Faced with a critical parking shortage this summer, the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce is taking the lead in finding alternative parking solutions.

Construction of the new City Hall/parking structure and Firebrand Hotel have eliminated more than 100 parking spots from the downtown area, and the Chamber is scrambling to find space to offset the deficit.

Parking already is tight during the height of the summer tourist season; that’s why the city is building a three-story parking garage. But the parking garage — which will provide 202 spaces — won’t be completed until sometime in 2017.

Once the 86-room Firebrand Hotel is completed, it will offer 74 parking spaces for its guests. Hotel developer Averill Hospitality told the city last year it plans to lease off-site spaces for employee parking and plans to shuttle employees to the hotel during peak seasons.

Jeff Raper, vice chairman of the Whitefish Chamber’s government affairs committee, has addressed the Whitefish City Council during the last two meetings, stressing the need for creative solutions and asking the city to consider allowing parking at its 1.4-acre snow holding lot near the train depot.

“I wanted to put a bug in their ears,” Raper said. “Our business members are concerned.”

Chamber Executive Director Kevin Gartland said the government affairs committee has come up with several possible solutions. One proposal is to use the staff parking lot at Whitefish Middle School for public parking during the summer months when school is out of session, and to allow pedestrian access to the lot from Spokane Avenue.

Using the middle-school lot would provide an estimated 40 to 50 spaces for downtown business owners and their employees, Gartland said.

Raper said the government affairs committee has talked to the school superintendent about the middle-school proposal.

“It seems like it might be workable,” he said.

Another idea is to use the high school parking lot several blocks away for employee and merchant parking, and offer a shuttle system to move people back and forth.

Raper on Monday reiterated the Chamber’s proposal to use the city snow lot during the next two summers.

“It is important we address the parking issues we know are imminent,” Raper told the City Council. “The key component is the snow lot. It’s the land closest to the downtown sector.”

Some of the snow lot already has been committed to serving as a construction staging area for the City Hall project and parking for the construction crew, City Manager Chuck Stearns said.

“We are evaluating the cost and benefit of allowing parking on the remainder of the lot,” he said. “We would have to grade it and put down road millings in order to use it as a temporary parking lot.”

Stearns discussed the possibility of public parking on a portion of the snow lot with the council at the end of Monday’s meeting, cautioning that once the city creates a parking lot there, it may be difficult later to take back that space.

“If people get used to it and they want the parking lot in subsequent years, it becomes harder to take away,” Stearns said.

He said the city has suggested to business owners that they use Depot Street between Spokane and Columbia avenues for employee parking. There are about 50 to 60 spaces there that historically have been under-used during the summer, except during big downtown events such as the Tuesday night farmers market.

“That location [on Depot Street] is already paved and ready to go,” Stearns told the Inter Lake. “We should use existing resources first and fully before doing temporary improvements for other areas.”

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.