11/01/01 DI/Hearing on Regional Mall PostponedIlearing e
II/01101
By WILLIAM L. SPENCE
The Daily Inter Lake
A public hearing next week
on a proposed regional mall in
Evergreen has been postponed
indefinitely.
The hearing was scheduled
for Monday's Kalispell City
Council meeting. It was taken
off the agenda at the request of
developer James `Bucky"
Wolford.
Wolford wants to build a
750,000-square-foot shopping
mall northeast of the intersec-
tion of Reserve Drive and
LaSalle Road.
Monday's hearing was to
take public comment on the
Tri-City Planning Office's
report on the mall. The coun-
cil, which still needs to act on
Wolford's application for a
master plan amendment,
ordered the report in
September.
The document recommends
that Wolford's proposal be
denied — unless he's willing to
undertake a neighborhood
planning process.
A neighborhood plan would
give people who live near the
proposed mall a chance to
voice their concerns about its
effects on traffic, water quali-
ty, property values and other
issues. It would also specify
what steps Wolford would take
to mitigate any problems.
The report states that such a
plan "would probably take
several months to complete"
and "would not in itself guar-
antee approval of the mall."
The public hearing was
postponed to give Wolford a
chance to evaluate the Tri-City
recommendation.
"I don't know if a neighbor-
hood plan is the right
approach," Wolford said in a
telephone interview Monday.
"We're trying to decide if it's
something we should do."
Tom Jentz, director of the
Tri-City Planning Office, said
a neighborhood plan would
provide much more informa-
tion about the project than
Wolford's initial application
contained.
"This is the largest single
project we've ever dealt with,'
Jentz said. "It dwarfs any
other land -use issue we've
looked at. We're asking for a
few more months to try and
identify the key issues and
give the council enough infor-
mation to make a good deci-
sion."
Just how "few months" it
would take is uncertain,
though. Jentz suggested three
to six months. However, the
Section 36 neighborhood plan
for the state school trust prop-
erty at U.S. 93 and West
Reserve Drive took more than
See MALL on Page A3
Hearing on mall proposal postponed indefinitely
a year to complete — and no
development is under way two
years later.
"If it takes three to six
months, I might consider it,"
Wolford said, "but if it takes 18
months, I'm not going to do it.
We have two department stores
scheduled for Kalispell, and the
longer this drags on, they could
easily pull out."
Wolford has consistently
maintained that he wants the
mall site to be annexed into
Kalispell. He also hasn't asked
for any tax subsidies, says he
wants to be hooked up to city
sewer service, and is willing to
build a secondary road and bike
trails to improve access to the
area.
Kalispell officials who have
dealt with the developer say
they're convinced of his sinceri-
ty. Nevertheless, the Tri-City
report notes that nothing in
Wolford's application guaran-
tees that traffic, sewer, con-
struction standards and other
issues would be handled in a
way that's acceptable to the City
Council.
Furthermore, Wolford's appli-
cation for a master plan amend-
ment would allow commercial
use on about 145 acres. Only 85
acres is needed for the mall
itself; the application doesn't
say what would happen with
the remaining land. -
"The information contained
in the original application isn't
adequate," Jentz said. "The
neighborhood planning process
is the best vehicle for answering
some of these questions and giv-
ing the council a better level of
information with which to
make a decision."
A major problem with the
Tri-City's recommendation,
though, is that a neighborhood
plan would have to be
approved by both the council
and the Flathead County com-
missioners.
"It's a joint process," Jentz
said. "Both parties would have
to work together on it. Coordi-
nation and communication is
still important."
However, communication
between the two governing bod-
ies these days seems to be limit-
ed to lawsuits and court docu-
ments.
Following a special closed
council session last week,
Kalispell filed a petition for
declaratory judgment against
the county, asking a district
court judge to block the com-
missioners' approval of Wol-
ford's master plan amendment
request.
The city also hasn't discussed
its neighborhood plan recom-
mendation with the county,
even though the proposed mall
site is in the county portion of
the planning jurisdiction.
"The city is taking the wrong
approach by excluding the
county," said Jean Johnson,
Wolford project engineer with
Paul J. Stokes & Associates and
a Kalispell mayoral candidate.
"The city should very right-
fully be part of the planning
process — but there's a fine
line between being a party to it
and controlling it," Johnson
said. "What should have hap-
pened is the two sides sit down
and figure out how to resolve
this, rather than fight about it.
But they just refuse to do that.
All along Bucky has been a
pawn to settle the differences
between the city and county."
Kalispell City Manager Chris
Kukulski said the idea is to "get
the developer on board" first,
and then approach the county.
"If Wolford is willing to move
forward with a neighborhood
plan, then I think it's the city's
responsibility to ask the county
if they're willing to walk down
this path with us," he said.
If the developer or either gov-
erning body balks at a neighbor-
hood plan, Wolford said he still
has other options for moving
forward with the project.
"The question is whether I
want to evaluate those risks and
pursue them," he said. "I
haven't come to an answer on
that yet. What I do know is that
this is a great market, and it's a
place I want to invest my mon-
ey. I'm trying my hardest, but
I'm not getting there."
Reporter Bill Spence may be
reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail
at bspence@dailyinterlake.com