Kalispell City Council adopts amended Main Street Safety Action Plan

Kalispell City Council voted in favor of adopting an amended version of the Main Street Safety Action plan on Monday.  

Council nixed a portion of the plan that recommended linking Woodland Avenue to Seventh Avenue East North, connecting the former with East Idaho Street, to relieve congestion on Main Street. The plan still calls for constructing a shared-use path limited to pedestrians and cyclists between Woodland Avenue and Seventh Avenue East North.  

Partnering with contractor Kittleson and Associates Inc., the city identified traffic safety issues along Main Street and throughout Kalispell to create the plan, which Council added to the municipality’s 2040 Transportation Plan. 

Planning Director Jarod Nygren said that the framework identifies goals for traffic safety and prioritizes high crash and high-risk street areas through data analysis and community input.  

In a memo to council, Nygren recommended funding priority projects through implementation and demonstration grants, subsets of the U.S. Department of Transportation Safe Streets and Roads for All Planning Grant.  

Under the implementation grant, Nygren suggested funding a Main Street project that would see a center lane created, allowing for turn pockets at intersections, and pedestrian safety improvements, like curb extensions and high visibility crosswalks. 

Nygren also recommended addressing pedestrian and bicycle crashes along First Avenue East and West through similar traffic safety measures and separated bike lanes between Center Steet and Fifth Street. Those improvements could also be funded under the implementation grant. Officials could apply for the grants within fiscal year 2025.  

The demonstration grant, due at the end of August if the city were to apply, would fund projects on Oregon Street and Fifth Avenue West. Those projects are geared at making intersections safer, Nygren said.  

WHILE NOT a priority project, the proposed — and ultimately doomed — connection between Woodland Avenue and Seventh Avenue East North received pushback from residents around Woodland Avenue.  

Nancy Easley, who has lived on Woodland Avenue for 17 years, said that while she supports pedestrian safety measures on the road, the connection project was a bad idea.  

“Woodland is a majority residential street, so I don't know that treating it as an alternate route to Main Street makes any sense to me,” she said. “It seems dangerous.”  

Hugh Easely, who also lives on Woodland Avenue, said that many kids in the neighborhood flock to local parks to play.  

“I’m worried about the traffic that some of this can bring,” he said.  

Councilor Ryan Hunter opposed creating the connection, which would have necessitated a crosswalk on the Parkline Trail.  

Councilor Jed Fisher agreed with Hunter’s assessment.  

“It should be killed now before money is spent on it,” he said. 

Mayor Mark Johnson supported Hunter’s motion, arguing that the integrity of the neighborhood should be maintained. He characterized the project as a “bait and switch” to residents who bought a home in a residential area. 

Councilor Kari Gabriel, who supported the connection, said that many people already use Woodland Avenue as a bypass.  

“I think we’re fooling ourselves if we think people aren’t already using it as a bypass,” she said. “I use it all the time.”  

Many of the proposed improvements to Woodland Avenue would address public concerns, Nygren said, mitigating the increased traffic that would come from the connection.  

“It’s a pretty logical extension,” he said. “Traffic’s not going to get less, it’s only going to get more.”  

Public Works Director Susie Turner said that the Woodland Avenue connection was an important part of the plan and that traffic will be shifted to other parts of the city.   

“No matter what, you will be putting traffic elsewhere, whether you want to acknowledge it or not, but traffic will move to other areas of the city as we make these improvements,” she said.  

Turner said that nixing the connection may prove detrimental.  

Hunter put forth another motion to abandon a proposed vehicle connection between Grandview and Evergreen drives, limiting the path to bicycles and pedestrians. Council rejected the motion. 

Nygren called the connection vital for connecting to future developed land. Councilor Chad Graham said it would clear up traffic congestion and serve residents up and down Whitefish Stage Road. 

COUNCIL ALSO received a presentation by state Rep. Bob Keenan, R-Bigfork, on Montana’s mental health system.  

Keenan played a role in 2023 in passing House Bill 872 in 2023, which is aimed at revamping Montana’s behavioral health system with $300 million set aside for initiatives and long-term projects. One of those was the creation of the state Behavioral Health System for Future Generations Commission.  

Keenan said that when the mental health system performs poorly, it strains hospitals and county jails.  

“And that’s what we have going on right now,” he said.  

Keenan said that discharges from the Montana State Hospital often move to homeless shelters. Creating group homes with mental health services and support would help to offset that trend.  

Support for mental health needs to happen at the local level, Keenan said, proposing the creation of community residential beds that will focus on crisis response. Keenan said he hoped to see the Glacier House, a 24-hour crisis receiving center in Kalispell, reopen. 

Jack Underhill can be reached at junderhill@dailyinterlake.com and 758-4407.