Funds from the Westside/Core Area Tax Increment Financing (TIF) District will help fund two public infrastructure projects with approval from Kalispell city councilors Monday night. TIF funds are generated through property taxes in four TIF districts in Kalispell to help with projects improving blighted properties.
Flathead County Fairgrounds will receive a facelift, and the city of Kalispell will be getting a new central garage. Zoë Buhrmaster here to take you through a couple of updates on city development.
Flathead County commissioners requested TIF funds to help transform the more than 120-year-old fairgrounds into a year-round event center. The fairgrounds currently sees around 250,000 visitors annually. Updating the existing blighted structures and buildings is part of the county’s effort to revitalize the grounds.
The Westside/Core Area TIF district will provide $2.5 million to the fairgrounds improvement project.
“I think this is a creative solution,” Councilor Kyle Waterman said, noting that revitalizing the fairgrounds has been part of the city’s vision for the area for the past 30 years.
Kalispell’s central garage provides maintenance and services for the city’s more than 325 pieces of equipment, including fire engines, dump trucks, police cruisers, boom trucks, and lawn mowers. The facility was built in 1978 and currently limits operations because of its short building height, a shortage in square footage to store vehicles and make repairs, and a need for additional service bays, Community Development Manager Nelson Loring said. The city currently has some equipment sitting outside waiting for maintenance due to the full bays, staff said.
The city’s current central garage also lacks the acreage necessary to expand, so the city is considering purchasing a 3.7-acre county lot at 815 Wyoming Street north of the fairgrounds. The city’s sewer department is also tight on space for storage and personnel, city staffers said, and could move into the existing central garage’s facility.
The total cost for the central garage, including purchase of the county property, is estimated at $10.44 million. The TIF request is for the full cost.
Councilor Sid Daoud noted that if one of the city’s newly minted garbage trucks or pumper fire engines broke down, it would take additional time and resources to have it serviced in another city.
“Right now, if one of those were to go down and it had to have some significant work done on it in the winter, most likely we’d have to send it to Missoula or Spokane to get fixed, which takes it out of service for months,” Daoud said.
TIF districts have different criteria for evaluating public infrastructure projects versus private projects. Normally TIF policy caps funding for private projects at about 10% of the project’s cost, staff said. Private projects are also normally expected to return funds back into the district’s TIF. For public infrastructure, however, councilors have discretion to consider allocating TIF funds based on how a project might help clean up blighted properties and might support future development in the area.
City Manager Jarod Nygren noted that around $5 million goes into the Westside/Core Area TIF district every year, and that the projects will likely take a few years to come to life. He added that the council could split the TIF funds for the central garage between multiple years.
Councilors called the projects essential and beneficial to the Westside/Core Area District and approved the funds.
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