09-29-23 City Manager Report1
City of Kalispell
OFFICE OF THE CITY
MANAGER
Information Memorandum
9/29/2023
1. Parks and Recreation
Irrigation winterizing continues throughout Kalispell’s
twenty-eight city parks. The process takes approximately 4
weeks to accomplish. This needs to be done prior to freezing
temperatures to protect the infrastructure.
Park staff have been improving the aesthetics of the
landscaping around the Woodland Water Park. Items include
pruning overgrown vegetation, replacing weed barrier fabric,
and replenishing woodchips.
Work continues to prune trees along 12th, 13th, and 14th
Streets East by a forestry contractor. Our forestry crew is pruning trees along 10th Street
West. Another contractor has completed the planting of 30 trees along 2nd, 3rd, and 4th
Avenues West that was part of a grant.
A group of volunteers from the local Master Gardener’s program and the Garden Club
recently rejuvenated one of the beds at Lawrence Park.
5v5 Futsal league registration is now open. The Futsal League will begin in October and
will take place at Edgerton Elementary on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday evenings.
There are two weeks left of the Runnin’ Rascals (flag
football) season. Games are played on Saturdays from 9am-
4pm at the Kalispell Youth Athletic Complex.
We are entering our last week of Fall into Soccer. Games are
played on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5:30- 6:30pm. All
games are played at the Kalispell Youth Athletic Complex.
Little Dribblers registration deadline is this Friday, September 29,
at 5pm. Little Dribblers starts on October 14 and games will be played at Rankin,
Peterson, and Linderman Schools. Little Dribblers is for kids ages 4 years through 4th
grade.
2
Our fall break Skip Out camp registration is now open. We will be going to Sweet
Pickin’s pumpkin patch, making fall crafts, and enjoying the break from school.
2. Public Works
Adopt-a-Drain Program
Adopt-a-Drain is Kalispell's volunteer stormwater
involvement program. Created by the City with support
from Flathead Basin Commission, the program sets up
residents to help improve water quality and decrease
localized flooding by being a steward of a storm drain. This
program also helps Kalispell maintain compliance with the
Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Permit
administered by the Montana Department of Environmental
Quality.
The Adopt-a-Drain program provides residents
with a way to help keep our local waterbodies
clean by helping to reduce pollutants, including
nutrients from yard or pet waste as well as
trash, from getting into the stormwater system.
As the fall season arrives, and leaves start to
cover our streets, we encourage residents to
join our Adopt-a-Drain program. This initiative
empowers you to make a meaningful impact by
maintaining storm drains, preventing potential flooding, and safeguarding our local
environment from pollution. Participating in the program is simple. Visit our website for
more info on how to join and adopt a drain. You can even adopt more than one.
Participants get a free toolkit with everything you need to clean your drain. To learn
more, check out our short informational video and website.
Engineering Division
The engineering division is responsible for project engineering and design, project
management, construction management, surveying, and the development and
implementation of a comprehensive GIS system. The division has many projects and on-
going responsibilities. These include working construction management and coordination
of public infrastructure construction done by private development and by the City,
acquisition and enhancement of the City’s water rights and protection of its source
waters, and design and construction of improvements to existing infrastructure and
roadways.
Division personnel also work with private development on commercial projects, and a
host of other major and minor subdivision projects throughout Kalispell. As of the current
status update, the division is actively reviewing a total of 153 projects, broken down as
follows:
• 19 Development Projects – In Review
3
• 14 Projects Approved
• 43 Projects in Construction
• 31 Projects in Post Construction
• 46 Projects in Warranty
• 229 Right-of-Way permits for 2023
• 118 Stormwater permits for 2023
3. Planning Department
The Kalispell City Planning Board will hold a public hearing at their October 10 meeting
and take public comments on the agenda items listed below:
1. File #KCU-23-05 – A request from Immanuel Lutheran Communities for a
conditional use permit to allow the expansion of an existing residential care
facility on property located at 185 Crestline Avenue. The expansion, called the
ILC Lofts, will include 40 new assisted living apartment units in a four-story
addition along with a fitness area and parking on the first level. The addition will
be located in the northwest portion of the property along Claremont Street. A
conditional use permit is required due to the property’s location in an H-1 (Health
Care) zone.
2. Files # KPUD-23-02 and KPP-23-08 – A request from Silvermont Properties,
LLLP, for Riverside North, which includes applications for an amended Planned
Unit Development (“PUD”) overlay and major preliminary plat on approximately
80.97 acres of land. The property was included as part of the 2006 Silverbrook
PUD (a 325-acre development with R-2 (Residential), R-4 (Residential), and B-1
(Neighborhood Business) underlying zoning) and had previously received
preliminary plat approval as Silverbrook Phase 2D. The subject property is part of
the area of the overall PUD that is zoned R-2. The updated development plan
includes 97 lots (95 single family lots, with a storage unit lot for residents and a
fire station/public works facility lot to be dedicated to the City), roads, park and
common area. The property is located at 250 Church Drive.
3. File #KPP-23-10 – A request from Stillwater Corporation for major preliminary
plat approval for Kalispell North Town Center Phases 6 and 7, a 23-lot
commercial subdivision located in a B-2 (General Business) zone within the
Kalispell North Town Center Planned Unit Development overlay (previously
known as The Glacier Town Center PUD). Overall, Kalispell North Town Center
is 485.5 acres and includes four zoning designations of R-3 (single-family
residential), R-4 (two-family residential), B-1 (neighborhood business), and B-2
(general business). These phases contain 72.6 acres in lots, roads and common
area. The property is generally located on the east side of Highway 93 North
between Glacier Memorial Gardens and Lincoln Street.
The Planning Board will also hold a work session on the Planned Unit Development and
Preliminary Plat applications summarized below. It is not intended to be a public hearing
and the planning board will not take any formal action on the application. This is a
4
courtesy meeting in preparation of the formal public hearing scheduled for Tuesday,
November 14, and is an opportunity to become familiar with the project.
1. Files #KPUD-23-03 and KPP-23-09 – A request from Stillwater Development
Partners, LLC, for Stillwater Bend Phase 2, which includes applications for a
Planned Unit Development (“PUD”) overlay and major preliminary plat on
approximately 30.5 acres of land. The property was annexed in 2017 as part of a
56-acre placeholder PUD with 25.5 acres along Highway 93 zoned B-2 (General
Business) and the remainder zoned RA-2 (Residential Apartment/Office). In
2020, the B-2 area received a full PUD approval with the RA-2 remaining as a
placeholder PUD. This PUD proposal would encompass the remaining area. The
proposed PUD would allow for 432 multi-family dwelling units. The preliminary
plat includes four lots, roads, and common area. The property is located at the
western terminus of Rose Crossing to the west of Highway 93 North.
Documents pertaining to the agenda items are on file for public inspection at the Kalispell
Planning Department, 201 First Avenue East, Kalispell, MT 59901, and are available for
public review during regular office hours. In addition, information on the agenda item is
posted on our website at https://mt-kalispell.civicplus.com/314/Planning-Board under
planning board “upcoming agenda.”
4. Building Department
In the last 2 weeks, we have issued permits for 10 single-family homes. This brings the
total of new single-family/duplex and townhouse units for the year to 90, compared to
127 at this time, last year. There have been 379 multi-family housing units issued so far
this year. Last year, at this time, we had issued 556 multi-family housing units.
There were a total of 182 combined building and/or fire inspections completed in the last
2 weeks.
Residential – 24 Plumbing – 18
Commercial – 40 Mechanical - 18
Electrical – 24 Fire – 65
5. Community Development
The Request for Proposals (RFP) to solicit engineering and design services to support the
USDOT Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) planning grant project were due Thursday
September 28. A community stakeholder group will score the submittals and make a
recommendation for Council consideration.
6. Fire Department
From September 13 to September 26, the Fire Department had 177 responses. Of these,
5
there were 121 medical incidents, 5 Motor vehicle accidents with injuries, 15 Fire alarm
activations-smoke scares, 3 public assists, 6 Haz-Mat incidents, and 27 nothing found or
dispatched and canceled enroute.
The electric vehicle car fire blankets and EV immobilizer plugs, part of a recent grant,
have arrived.
Our three new firefighter/paramedics are in week 2 of their Fire Academies, focusing on
hose lays, hose pulls and re-loading, ladder throws, and fire attack and rescue methods.
Our 2018 Smeal Fire Engine is in the body shop for paint corrosion repairs.
Internal preparation for the November 4 active shooter drill at Logan Health is underway.
The Federal Training program for Fire Officer 1 is scheduled to be delivered Nov 27-30
for all Captains and Acting Captains.
Car seat technicians received refresher training on September 22.
Flathead County 911 dispatchers have been riding with ambulance crews for field
observations. Our new employees also had a 4-hour observation period to look into the
dispatchers’ roles and responsibilities at the 911 center.
All exterior lighting (24 units) were replaced with energy efficient LED lights.
7.Police Department
Our year to date calls for service and felony case numbers are as follows:
Calls for Service
2023-28350
2022-27000
2021-26150
Felony Cases
2023 – 458
2022- 494
2021 – 403
Officer Will Appel is attending Peer Support training in Eureka this week and Officer
Justin Turner will be in Helena next week for PVOC (Driving Instructor) training next
week.