Tronstad Road Proposal & Kalispell City Growth Policy Public Comment from Bonnie and Carl RieckmannMay 20, 2024
Kalispell City Council
Dear Folks:
There has been way too much willy-nilly development in Kalispell and Flathead County of recent vintage. The huge apartment complex at Center Street and Fifth is a prime example. Where’s
the parking for that many units? What about the impacts on the water and sewer systems? What about the traffic? And apparently it is in financial trouble. All from too much speculation
and who knows what other influences, kosher or not.
Now there are reports of the council mulling whether to include 110 acres on Tronstad Road in your Kalispell City Growth Policy. Those of us who live in the Reserve Drive and Whitefish
Stage Road area are clogged already by the increase in traffic coming from the north because of the Rose Crossing and Tronstad Road cut-overs from U.S. 93. The state supposedly is
going to attempt some work on Reserve sometime in the next few years (IF the funding actually comes available), but it still hasn’t done anything to alleviate the logjam at the Reserve/Whitefish
Stage intersection (dedicated four-way lights as are used at Reserve and U.S. 93 would help). Please don’t encourage more foolishness on Tronstad like the messes at Center and Fifth
and elsewhere.
The magic of the Flathead Valley is its great outdoors and rural beauty. Encouraging more development that creates increased negative impacts on traffic, water and sewer infrastructure,
crime, the valley’s charm, etc., is like cutting one’s own throat. Don’t do it.
Sincerely,
Bonny and Carl Rieckmann
2355 N. Mission Drive
Kalispell, MT 59901