Consultant tells Kalispell to buy lands now, before it's too late

The Daily Inter Lake

Kalispell should raise $4 million as quickly as possible to purchase land for new parks, a consultant recommended Monday.

The city should acquire new park lands before the surrounding areas are built up with houses, Jerry Draggoo of the Portland-based Moore, Iacofano and Goltsman Inc. told the Kalispell City Council.

If houses are built in a new subdivision before park lands are bought, that likely would mean the city would get only the least-desirable slivers of the subdivision, Draggoo said. That would make it difficult to develop the 3-5-acre and 20-30-acre parks that the city could create.

If the city finances new parks mostly with impact fees, it would take too long to collect enough money to buy a park site, Draggoo said.

Consequently, a $4 million bond sale would raise enough money to quickly put a proposed six-year parks plan into action, he said.

Draggoo said the city's top priorities should be acquiring parks land, working with Flathead County to preserve potential parks in areas that Kalispell likely would annex, and coming up with a financing plan.

The council took no action Monday.

Instead, council members absorbed their first briefing on a proposed parks master plan, which would run through 2020. However, the proposed plan ideally would require $59.5 million through 2020.

So the proposed plan also identified $7.75 million worth of projects that could be addressed in the next six years.

One funding option is for the city to buy land and pay for improvements as the money becomes available.

The city's general fund is expected to provide $930,000 for parks during the next six years. The city is studying whether to set up impact fees to be assessed against new homes and buildings that Kalispell absorbs through construction or annexation - to offset the costs of new parks. With the annual allocations, the potential impact fees and some grants, the city staff believes it can raise $3.75 million for parks improvements.

The second choice is to raise $4 million through a bond sale. That would result in a property owner paying an extra $40 annually in taxes for each $100,000 in assessed value to repay the borrowed funds.

That money would be added to the $3.75 million from the impact fees and other sources to make $7.75 million available over six years. It also would pay for some parks maintenance projects that had been put on hold.

Draggoo also suggested that Kalispell explore forming park districts with parts of Flathead County next to the city.

The rationale is that residents just outside of Kalispell use parks inside the city limits. A parks district would cover a limited area of city and county land - and would be a separate political entity solely for parks issues. Such a district would raise money to maintain and expand parks within its boundaries.

Right now, the 20,000 residents of Kalispell have 321 acres of parks, 73 acres of open space and another 12 acres of undeveloped land. The plan by the Parks Department proposes tackling the following for $7.75 million during the next six years:

. $2.545 million to develop a 10.5-acre park in the Willow Glen area.

. $1.997 million to acquire a 20-acre Spring Creek community park.

. $999,000 to acquire a 10-acre Rose Crossing park.

. $799,000 to buy land for four-acre Ashley Creek and Flathead neighborhood parks.

. $735,000 to help buy 50 acres of greenway along Ashley Creek.

. $248,000 to add trees, pathways, shelters, a few basketball courts and other improvements to Spring Prairie Tree, Northridge, Cottonwood, Sunset, Greenbriar, Washington, Meridian, Thompson and Begg parks.

. $32,000 to add benches, picnic tables and trees to Courthouse Park.

. $90,000 for improvements at Lawrence Park.

. $120,000 for water-related studies and improvements at Woodland Park.

. $20,000 to install hard-surface dugouts at Laker & Archie Roe Park.

. $165,000 for trailheads and trail signs.