Tom Jentz speaks with maps.
The director of the Kalispell Planning and Building Department can unfold a city map and imagine the evolution of the city. He can see a revitalized Kalispell Center Mall and fairgrounds, a vibrant downtown, and a new wave of businesses sprouting up.
He is optimistic when he talks about the city’s growth. He is, as he says, a “glass half-full guy.” And he sees a bright future for a city that has experienced growing pains and suffered through recent hard economic times.
“We’re going to grow. We have something that the rest of the country doesn’t have. It’s going to be a great place to live,” Jentz said from his downstairs office at City Hall recently. “How do we keep it a great place to live? That is our job here.”
The topic of growth and revitalization remains a prime focus in Kalispell. Recent city council meetings and workshops have centered on expanding the West Side Urban Renewal Plan, pitched by the planning department and recommended by its board, which could remove railroad tracks in the city and supply funds for an upgrade at the fairgrounds, among other “improvements.”
The expansion of the urban renewal plan is part of a bigger picture developed by Jentz and his department. With focal points like downtown revitalization and citywide redevelopment, the planning staff has blueprinted a growth policy for Kalispell’s future. But before any changes can be realized, Jentz believes the city needs to first decide “its identity.”
“Understanding who you are is really important in knowing where you want to go,” Jentz said. “Who do we want to be? You can solve problems and find a direction, but if you don’t know where you want to go or who you want to be, you’re not going to solve a lot.”
The upcoming city council election will have a hand in deciding that identity. There are two active races, in Wards 2 and 4. Mail-in ballots are the only way to vote this year. The ballots are being sent out Oct. 19.
The current council has seen the city’s fiscal situation stabilize in the past year, as City Manager Jane Howington has led a turnaround in cash reserves. Although unemployment still plagues the valley, the potential for growth is better now than it has been in recent years.
“My main concern when I took office was financially we were in desperate shape.” Mayor Tammi Fisher said. “I did not think that we would be as successful in raising our reserves and getting financial stability this quickly.”
“Going forward I think we need to look long term at what the city of Kalispell should look like and what tools are we going to use to make that vision come to fruition without further burdening any taxpayers and raising taxes,” she added.
Growth is still a sensitive subject in Kalispell. The city saw a tepid population increase from 1950 to 2000, and then boomed by 40 percent from 2000 to 2008, Jentz said. There was rapid construction on the north side of town, which drew people away from downtown but helped the city as a whole become a destination for out-of-town shoppers. Fast development attracted more people and then the recession hit. Jentz estimates the city shrunk by almost 1,000 people between 2007 and 2008.
But he sees blue skies on the horizon.
“Did we grow too fast? Oh yeah. But how would you put the brakes on?” he asked. “Our city boundaries grew, but very little development went out there. What we did was a lot of long-range planning. So now there are some really serious positives in place.”
Fisher doesn’t believe Kalispell will see the sudden spike in growth that it did during the last decade, nor should it. The “irresponsible growth” led to a hard-earned lesson that is still hurting business owners and residents, she said.
“I think city government has really learned from mistakes in the past and I think that’s what people really want, is an acknowledgement of the mistakes and that you’ve learned from it,” she said.
Fisher agrees with Jentz’s goal of remaking the downtown a thriving part of the city.
Jentz said embracing downtown is a good example of deciding Kalispell’s identity.
“That’s what the downtown is,” he said. “You’re not going to go there and do all your retail shopping. But it’s going to be a place you need to have because it gives you a sense of what Kalispell is. Kalispell is not just shopping and a place to live. It’s more than that. It’s an identity.”
Jentz, who has been a planning director in the valley since 1996, talks about this growth and redevelopment with confidence. He looks at other positives in place, like the expansion at Kalispell Regional Medical Center, the upcoming nursing center being built at Flathead Valley Community College and the submission for a foundation plan for a new Hilton.
“Things have started to come together here,” he said. “We’ve got a plan for how this community could grow for the next 50 years. Is it valid and do we want to continue in that route? I go back to the point if you don’t know where you’re going, how do you know what to do?”