Parking has been a nagging problem in downtown Whitefish for years, but a new study outlining four potential parking garage sites could yield a solution for city officials.

The Whitefish City Council will hold a work session from 5:30 to 6:50 p.m. tonight at City Hall to discuss parking garage sites outlined in a study by Kimley-Horn and Associates. Public comments will be taken at the end of the workshop.

The consultants studied the feasibility of parking structures at four locations, including the current City Hall location, lots at the corner of Fourth Street and Baker Avenue, a BNSF Railway Co. site near the viaduct and several lots near the intersection of Spokane Avenue and Second Street.

The council wants to keep City Hall at its current location, and building a new City Hall with a parking structure at that site is an expensive option, City Manager Chuck Stearns said in his council report. It would use more than $9 million of tax-increment finance district revenue if that were the only funding source.

Stearns put together a list of pros and cons for the City Hall site with a parking structure or with a surface parking, based on the feasibility study. A parking structure there could spur downtown development and is close to the O’Shaughnessy Center and Depot Park. On the other hand, annual maintenance would cost between $100,000 to $150,000 a year, he estimated. And some people would perceive the mass and scale of a parking structure to be too imposing, though it would add up to 193 spaces for parking close to Central Avenue.

A new City Hall with surface parking would be more aesthetically pleasing, Stearns said, but would add only about 20 spots to the parking inventory.

The study includes architectural renderings of a combined City Hall and parking structure, with the City Hall entrance on Second Street facing south as it currently does, with the parking structure on the north end of the half-block the city already owns. Another alternative would put the main City Hall entrance on Backer Avenue, with the parking garage on the east side of the half-block.

The study estimates a cost of $15,000 to $20,000 per parking space for an average stand-alone garage at base level. The price goes up to $20,000 to $25,000 per space if a garage were built partially below ground, and is even more expensive — up to $35,000 per space for a structure built below grade, under another building.

There’s a current parking deficit of more than 200 spaces in downtown Whitefish, and that could grow to more than 700 needed spaces if development associated with the downtown master plan is realized, an earlier consultant study showed.

 At the council’s regular meeting that begins at 7:10 p.m., the Whitefish Convention and Visitor Bureau marketing plan and lodging tax budget for the coming year will be presented.

A public hearing will consider an application from Whitefish Mountain Resort for a variance to get a two-year extension for Northern Lights West.

A consultant contract for the U.S. 93 West corridor study will be considered. The city staff recommends awarding the contract to Applied Communications LLC for $50,000.

Finance Director Rich Knapp will give a third quarter financial report.