Airport lease, downtown plan focus of Kalispell council
The Kalispell City Council will face two major votes Monday evening — one on a deal to lease the municipal airport at the south end of town to an independent association, and the other to finalize the downtown plan. Both items have been hotly debated for years.
The airport lease would effectively hand over the 71-acre Kalispell City Airport to an organized association of people who use the airport regularly. The move would release the city from financial liability of closing the airport and buying out existing leases, and from any obligation to invest in capital improvements. It would also turn a key asset for the city of Kalispell into private hands. The municipal airport has long been a site of controversy for city officials.
Under the proposed lease agreement, the airport would continue to function more or less as it has been. The agreement is for 20 years, with an option to extend for an additional 10 years if the city deems it is being managed well.
The user group taking over responsibility would be given access to the assets in the Airport Enterprise Fund and would use those resources, along with some tax-increment financing, to continue to make planned capital investments outlined in the previously established master plan for the facility.
Those projects including making repairs to the taxiway, widening one taxiway by about 4 feet for safety purposes, improvements to airplane traffic flow and parking in the facility and making additional space to install more hangars and other buildings that could help the airport turn more of a profit in the future.
The group would also be responsible for paying ongoing charges such as utilities, liability insurance and fire insurance.
The draft lease also includes canceling the existing hangar leases the city has, and allows the user group to renegotiate those leases with the hangar owners.
If the council votes to approve the lease agreement with the airport user group, the group will have 120 days to prepare for the transition, according to a report from City Manager Doug Russell. In the report, Russell recommended the council approve the transition.
The council has held three work session in reviewing and drafting the proposed agreement, with the most recent on Nov. 27.
The downtown plan is the culmination of about three years of drafting, solicitation of public feedback and reworking. It is basically a vision for the future that will guide municipal planning decisions in both the immediate and long-term future for the city.
Among the more controversial recommended changes it includes are cutting down the lanes of traffic on Main Street from four to three in order to widen sidewalks and make the route less amenable to long-haul trucks that don’t make deliveries downtown.
The recommendation has drawn both praise and ire from residents and business owners along the downtown corridor. Some feel filtering traffic to make it a more pleasant place would be a boon for business and general quality of life, while others feel cutting down on traffic that passes their business is never good.
The council was set to vote on the plan at the Nov. 20 meeting, but received a large amount of public comments in the days leading up to the meeting and postponed the vote so councilors had more time to mull over the remarks, said City Attorney Charlie Harball.
Harball said it was not likely more amendments would be made to the document during the meeting. The current language can be found on the Kalispell city website at www.kalispell.com.
The City Council meets at 7 p.m. on Monday, Dec. 4 in the council chambers at City Hall.
Reporter Peregrine Frissell can be reached at (406) 758-4438 or pfrissell@dailyinterlake.com.