New law against living in cars narrowly OK'd

A controversial ordinance making it a civil infraction to live and sleep in vehicles on city streets narrowly won final approval from the Kalispell City Council on Monday.

The council previously discussed the proposal at a work session and narrowly approved its first reading at a meeting on Sept. 16.

City Manager Doug Russell reviewed the earlier conversations on this issue and explained its intention is to address tourists who lodge on city streets, thereby increasing the city’s density and overburdening the utilities. This issue is currently a zoning violation and the new ordinance would change the enforcement of that violation to a civil penalty with a fine.

Numerous members of the community spoke against the ordinance during the public comment period of the meeting, including individuals who had spoken at the previous meeting and a number of new speakers.

“Although the change is supposed to address tourists who park their RV and other vehicles on the side of the street, the people who will be most affected by this is our local homeless population,” stated Caity Pritcher, an employee of the Sparrow’s Nest, a local youth shelter. “It was mentioned by a council member at the last meeting that these individuals have plenty of other options, however, I’m curious as to what these other options are.”

Flathead Food Bank Executive Director Jamie Quinn asked the council, “Do you know what the vacancy rate in this area is? It is 1.2%...instead of talking about building more housing and it being affordable housing, you’re talking about locking people up and giving them fines when they are sleeping in their vehicle when they have nowhere else to go.”

After many public comments about the city’s lack of affordable housing and the unintended consequences this ordinance could have on local homeless individuals, there was a lengthy discussion between the council members.

“I’m not in support of this ordinance,” council member Kyle Waterman said. “I would like to encourage the rest of the council to remember that our cover memo on this ordinance does say that council may decline to pass the ordinance and seek to address concerns of the public in some other manner. I think this is one of those times where that’s what we’re called to do.”

Council member Chad Graham, on the other hand, pointed out: “This has been a zoning infraction for many, many years…letting this fail and letting it revert back to a zoning infraction that has zero teeth to it…well, what does that do for our residents that we’re working for?”

The second reading of the ordinance ultimately passed with council members Rod Kuntz, Tim Kluesner, Chad Graham and Phil Guiffrida in favor. Opposed were Sandy Carlson, Wayne Saverud and Waterman. Council member Kari Gabriel was absent.

Mayor Mark Johnson later stated his intent to create a mayoral task force to address homelessness in the city in collaboration with various public individuals, groups and government departments.

The council unanimously passed ordinances to approve an updated wastewater plan and schedule an Oct. 21 public hearing on the city’s stormwater maintenance system.

They also voted to appoint Scott Blodgett to a recently vacated position on the Economic Revolving Loan Fund Committee.

“Mr. Blodgett is a commercial loan officer with the Whitefish Credit Union with 10 years lending experience. I think he’d be a good addition to the board,” the mayor said.

The council voted to confirm Brady Gray and Chad Sweigart as patrol officers with the Kalispell Police Department. Both Gray and Sweigart completed their year-long probationary period and served multiple years in other police departments in Montana.

Finally, the council presented the 2019 Urban Forestry Awards. The Stillwater Corp. was awarded the Commercial Stewardship award, Vic and Barb Anderson were given the 2019 Residential Stewardship award and the Kalispell Downtown Business Improvement District received the Public Lands Stewardship award.

During the public comment period of the meeting, Kalispell resident and City Council Ward 3 candidate Sid Daoud spoke up about vandalism and anti-Semitic propaganda recently found in Kalispell and Whitefish.

Mayor Johnson and various council members later spoke in support of Daoud’s statement, “condemning these assaults and reinforcing our commitment that every citizen is a valued part of our community.”

At the end of the two-hour meeting, Waterman offered a final comment about a lost dog found through a massive community effort in September: “I do want to appreciate that so many community members helped Carole and Verne King find their dog, Katie. It was nice to actually see something like that happen and actually get some national credit for what kind of community we have.”

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at bserbin@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.