What type of development would best suit the south end of Kalispell?
An engineering firm hired by the city is surveying residents and stakeholders to develop a new vision for the broad portion of town that stretches south along the highway thoroughfare toward Flathead Lake. It’s a massive, mixed corridor of residential subdivisions, various commercial businesses, open land, a site for a new school and, not to be overlooked, a contentious airport.
Hoping to create a blueprint for future growth, the city is developing the South Kalispell Urban Renewal Plan to identify all possible options in the area and rally municipal resources and heavy community and stakeholder input, similar to how the Core Area Redevelopment Plan came together.
CTA Architects Engineers was hired to gather public input and analyze the area, a process that has been underway this past month. Last week CTA held a community open house at the Hilton Garden Inn, and over 150 people turned out to share ideas and answer a broad range of questions.
What land-use issues, such as uncontrolled growth or subdivision development, most concern you? How would you improve your neighborhood? What kinds of commerce would you like to see?
By diving into this process, both CTA and the city are forced to address a thorny subject: the municipal airport. The fate of the site has been in limbo since voters shot down a host of proposed upgrades in late 2013, creating more questions than answers related to its current and future status.
At its open house, CTA included several questions related to this subject. If the airport was redeveloped, what types of land use would you like to see? What is your main concern about the redevelopment of the airport into another use? What do you like the most/least about the airport?
“There are a lot of folks who feel passionately about it one way or another,” Wayne Freeman, CTA’s project leader, said. “Of course the airport is the catalyst for doing the entire renewal plan.”
Solving the airport situation has proven to be an age-old conundrum in Kalispell’s history, dating back to the site’s creation over 80 years ago.
But it’s not the only piece to the puzzle.
Although commercial development has stalled somewhat in recent years, south Kalispell has seen steady growth in residential neighborhoods, with multiple subdivisions filling up.
At the same time, Kalispell School District No. 5 last fall received approval to purchase 25 acres of land on Airport Road for the likely development of a new elementary school. Although school officials have not formally decided what to do with the land, consistent overcrowding in the district and the growing number of homes on the south end make it almost certain that the land will turn into a new facility in the near future.
How will that impact the surrounding infrastructure, including the narrow Cemetery Road? Will that lead to new subdivision development in the nearby open land? How will the city address this growth?
Then there’s the U.S. Highway 93 Alternate Route, which is completed on the south end and is poised to be fully finished in the next two years. How will that new thoroughfare change the landscape? Will new development crop up around it?
It’s all being considered in this new urban renewal plan, which will be finalized and presented to the city council in the fall. Public comments are still be accepted through the end of the March. A website has been developed — http://southkalispellurbanrenewal.com/ — accepting comments and with more information.
“There’s no shortage of opportunities for improvement coming from the south,” Freeman said.
He added, “I’m tremendously encouraged by the amount of people who came out here. There wasn’t a single wallflower. Everybody had an opinion.”