Kalispell City Council members sat in front of a full house last night as community members filed in for a public hearing on the Main Street Safety Action Plan  – a plan that would reduce Main Street to two lanes along with other downtown redesigns that prioritize safety. Prior to public comment, Jarod Nygren, director of development services for the city, took a step back in time to explain the history of revamping downtown Kalispell, “an ongoing process for years now, actually decades,” he said.

To be specific, he meant at least 45 years.

Nygren began by reading an excerpt from a 1979 city council work session on a renewal plan for downtown Kalispell that discussed the need for a bypass. At the time, U.S. Highway 93 became Main Street and cut through the city.

“The central business district is physically divided by a major highway,” Nygren read. “Approximately 37% of the traffic in downtown is through traffic and has no specific reason for being in the downtown area. An aggressive program is necessary to meet future traffic requirements. Already an alternate route system is being discussed, and studies are underway to discern the feasibility of such a system.”

“I.e. the bypass,” he added.

The city approved the Kalispell Downtown Redevelopment Plan that year, developing a variety of projects, including the Flathead High School parking lot, the purchase and remodel of the Museum at Central School, and streetscaping improvements to First Avenue West and First Avenue East.

Still, “blighted conditions” continued downtown, according to city planning documents. Informed by studies conducted in the mid-2010s, a 2017 Downtown Kalispell Urban Renewal Plan aimed to “restore the U.S. 93 highway corridor in Downtown Kalispell to ‘Main Street’” by implementing a handful of changes that included returning Main Street to its 1940s two-lane corridor (pictured above). The plan at the time also called for revitalizing buildings, updating infrastructure and to consider developing a parking structure.

In 2022, the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program was established. The city applied for a planning grant, but because of the nature of the program, the application left off the infrastructural changes and focuses on creating safer roads.

Thus, the Main Street Safety Action Plan was born.

“The vision for the Main Street Safety Action Plan is to apply the safe systems approach to eliminate fatal and serious injury crashes and reduce crashes along the Main Street corridor to promote a safe, livable and connected community for users of the transportation system over a 20-year horizon.”

Stay tuned for a briefing on the Main Street plan (pictured above) and how last night’s hearing went. I’m Zoë Buhrmaster, here to guide you through today’s Daily Roundup.