Tuesday gathering designed to resolve some lingering issues

On Tuesday night, Kalispell city officials and the owners of Courthouse East are teaming up to mitigate debate over the proposed use for the property - before the City Council holds a work session on the project.

From 6-7 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, DEV Properties will give a presentation on its plans for the property and Kalispell planner Narda Wilson will be available to answer questions about zoning and planning issues.

"It's not a public hearing, it's a public meeting," Tri-City Planning Office Director Tom Jentz said. "It's a community meeting for the developers to give a presentation and for my office to [explain] the issues."

The developers plan to renovate the building to include apartments, offices, artists' workspaces/apartments and a possible small coffee shop. The exterior of the old hospital/office building would remain the same.

The public can briefly comment before the council begins a work session at 7 p.m. The session will address neighbors' and council members' concerns over issues such as traffic, density and neighborhood character, Jentz said.

Some neighbors love the building and the developers' planned use for it. Others like the building but not the planned use. Other people want to see single-family homes instead of the building, which opened as a hospital in 1912 and later housed Flathead County government offices.

The City Council tabled the issue in mid-May and directed city staff and DEV Properties to work with neighbors to try to quell the discord among opponents.

The city notified nearly 160 neighbors about the open house and DEV Properties delivered flyers throughout the neighborhood, developer Eric Berry said.

The city rarely gets involved with informally settling disputes like this one, Jentz said.

"It's not very common," he said, "but it's very necessary on projects that are contentious or that are a significant change and affect a lot of people."

DEV Properties wants a zone change from urban single-family residential to residential/professional office for the 65,000-square-foot building. The developers also want a planned unit development for the property, which sits on about two acres on the east side of Fifth Avenue East between Seventh and Eighth streets.

The developers recently launched their Web site, www.devproperties.com, which has information about the project.

Reporter Camden Easterling can be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at ceasterling@dailyinterlake.com