The Daily Inter Lake

The Kalispell City Council wants to see affordable housing in a proposed 3,000-home development that eventually would be destined for annexation into the city

"'Affordable' is not a $200,000 house," council member Tim Kluesner said Monday night.

Council member Jim Atkinson said: "There seems to be such a gap between a normal wage earner and the cost of housing."

The developer is beginning an in-depth market study of the Flathead Valley to tailor the proposed homes to what is needed, said Greg Stratton, vice president of Montana operations for The Aspen Group. That study is supposed to be complete in two or three months.

"We're striving to fit in with the community, and we're designing the project as such," Stratton said.

The project - dubbed "Starling" - is being planned for one square mile of land just west of Glacier High School. As proposed, it would be developed in annual phases over 20 years.

The developers are a combination of the Phoenix-based The Aspen Group and the local Grosswiler farm family.

In August, the developers hope to begin building the first group of roughly 150 homes on 30 to 40 acres in the northeast corner of the site - southwest of the intersection of Stillwater Road and West Reserve Drive.

The developers expect to formally approach the city government with plans for the first phase in April.

The developers will make annexation requests because Starling is just outside Kalispell city limits.

Monday's City Council meeting was a workshop session - at which no formal decisions are allowed - to get feedback from council members.

Besides affordable housing, council members wanted the developers involved in upgrading West Reserve Drive, Stillwater Road and Four Mile Drive - which border and feed into the Starling site.

The overall Starling area is supposed to have a mix of single-family houses, townhouses and condominiums for a variety of income brackets. Later phases of the project could include offices, specialty stores, coffee shops and day-care centers.

According to the site's master plan, long greenbelt parks cross the site with a 15-acre park in the center. A pond is planned for a depressed area on the site's west side.

Fifteen acres each are to be set aside in the southeast corner for a neighborhood school and an area that could be a mix of retail and other uses, including multiple-family housing.

The first, northeast phase might include a park. And the developers are thinking about putting some type of civic center next to the central park or the northeast park.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com