Two Mile apartment complex gets OK

A proposal for a major apartment complex on the west side of Kalispell has received a recommendation of approval by the Kalispell Planning Board.

The board on Tuesday voted in favor of annexing the 15-acre parcel and rezoning it to allow more dense development. The board also is recommending approval of a conditional-use permit for the Spokane-based developer to construct the 324-unit apartment complex on the undeveloped field north of Two-Mile Drive. The City Council will make a final decision on the proposal.

Three separate three-story apartment buildings would inhabit the center of the property as proposed. Each would have a recreational area in the middle — one with a swimming pool, another with a basketball court and the final with a pickleball court.

The buildings would be surrounded by covered parking spaces for residents that would run close to the outside property boundary. The developer would also add sidewalks, curbs and landscaping along much of the property boundary.

Residents from the surrounding area have denounced the proposal. Dozens showed up at the Planning Board meeting in December and again on Tuesday evening to express concerns over traffic, stormwater, crime and impacts to their view.

“This project, as proposed, would dominate the existing neighborhood,” said Marilyn Driscoll, who lives near the proposed site.

In December, the Planning Board voted to put off a final determination until the developer could present more detailed plans. In the past two months the developer, Whipple Consulting Engineers Inc., has submitted a stormwater plan and collected some traffic data.

The city has said their initial assessment of the stormwater plan suggests it would be feasible, but they will need an independent geologist to examine it more closely. According to Todd Whipple, president of the developing firm, traffic studies are rarely conducted this time of year because snow on the streets leads to inaccurate data. They collected data that hinted at the impact the development would have, but a more accurate traffic study would have to wait until snow melts.

Many residents felt that delay would be more appropriate than issuing the conditional-use permit without the information. They also cast doubt on the validity of the information the developer provided, despite city officials saying it met the typical burden of proof expected at this point in the planning process.

Dan Savage, who said his mother lived on Teton Street near the proposed development, said he thought making the developers wait until spring to conduct a traffic study would have been reasonable. He said they weren’t surprised the lot was being developed, but thought this was too much.

“This is too dense,” he said.

The biggest change the traffic data Whipple submitted was at the intersection of Hawthorne and Three Mile Drive, where they expected an average lengthening of three seconds for cars moving through the intersection.

Residents at the meeting were incredulous at the estimate, and Whipple explained that it was simply an average wait increase expected from all the cars that pass through the intersection in a given hour of the day. Some cars, he said, would experience no increase when traffic was light, and at peak times the waits would be much longer, which seemed to agree with the public’s estimate.

Whipple will be required to comply with changes suggested when an official traffic study is completed, Kalispell Planning Director Tom Jentz said. The traffic study is done by an independent agency and includes a suggested list of mitigation efforts required to maintain the same level of service.

THIS IS only the first hoop of several Whipple will have to jump through to make his proposal spring from the ground.

His firm still needs a building permit, and will have to work extensively with the Kalispell Public Works Department to make sure the project meets all Kalispell ordinances, Jentz said at the meeting. The proposal also has to go before the City Council for final approval, which is likely to happen in early March.

The bulk of contention seems to arise from a difference of opinion between city officials and area residents in what will fit in with the rest of the neighborhood.

Residents who live in single-family homes within a few blocks of the proposed site repeatedly called the plan a “monstrosity.”

City planners, and apparently a majority of the planning board, feel the more dense use isn’t a bad fit for what they see as the future of the residential neighborhood that sits just a few blocks from the Kalispell Center Mall and downtown.

The vote to annex and rezone the property was unanimous. On the second vote, which issued Whipple the conditional-use permit, one member of the board voted no. George Giavasis said he thought the board should mandate cosmetic changes to make the complex better compliment the surrounding community.

“My biggest problem with this is aesthetics,” he said.

He made a move to add pedestrian access points to better integrate it with the surrounding community, but the motion failed.

Reporter Peregrine Frissell can be reached at (406) 758-4438 or pfrissell@dailyinterlake.com.