New options are being considered for a parking permit proposal involving the areas around Flathead High School and Elrod Elementary School in Kalispell.

At a work session Tuesday, Kalispell City Planning Board members seemed to come to a consensus that a parking district was a reasonable solution to managing congestion in the west side neighborhood surrounding the schools.

“The nuances of the details about whether or not students and staff have to pay, what should the boundaries be, we still need to work out,” Kalispell Planning Director Tom Jentz said after the work session.

Parking congestion around Flathead and Elrod schools has been an ongoing issue for more than a decade and in the past two years solutions continue to evolve.

In the original parking district proposed by a west side neighborhood committee, permit parking would be bounded by Third Street West to the north, Ninth Street West to the south, Second Avenue West to the east and Sixth Avenue West to the west.

Jentz and Senior City Planner Kevin LeClair suggested two options as a middle ground.

Both plans took into account that most people like to park in front of their homes and properties in the neighborhood primarily face avenues.

LeClair proposed that only residents could buy permits on avenues while streets would be available for students and school staff permit parking. Residents with permits also could park on streets.

Jentz proposed that resident-only permit parking be limited to avenues while streets would remain open to anyone with no parking permit required. He noted streets would be a direct route to the school. He said it might push students three blocks away from the school.

“It is no different then we were just before Glacier High School opened up because people were walking three blocks and three blocks was an acceptable risk at that time,” Jentz said. “I don’t think our neighborhoods have changed where three blocks is an unacceptable risk now.”

In acknowledgment of efforts by the school district to add additional parking around Elrod, Jentz suggested the area around that school could be taken out of the originally proposed parking district.

Board member Rory Young leaned toward LeClair’s proposal and said that Jentz’s plan penalizes residents.

LeClair reminded board members that boundaries were not set in stone. Jentz added that the groundwork is laid if the board decides to start with a smaller parking district and expand or change boundaries as needed.

“I don’t think we should be paralyzed with trying to solve every issue all at once here forever. I don’t think it’s going to be possible, but is there a reasonable conclusion we can come to. It’s always changeable,” Jentz said later. “I don’t want to say what we do today we have to live with the next 20 years. I think we should be reviewing it and following it through because neighborhoods ebb and flow and the issues come and go.”

Board member Steve Lorch considered starting out small with the understanding that it could be expanded.

“I think most people in Montana think the less regulation the better,” Lorch said.

Young said he was concerned about a smaller district than the one originally presented by the neighborhood committee, which surveyed 182 residents in the fall and spring of 2013-14, with 176 at the time indicating support of the district.

“If we make it smaller than this, we’re not necessarily addressing the needs of the people who came and presented this to us,” Young said.

Board members said the original parking district boundaries could be maintained and areas not utilized right away for permit parking could become monitored as “study areas.”

Startup costs associated with either plan proposed by the Planning Department would involve installing signs at roughly $250 each. The goal is that enforcement costs eventually would be funded by permit revenue.

Kalispell Public Schools Assistant Superintendent Dan Zorn told the board he was intrigued with the plans, but advocated for the district’s proposal. That plan would limit parking permits on the west sides of Third Avenue West and Fourth Avenue West with open parking on the east sides of Third Avenue West and Fourth Avenue West.

“We’ll keep hammering away at it — working with you on it [and] working with the neighborhood committee on it,” Zorn said.

Committee member Devin Kuntz said he thought LeClair’s proposal was the most viable.

“I think what you guys have put on the table is quite enlightening,” Kuntz said.

The next step will be to meet with representatives of the neighborhood committee and school district and try to come up with a plan to move forward, according to LeClair.

There will be an update at the next Planning Board meeting at 7 p.m. Dec. 9 at Kalispell City Hall.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.