04-29-22 City Manager Report1
City of Kalispell
OFFICE OF THE CITY
MANAGER
Information Memorandum
4/29/2022
1. Parks and Recreation
Park staff have been installing footbridges along the new section of the
Lawrence Park Nature Trail that was constructed last July. Wayfinding
signs and an educational kiosk will be installed in this section as well.
In partnership with the Business Improvement District, Forestry Staff
were able to plant twelve trees to help beautify the downtown area.
We recently took possession of our new Tool Cat and
attachments that was ordered in October. This piece of
equipment will be used to support and maintain the
new Parkline Trail.
Registration for Camp Woodland Summer Day Camp
opened on Monday, April 18. By approximately
3:00pm on the first day of registration, all Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays were
full for the summer. We are now 99% full for all days with only a few spots on Mondays
and Friday remaining.
We had our new Recreation Programmer, Cody Banal, start his employment at Kalispell
Parks and Recreation on Monday, April 25. Cody moved to the Flathead Valley last May
after graduating from Minnesota State, Mankato, with his bachelor’s degree in
Recreation, Parks, and Leisure Services. Cody’s primary areas of responsibility will be
youth and adult sports.
Our new Kalispell Parks and Recreation summer activity guide is in
development, and we should receive the final draft back from the
printer on April 26. The finished activity guide will be distributed in
the Daily Interlake the last week of April or first week of May.
2
We are currently hiring lifeguards at the pool this year. As part of
the hiring, The Woodland Water Park offers a Red Cross
Lifeguard class for those who are not currently certified. The class
will be offered June 13-17.
2. Public Works
2022 Street and Alley Restoration Projects
The Street Department performs annual pavement restoration projects. The restoration
consists of asphalt milling and overlay of streets and alleys, major patching and crack
sealing. This summer, the larger projects will have a contractor perform milling and the
paving will be performed by City crews. The projects and activities are prioritized each
year based on pavement conditions and budgets. Streets and alleys slated for in-house
restoration projects for 2022 construction season and the correlated tentative weekly
schedules are listed below:
Solid Waste Department
The city records and tracks refuse tonnage delivered to the Landfill. In 2021, the city
collected and transported 10,852 tons of refuse. As a comparison, below is a table with
past annual tonnage amounts delivered to the Landfill. The increase in tonnage over the
past year is primarily due to a combination of new Residential accounts and an increase
in refuse collected from routine alley clean-up.
3
Yearly Solid Waste Summary
Year Refuse
(tonnage)
Year Refuse
(tonnage)
2008 7,705 2016 9,482
2009 7,310 2017 9,808
2010 7,538 2018 9,988
2011 7,714 2019 10,475
2012 7,779 2020 10,294
2013 8,385 2021 10,852
2014 8,802
2015 9,118
3. Planning Department
The Kalispell City Planning Board will hold a public hearing at their May 10 meeting and
take public comments on the agenda items listed below:
1. The planning board will receive public comments regarding the environmental
review record for the proposed sewer and water project that will provide city
service to the Morning Star Court Community, as required by the Montana
Environmental Policy Act (MEPA). Morning Star Court is a cooperatively owned
affordable-housing mobile home community, consisting of 41 residential units,
located at 1717 South Woodland Drive. The community is proposing to abandon
their aged onsite water and wastewater infrastructure and connect to adjacent City
of Kalispell services. At the public hearing the proposed project will be explained,
including the purpose and proposed area of the project, activities, budget, possible
sources of funding, environmental review findings and any costs that may result
for local citizens as a result of the project
2. File # KA-22-04 – A request from Morning Star Community, Inc. for annexation
and initial zoning of R-4 (Residential) for property located at 1717 South
Woodland Drive containing 5.88 acres. The proposal would annex an existing
mobile home park to allow for the units to connect to city sanitary sewer, which is
located within the South Woodland Drive right-of-way.
3. Files #KA-22-01 and KPUD-22-01 – A request from Kelcey and Tawnya
Bingham for annexation and initial zoning with a Commercial Planned Unit
Development overlay on approximately 37.6 acres of land. The development,
called the Farm District, would be a mixed-use development with a focus on an
indoor youth athletic and arts facility along with commercial and residential uses.
The property is located at the northwest corner of Highway 93 North and Church
Drive.
4. File #KPUD-22-02 – A request from JCA Management, LLC, for a Commercial
Planned Unit Development (“PUD”) overlay on approximately 9.72 acres of land.
4
The property is currently zoned B-2 with a placeholder PUD overlay, which
requires a full PUD submittal prior to development. The proposal includes
locating a truck and RV Center on the property. The property is located at 3178
Highway 93 South near the intersection of Highway 93 and the Bypass.
5. Files #KA-22-03, KGPA-22-01 and KZC-22-03 – A request from Spartan
Holdings for a zone change, growth policy map amendment and annexation and
initial zoning of property, to be known as Eagle Valley Ranch Addition on 6.8
acres of land at 3201 U.S. 93 North. The developer of Eagle Valley Ranch PUD
has acquired land adjacent their development (Home Outfitters) and neighboring
property currently within the County that is being requested to be included in the
Eagle Valley Ranch PUD. The application includes a zone change of the existing
Home Outfitters building which is City R-2 to the Eagle Valley Rand PUD, and
annexation and initial zoning of surrounding County property from County SAG-
10 to the Eagle Valley Ranch PUD. The request would also include a growth
policy map amendment from suburban residential to urban mixed use on those
properties annexing into the city, allowing for neighborhood commercial uses,
similar to the commercial properties within the current Eagle Valley Ranch PUD.
The goal of the change is similar to that of the original PUD which is to provide a
diverse neighborhood close to existing services and commercial development on
the north side of Kalispell and allows for inclusion of properties that are currently
segregated from the development. The proposed development is generally situated
along Highway 93 south of Ponderosa Residential Subdivision, east of Northern
Pines Golf Course and north of the Montana National Guard facilities.
6. File KZTA-22-01 – A request from the City of Kalispell for a zoning text
amendment amending Section 27.07.010 of the Kalispell Zoning Ordinance. The
amendment would change the intent of the R-4 (Residential) zoning district to
include areas designated as suburban residential in addition to urban residential on
the Kalispell Growth Policy Future Land Use Map.
The Planning Board will also hold a work session on the items listed below (no action
will be taken on these items):
1. Files #KPP-22-05, KPUD-22-03, and KZC-22-04 – A request from 520 Three
Mile Drive Associates, LLC, for a zone change with a Residential Planned Unit
Development (“PUD”) overlay and major preliminary plat on approximately 20.0
acres of land. The development, called Aspen Creek West, would include 60
residential lots (31 detached single-family and 29 townhomes) along with roads,
parks, and open space. The property is located at 520 Three Mile Drive.
2. File #KA-22-05, KGPA-22-02, and KPUD-22-04 – A request from Elcan &
Associates, Inc, for a growth policy amendment, annexation, and initial zoning of
B-2 (General Business) and RA-1 (Residential Apartment) with a Planned Unit
Development (“PUD”) overlay on approximately 70 acres of land including
commercial, residential, open space, trail and streets. The proposed development
would include a 282-unit cottage-style apartment complex on 58.2 acres to be
zoned RA-1 and commercial on 11.8 acres along the highway to be zoned B-2.
5
The proposal includes a request for a growth policy amendment changing the 58.2
acres from Suburban Residential (generally up to 4.0 units per acre) to Urban
Residential (generally 4.0-12.0 units per acre). The property is located at 3340
Highway 93 South near the intersection of Highway 93 and Ashley Meadows
Road.
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 7 single-family homes and 8 townhomes.
That will bring the total of new single-family/duplex and townhouse units for the year to
63, compared to 78 at this time last year.
There are currently 53 commercial projects in the queue with 18 of those ready to issue, 6
under review and 18 to be reviewed. There are 4 incomplete submittals and 6 awaiting a
response to comments. A list of the commercial plan review projects is attached to this
document.
There was a total of 148 combined building and/or fire inspections completed in the last 3
weeks.
Residential – 44 Plumbing – 11
Commercial – 14 Mechanical - 13
Electrical – 11 Fire – 55
5. Community Development
The City EPA Brownfields Program has conducted a Phase I environmental site
assessment (ESA) on a Core Area property on behalf of a prospective purchaser as a
component of due diligence.
The City’s environmental contractor is currently working on a Phase I ESA on the city-
owned Eagle’s Parking Lot at the corner of First Avenue West and First Street West in
preparation for the construction of a parking garage on the site.
Staff have prepared and submitted quarterly reports required by federal grant funding
sources for the US DOT BUILD grant and US EPA Brownfields Assessment and
Revolving Loan Fund grants.
6
6. Fire Department
From April 12 to April 26, the Fire Department had 181 responses. Of these, there were
131 medical incidents, 2 Structure Fires, 1 cooking fire, 3 outside rubbish fires, 3 Motor
vehicle accident with injuries, 10 fire alarm activations, 4 public assists, 10 Haz-Mat
incidents, and 24 dispatched and canceled enroute.
Kalispell Fire administration took part of the annual Mass Casualty training at Glacier
Park International Airport in preparation for next year’s drill of a simulated plane crash
with 100 victims (actors) on airport grounds to be triaged and transported to area
hospitals and clinics.
Firefighters are receiving 8 hours of Haz-Mat awareness training.
Lt/Paramedic Greg Daenzer was awarded the 2022 Lions Club Firefighter of the year.
Kalispell Fire has been hosting 911 Dispatcher ride-along’s. This is important as new
dispatchers are able to what is handled in the field during the respective emergency calls.
Our new recruits will be cleared to be on their own this week. We had the benefit of these
employees coming with FF1 and FF2 Certifications, thus cutting academy and FTO time.
Mutual Aid training will begin next month with West Valley Fire Department. We are
continuing to build relationships with our area Fire Service partners.
The Fire Department was awarded a $5,000 Round Up for Safety grant to be used for
new airway bags that can easily be decontaminated after being used at medical scenes.
7. Police Department
The Kalispell Police Department School Resource Officers are taking application for the
statewide Junior Police Leadership Academy in Helena during the week of July 10-16.
JPLA is held on the Montana Law Enforcement Academy Campus. Students enjoy many
activities that teach them about leadership and law enforcement activities.
The week of May 25, Kalispell SRT in partnership with Flathead County Sheriff,
Whitefish PD and Polson PD conducted 40 hours of joint training. They work through
communication issues, team tactics, firearms, critical incident response, and crisis
negotiations. This week also includes a scenario day involving role players, dispatch,
crisis negotiations and the tactical teams where they work through a variety of problems
from barricading suspects, hostage scenarios and more.
Captain Brett Corbett retired from the Kalispell Police Department on April 28 after
nearly 23 years of service. Captain Corbett served as a Patrolman, SRO, SRT member,
Patrol Sergeant, Detective, and was Patrol Captain since 2018. We wish him the best in
his future endeavors and thank him for his service.