Owner of Kalispell radio station KGEZ vows to file lawsuit if height limit is adopted

A proposed law that would limit the heights of buildings and towers around the Kalispell City Airport will go to the City Council soon.

Only two 325-foot-tall KGEZ radio towers - owned by talk-show host John Stokes - appear to exceed a 100-foot height limit in a specific zone around the airport.

On Tuesday, the city Planning Board recommended that the council approve the proposed law that would forbid any structures more than 100 feet higher than the airport's runway.

The law requires an oblong-shaped zone that extends 10,000 feet from the ends of the airport's runway and extends one mile to each side - an area covering parts of Kalispell and rural Flathead County. The two KGEZ towers are slightly less than one mile from the runway.

The proposed law has a complicated background.

The Federal Aviation Administration requires such as law. Because the airport is near Kalispell's southern edge, the city and county agreed to appoint a joint advisory panel to research and make recommendations on issues within the FAA-mandated oblong-shaped zone.

That panel's recommendations are supposed to go through a Planning Board public hearing - which is what occurred Tuesday, with no one speaking for or against the proposed law - and then go to the City Council for a vote.

The Flathead County commissioners have agreed to abide by the Kalispell council's decisions on airport matters within that oblong-shaped zone.

The location of the two KGEZ towers have long-delayed the airport's plans to extend to the south its 3,700-foot runway by 1,000 feet - because of the FAA requirements, which accompany federal money to do the extension. Stokes has refused to move those towers, saying the city won't pay him what he thinks is sufficient.

"It's just another attempt by the city to deal with me. They're trying to get something for free all the time," Stokes said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Stokes recently settled litigation with the state in which Montana obtained a right-of-way on some KGEZ property to widen U.S. 93. But complicated loose ends remain in that settlement. Stokes is also in litigation with creditors.

The city's stance has been to wait until Stokes' litigation is resolved - hoping such resolutions would lead to moving the towers.

If the new airport zone height law is passed, "the existing towers will have to be dealt with," said Fred Leistiko, airport manager.

Stokes said: "If they try to enforce [the law if passed], they are going to face a lawsuit."

Another potential height issue would be the proposed four-story Hilton Garden hotel that might be built next to the airport. City and hotel officials are negotiating a sale of the city-owned site - a draft agreement that will go to a City Council vote.

Engineers are looking at the proposed hotel's plans to see if its height must be decreased.

Another feature of the proposed law is that anyone buying property within the zone must be told about potential effects from planes flying in and out of the airport.