Community Torn Over Downtown Kalispell Revamp  

Community members of all ages crowded into Kalispell’s City Hall on Monday evening, leaving standing room only for latecomers hoping to listen or testify during the public hearing on the redesign of downtown Kalispell streets.

City council members adopted the Main Street Safety Action Plan last summer, as part of the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program. Now, city developers are in phase two, poised to apply for a federal grant that would fund the construction of the project.

Some Kalispell residents questioned whether it was worth contributing to the nation’s debt by applying for the grant, why the council wasn’t focused on other issues such as homelessness and trash-littered streets, and whether the proposed developments could potentially impact the aquatic health of nearby Ashley Creek.

The majority of those who spoke out against the plan, however, criticized it for the reduction to two driving lanes on Main Street and its lack of a solution to parking shortages downtown.

Fran Tabor, former owner of A-1 Vacuum and Janitorial Supply, said she remembered when Main Street was originally two lanes and described walking around downtown then as “claustrophobic” and “dark feeling.” She expressed fears about the impact that construction could have on local businesses.  

“There are many things we could do on that plan that have nothing to do with putting businesses out of business because the roads are closed,” Tabor said. “I don’t want to go back to when it was dark and gloomy.”

Business owners would likely see impacts to commerce for at least one summer season, according to a construction schedule proposed by engineers.

Another business owner downtown, Alice Brotnov, said that advisors in her office move their cars every two hours to avoid parking three blocks away. She wondered why the expansion of downtown parking did not figure more prominently into the plan.

“You know what’s in this for me? The same parking situation I have every single day,” she said.

The driving force behind the proposed changes is safety. According to traffic data, there were 2,234 crashes that occurred between 2018 and 2022 within the project’s planning area, of which 258 occurred on Main Street. Of those, seven resulted in fatalities and 38 in serious injuries.

Those in support emphasized the long-term need for the changes, citing positive experiences in other downtown cities with two-lane streets and other similar safety upgrades.

Acknowledging that the primary focus of the plan was safety, one resident said he couldn’t help but think about how “unpleasant” it is walking around downtown. He described taking his 75-year-old mother for a historic downtown walking tour when she came to visit.

“She said afterwards, ‘the history is fantastic but Main Street is just not pleasant,’” he recalled.

Kyle Waterman, co-owner of a new shop called Princess and Buck on Main Street, said he supported the plan, calling it an “investment in our community over time.” He recalled having similar discussions as a city council member in 2017 and meeting someone who had a loved one hit by a car on Main Street in the process.

“The hotspots that are on our Main Street are actually pretty real, and they are significant, especially for that individual I got to know,” said Waterman. “That was a regular comment they had about what we were doing to make downtown just safer for someone to walk across the street.”

At the end of the meeting, with few still in attendance, Councilor Sid Daoud listed off several developments that councilors have already approved, including an 86,000-square-foot boutique hotel and an eight-story parking garage that will be built by private developers that councilors have said will provide public parking downtown.

“I just want to kind of paint a picture of some of the things we’re thinking about when we’re looking at downtown,” said Daoud.

He mentioned the next decision the councilors must make, which is whether to recommend city staff apply for the federal grant to construct the project.

“This is one thing that we were looking at to fund it,” said Daoud. “If this doesn’t happen, the plan doesn’t get thrown out, it just is unfunded.”

City councilors encouraged those with lingering questions to watch a video recording of the April 28 work session, where councilors discussed the plan in depth with city developers.

Councilors will vote whether to move forward with the grant application on June 2 during the next council meeting.

[email protected]