The city of Kalispell and the nonprofit Kidsports organization hope to learn soon how much it will cost to buy a permanent easement for the popular youth athletic complex on state school trust land along U.S. 93.

Appraisers and surveyors are working on 29 acres of Section 36 school trust land that’s being made available for lease and commercial development for “Victory Commons.”

They should be finished by July 22.

Included in the offering are up to 14 acres of land Kidsports and Kalispell have agreed to release from their 134-acre lease.

That’s land for which they would be compensated by a developer, with the proceeds giving Kidsports a financial head start toward buying a permanent easement from the state for the other 120 acres.

A draft permanent easement already is in the works.

“The goal is to have something pulled together and sent to the State Land Board in August,” said Mike Collins, a program manager with the Northwest Land Office in Kalispell. “We’re always optimistic things will move faster than they do, but everyone is working hard to get it done. We’re chugging along.”

At least two developers are expressing serious interest in leasing all of the land being made available for Victory Commons, Collins said.

For now there remain several moving parts and unknowns, including who the developers are and what any possible development could entail or look like.

Appraisals, the amount of Kidsports land a developer wants to use and the price paid for the right to use that land all will affect the final cost of a permanent easement.

“There’s no ballpark price yet. That’s all going to be driven by the appraisals,” said Dan Johns, director of Kidsports.

“That will just tell us how big of a [fundraising] challenge we face,” he said. “We are committed to wanting a permanent easement. We think this facility has proven itself as a valuable community asset.”

The sports facility’s soccer, baseball, softball and football fields draw thousands of young athletes, family members and spectators to Kalispell every spring, summer and fall.

Kidsports entered a 40-year lease for 134 acres of school trust land in 1996. The city of Kalispell holds the lease but Kidsports makes the payment, collecting user fees from the many sports leagues it runs. That payment increases by 1.5 percent annually and hit $43,000 last year.

Kalispell also would have to sponsor the nonprofit’s purchase of a permanent easement from the state.

The concern driving the push for a permanent easement is that a required mid-lease reappraisal will increase the Kidsports payment, perhaps to an unaffordable level.

Extensive commercial development has occurred in north Kalispell and on Section 36 and significantly driven up property values in the area since Kidsports entered its lease.

When the cost for a permanent easement is known, hopefully by August, Kidsports can start raising the money needed to buy it.

The draft easement being put together includes a three- to five-year option that would give Kidsports time to raise money but allow commercial development for Victory Commons to proceed.

“At that point we should know what the price is going to be and hopefully have the paperwork to the State Land Board and on their agenda, to have them review and hopefully approve the option agreement. That gets us the green light to make that field permanent,” Johns said. “Right now there’s a lot of moving parts, but they’re all moving in the right direction.”

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.