Kalispell planning board recommends senior housing complex

The Kalispell Planning Board voted Tuesday to recommend a senior affordable housing complex proposal adjacent to the Gateway Community Center.

The project, known as Creekside Commons, includes 31 apartments for residents age 55 and older. The units would be income and rent-restricted.

Planning board members spoke favorably of the project’s expected boost to affordable housing to Kalispell.

“I find this to be a very worthy project,” member Doug Kaufman said.

The one-acre property is located at 1203 U.S. Highway 2 West, in the northern portion of the Gateway Community Center’s parking lot.

In 2020, Creekside Commons earned $6,435,000 in housing tax credits from the Montana Board of Housing.

Housing Solutions, the Missoula-based firm behind the project, provides planning and development services for affordable housing communities using Housing Tax Credit financing.

Alex Burkhalter, a representative of Housing Solutions, said Creekside Commons would be the organization’s fourth affordable housing project in Kalispell.

Housing Solutions is requesting a conditional use permit for the multi-family residential development and a major preliminary plat approval for the project.

The project is set to go before City Council on May 2.

REGARDING ANOTHER residential project, the planning board voted to recommend a 37-lot residential subdivision on the east side of Jefferson Boulevard, on the north and south sides of Rose Crossing.

Stillwater Corporation is asking for preliminary plat approval for a major residential subdivision on approximately 10.6 acres. The property is currently vacant, but is zoned R-3 residential with a planned unit development overlay.

This is the fifth phase of a larger 485.5-acre project that encompasses R-3 single-family residential, R-4 two-family residential, B-1 neighborhood business and B-2 general business zoning designations.

Planning board member George Giavasis said while some don’t like the loss of farmland the project makes sense.

“This is developing out as a mixed-use project rather than a segregated part so this will make for a better project,” he said.

The project includes the creation of three new city streets, two running east to west and one running north to south.

The request is scheduled to go before City Council on May 2.

THE PLANNING board also voted to recommend two other separate requests.

One from Ryan Koistinen for annexation and initial zoning of RA-1 (Residential Apartment) for property located at 1823 Fifth Avenue East.

As part of the proposal, a boundary line adjustment would take 0.256 acres of vacant land from a neighboring property at 1801 Fifth Avenue East, which is owned by Flathead Electric Cooperative, and add that acreage to 1823 Fifth Avenue East, which is owned by Koistinen. All of the expanded property at 1823 Fifth Avenue East would be annexed into the city with an RA-1 zoning designation.

The item is set to go before City Council on May 2.

The second recommendation went with a request from John Todd to rezone property at 128 and 130 Second Street East from RA-2 residential to B-4 central business district. The zone change anticipates using the properties for a planned business known as the Blue Duck, an indoor golf and hunting simulation.

The item is set to go before City Council on May 2.