02-12-21 City Manager Report1
City of Kalispell
OFFICE OF THE CITY
MANAGER
Information Memorandum
2/12/2021
1.Parks Department
Forestry crews have completed pruning small trees in the Northland Subdivision and will
be moving to Ashley Subdivision. A contractor has completed the removal and stump
grinding of 47 large trees damaged in the May 31 windstorm. All homeowners adjacent
to removed trees have been contacted and invited to have trees replanted this spring.
On January 28, Colter Hanson, Forestry Foreman, became a Certified Arborist through
the International Society of Arboriculture. The certification requires three years of tree
experience and passing a comprehensive test.
Staff took advantage of the cold temperatures this
past week to flood the rink on the pond at Woodland
Park, started rehabilitating picnic tables, and began
preparing equipment for the spring season.
Kalispell Parks and Recreation’s Zombie Survival
Camp was featured in the February 2021 edition of
the Parks & Rec Business magazine. The article can
be viewed at the following link:
https://www.parksandrecbusiness.com/articles/zombie-survival-camp?rq=zombie
Early registration for our Little Dribblers youth basketball league closed on Friday,
February 5. At the end of the early registration period, we had 145 participants registered
for the program (compared to 134 participants during the same period last fall). The
regular registration deadline for the program is on Friday, February 19.
Due to the cold temperatures, we have rescheduled our ice skating lessons this week (2/9
& 2/11) to the following week (2/16 & 2/18).
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2. Planning Department
The Planning Board held a work session on February 9 to discuss two items. The first
item was the Downtown Historic District Standards. The development of the standards
was initiated by the Downtown Kalispell Business Improvement District (BID), which
secured a grant to hire a consultant to help formulate architectural design standards for
the historic area. Staff presented the DRAFT standards to the Board for feedback.
Additionally, staff presented the DRAFT standards to the BID on February 2 and the
Architectural Review Committee on February 9 for their feedback. Staff will consider
the comments received and make edits to the DRAFT standards over the coming month
and will once again hold a work session on March 9. Likewise, staff will present the
changes to the BID and Architectural Review Committee for their review.
The second item was a series of growth policy map amendments initiated by the City to
update certain geographical areas to reflect changing conditions, such as the construction
of the bypass, West Side Sewer Interceptor, and the pending Kalispell Parkline Trail
construction. The proposed map amendments will move forward for public hearing at the
Planning Board.
3. Building Department
The 2020 Construction, Subdivision and Annexation Report has been completed and can
be found on the City’s website: https://kalispell.com/DocumentCenter/View/3725/2020-
Annual-Report-PDF
Highlights for 2020 include that there were more building permits issued (406) than any
other year in Kalispell’s history, and there was 126 million in construction value. 2020
construction value is second to only 2016 where there was 129 million in construction.
However, a majority of 2016 included a large hospital expansion (69.5 million), whereas
in 2020, a majority of the construction value was in new residential development. Of the
new residential development there are 160 multi-family units, which is also the largest
number in a single year in Kalispell’s history.
In the last 2 weeks, we have issued permits for 6 single-family homes and 6 townhomes.
That will bring the total of new single-family/duplex and townhouse units for the year to
29, compared to 20 last year at this time.
There have been 24 multi-family housing units issued so far this year. Last year at this
time, we had not issued any multi-family housing permits.
There was a total of 189 combined building and/or fire inspections completed in the last 2
weeks.
Residential – 78 Plumbing – 28
Commercial – 25 Mechanical - 15
Electrical – 23 Fire - 20
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4. Community Development
The Kalispell Parkline Design Submittal has been sent to the Federal Railroad
Administration and Montana Department of Transportation for review and can be found
on the City’s webpage: https://www.kalispell.com/DocumentCenter/View/3779/DRAFT-
100-Design-Submittal
The City of Kalispell has acquired the rail line from BNSF and City Council has chosen
First Avenue West North as the north-south street connector. The Montana Department
of Transportation has approved the pedestrian crossings and is working on a maintenance
and east trailhead lease agreement.
The locomotive swap is complete, and the KLIX 657 locomotive is on display on the
track just west of Woodland Park and was featured in the January 2021 edition of Railfan
& Railroad magazine.
Information and updates for the Kalispell Core & Rail Redevelopment Project can be
found on the City’s website and the Core & Rail Redevelopment Project website:
• https://www.kalispell.com/164/Community-Development
• http://www.kalispellcoreandrail.com/
The City’s contractor has begun work on petroleum phase I environmental site reports for
two Core Area properties in anticipation of sale. The reports are expected to be complete
by the end of February and the property sales are expected to close in early March.
5. Public Works
Stormwater TMDL Action Plan
In 2020, the City of Kalispell completed a Stormwater TMDL
(Total Maximum Daily Load) Action Plan to support the mission of
providing long-term stormwater management by administering a
drainage and treatment system that protects properties and water
quality through the strategic use of limited finances while meeting
regulatory requirements. The Montana Department of
Environmental Quality’s MS4 (municipal separate storm sewer
system) Permit requires the City to develop and include a TMDL
section in its Stormwater Management Plan that includes best
management practices, impairment priorities, a long-term strategy, interim milestones,
and progress towards meeting the TMDL, as well as incorporating TMDL-Related
Monitoring.
The Stormwater TMDL Action Plan meets the requirements of the MS4 Permit and
provides a summary of the MS4 approved waste load allocations and pollutants of
concern as well as an action plan for addressing the TMDLs. Included in the Plan is
information on how impairment priorities are determined through sub-basin prioritization
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and a long-term strategy for reducing pollutants through a variety of methods. The
methods include utilizing capital improvement planning to construct treatment projects
for large, untreated urban drainage basins. Lastly, the Plan includes an implementation
schedule and measures progress toward meeting the TMDL by looking at pollution
reduction estimates.
6. Fire Department Development
Since the last update, the Kalispell Fire Department has received 134 calls for service.
The 3 new hires have begun their fire academy and training this week.
Fire department staff have assisted a third-party company in flow testing our breathing
apparatus as required per regulations. Every Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus
(SCBA) is individually inspected and tested. This coincides with the testing of our
SCBA masks which we use for any incident that produces dangerous contaminates.