Through the revised plan, the council has hoped to discourage long-haul trucks from using Main Street as a transportation corridor, but some business owners have expressed concern that efforts to push those trucks to the bypass could push other potential customers there as well.

Read the plan at www.kalispell.com/community_economic_development/TheDowntownPlan.php.

Reporter Peregrine Frissell can be reached at (406) 758-4438 or pfrissell@dailyinterlake.com.