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09-09-97KALISPELL CITY -COUNTY PLANNING BOARD AND ZONING COMMISSION MINUTES OF MEETING SEPTEMBER 9, 1997 Work Session / There was a scheduled work session at 6:30 p.m. for an update on the Master Plan Update progress of the master plan update, and survey mail out. The scoping meeting is scheduled for September 16'' at the Justice Center. CALL TO ORDER The regularly scheduled meeting of the Kalispell City -County Planning AND ROLL CALL Board and Zoning Commission was called to order at 7:01 p.m. Board members present were Walter Bahr; Mike Conner, Pam Kennedy, Milt Carlson, Therese Hash, Robert Sanders, Jean Johnson, and Robert Lopp. Joe Brenneman had an excused absence. The Flathead Regional Development Office was represented by Steve Kountz, Senior Planner and Narda Wilson, Senior Planner. There were 10 people in the audience. APPROVAL_ OF The minutes of the meeting of August 12, 1997 were approved as written NflNUTES on a motion by Bahr, second by Carlson. OKALISELL President Hash introduced the public hearing on a request by the City of CONDITIONAL Kalispell for a conditional use permit to allow the operation of a museum USE PERMIT / in a P-1, Public zoning district. The building and site proposed for the MUSEUM IN P-1 museum are known as "Central School".an 1894 historic building in the DISTRICT Kalispell East Side Historic District. The property address is 124 Second Avenue East which is located between First Avenue East and Second Avenue East, and between First Street East and Second Street East. Staff Report Wilson gave a detailed presentation of report #KCU-97-8. The application met all the necessary criteria, and staff recommended approval, with no conditions attached. Public Hearing The public hearing was opened to those in favor of the conditional use permit to allow the proposed Central School museum. In Favor Ross Plambeck, Redevelopment Manager for the City of Kalispell, representing the City as the applicant for the project. He presented some architectural drawings, to show the scope of the project. James R. MacDonald, the architect for the project, has a reputation for historic preservation. He commented that this building is structurally good. It has some roof problems, and problems with the seismic stability, but those issues will be addressed and brought up to all accessible codes. He was pleased with the adaptability of the building to put a museum in 0 without a lot of structural changes. He went through the floor plan for the main floor, second floor, and lower floor. The main entrance will be available from the available short term, turnover parking on 2nd Avenue. Handicap accessablility will be on the north side. The attic will be developed into storage area, which is very important for a museum. The two classrooms on the west side will become a flow through exhibit area. The Northwest Montana Historical Society will be developing those independent of the renovation of the building. There will be temporary exhibits through the hallways, public area, small office, gift shop, and tea room/cafe area, a staging area for catering. We won't be cooking meat or get into any more heavy duty code requirements for grease and fire suppression. It will be an area where we can do soups, sandwiches, catering and social events. All the public activities will be on the l�` and 2nd floors. The administrative offices and support services will be in the lower area, an intake room, for initial cleaning, etc., a mechanical room, break room, video conference room, photo archive storage, and alley access for large items. The second floor continues the large display areas, a living history classroom, which was chosen because of the integrity of the space, a Ocommunity room for receptions, lectures, plays, musicals, etc. The building will be fully sprinkled. It can be brought up to as many codes as possible, which is unusual for an old building. The attic space has large trusses. It is not carrying the snow loads it should. They plan to take out some of those trusses and putting a collar against the roof. The beams will come down to a new flooring system, which will create a sheer panel across the whole flooring area, which will transfer the loads from the roof, to the floor, to the outside walls, tie all the floor joists into the brick and get the seismic stability. If an earthquake occurs, the walls will move and shift, but will not move out and implode inward. This is a very creative way to deal with seismic without being intrusive to the historic character of the building. The street going through has added a lot of opportunity to that site, with the short term visitor parking, and good access for everyone. Lynda Collins, 302 Salish Court, said that she is not on the Board of the Historical Society, but I have watched this group of dedicated people, selflessly and tirelessly give of themselves over a period of years, so that they might give a beautiful gift of history to the residents of the Flathead Valley, as well as to the many visitors who come here every year. The UNorthwest Montana Historical Society Board has given of their time, energy, talents, and money for this project. Our valley is very rich in 2 C� history. We have turn of the century pioneers whose passion for the area caused them to build churches, schools, stores and homes. The Historical Society wants to preserve the valley's history, and how people lived during the different world events, such as the world wars, the great depression, the roaring `20's, and preserve memories of the timber industry. They feel it is of the utmost importance to dedicate space to show the culture of the early Native Americans. These are just a few ideas of what these creative members of the Historical Society want to share with the public. In order to give this gift to the community, all will continue to donate their time, energy and money to make this museum a success. To go forward with their dream they need your approval on this project. I urge you to vote in favor-. Rick Riley, envisions the museum as not just a collection of old equipment and old photos, but as a dynamic entity which will be educational and valuable for all the citizens of northwest Montana. I've talked to museums in the region and have been sent information. Most of these museums have traveling displays, and once we are going, we can have that. We can have people come in and give lectures, and help with the historical aspects of this community and region. The $2.5 million that is earmarked to renovate this building is not just for a museum. The O renovation would occur anyway, the building is on the U.S. Historical Register. None of the bearing walls are going to be disturbed. It will be brought up to code in many aspects. We hope that the idea of a museum will be a real asset to downtown Kalispell. About 16,000 people go through the Conrad Mansion each year. I envision that we can double that. The C.M. Russell Museum does $400,000 / year in their bookstore. Hopefully, we can have a similar income aspect. We see some real potential to help revitalize the downtown. Dolores Swanberg, President of Historical Society. I do not consider myself a public speaker, but I have no trouble talking about Central School. I was on a recent trip to Cornell University, and was invited to a facility coffee/tea reception. One gentleman came up to me, after my daughter introduced us, and he said "I understand that you folks have a Richardsonian Romanesque building in your area. I didn't realize there were any that far west. I hope that the people of your community realize what a jewel they have. There a few still standing up and down the east coast, but they have mostly all been renovated, and the interiors changed completely. Please, do not destroy the integrity of that building. You will have people to come to see an example of that type of architecture that people didn't change." C� We are very proud that Mr. MacDonald came up with a plan that uses the existing rooms that were there. It has been a school for over 100 3 years. We are just now beginning to recognize that we have a marvelous thing, and we are proud that we have had a small part in preserving this for the community. That is just the building. We hope that the museum will act as the central core for the Hockaday, the Conrad Mansion, and the surrounding business district to encourage the economic development of the whole area. We feel that most of the parking will be needed at night for evening activities. Nothing late, nothing disturbing. We feel it will be such an asset that you will consider giving it your approval. No one else spoke either in favor or in opposition to the proposal. The public hearing was closed and opened to Board discussion. It was noted, for the record, that a letter was received from Richard Goacher, who was in favor of the museum project, but had concerns about the parking. Board Discussion The Board was excited about the project, and agreed that they could not think of any conditions to place on the conditional use permit. Everything appears to be addressed in the architectural drawings. l\✓� Ross Plambeck was asked to address the parking aspect that was raised by Mr. Goacher. Ross Plambeck stated that about 3 years ago, the ordinance was amended to address parking for the downtown district. We were inhibiting the redevelopment of the downtown area because of the inability to provide extra parking spaces. It needed to be looked at as a downtown issue. One of the goals of the avenue being extended was the short term parking for visitors, and the bus unloading area taken out of the congested 3rd Avenue in front of Linderman School. The nighttime use of the parking lot is feasible, and that is why the elevator is on the north side for quick access. Working with the parking commission, there is an opportunity for shared use, bus unloading in the parking lot, and parking for staff members. The 1'` Street section that the city put in from 1't Avenue West over to 3rd Avenue East, created over 100 additional parking spaces in the downtown. That has taken off some of the stress on the north end of town. The other goal the city hopes to explore in the future, as PTI and Pacific Power continue to restructure and change their nature of operation, is the storage yard off of 2nd Avenue, to work with them to consolidate and creating parking for employees and Central School use. So, we have added a lot of on street parking that didn't exist there, and continue to maintain the parking lot north of the school through the parking commission. I don't see any particular negative 4 ^� impact to Mr. Goacher. He doesn't have any designated off street parking for his clients, but I think he has benefited from that diagonal parking lot that the city has put in. I think we can continue to all benefit from that. We continue to deal with the parking issues. We also have a commitment from the school district for a few dozen spaces when we assume ownership of that property, and we are working with them to maintain that long term commitment. I don't see any radical change in the near future, but we will find solutions in the long run. Lopp commented that surrounding environment plays such a role in the attractiveness of the building. Any extension of current parking would be at the loss of lawn and landscaping, and really detracts from what you are trying to do with the building. Ross agreed. When we were exploring options for the plaza area, and ultimately the street was constructed. One of the scenarios included converting the south lawn to a parking lot. That did not receive a lot of favorable support from the community, the City Council or the Historical Society: That outdoor staging area is important for social functions, so we are trying to protect that green area and support the downtown. This has been an important project for Which Way Kalispell in goal setting sessions. Kennedy commented on the green space issue and the need for a continuing walkway. We have what is called "Avenue of the Arts" proceeding from the Hockaday, through Depot Park, to Central School, being able to walk to the Conrad Mansion and to Woodland Park, and to be able to have a truly safe environment to walk in. As part of that program, there is an active group in downtown Kalispell as part of revitalization, working on producing a project to have outdoor sculptures in the downtown mainstreet area, and proceeding down 2nd Avenue, in this lawn area, proceeding to the Hockaday. I would hope that we would be able to maintain the green space. I think it is important for the downtown, it is important for the long term goals and viability of the downtown to have an inviting community in which people want to stay in and continue to shop and spend their time. I see this as being a positive attribute, and hope we can meet the parking requirements so people will find a space in order to go to a quality museum. We are so lacking in one, right now, that it will be wonderful to have one in place. Motion Bahr moved to adopt the report #KCU-97-8 as findings of fact and recommend that the City Council grant the conditional use permit. Conner seconded. By roll call vote, the motion carried on an unanimous vote in favor. 5 OLD BUSINESS There was no old business. NEW BUSINESS It was noted that the next meeting will be on a Wednesday, October 15th. The Master Plan update scoping meeting is scheduled for September 16"' at the Justice Center, from 6:00 - 9:00 p.m. All Planning Board members are asked to attend. Wilson gave an update on the relocation of the animal shelter. A public meeting will be held on September 16t' before the County Board of Adjustment to provide a forum for the public to comment and garner, information. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 8:00 p.m. ," G4 Therese Fox Hash, President El�z'alieth Ontko, Recording Secretary APPROVED: v "l n