Kalispell City Council parked its plans to reconfigure Main Street on Monday, passing up a chance at federal dollars to fund the effort amid surmounting public opposition.    

Mayor Mark Johnson along with Councilors Sid Daoud, Jed Fisher, Chad Graham and Sam Nunnally voted against applying for the federal grant, several of them echoing the criticisms lobbed by opponents, including the fear that shaving the thoroughfare by two lanes would cause nightmarish traffic delays. 

The Main Street Safety Action Plan — adopted by Council last summer — identified high-risk intersections and streets in downtown Kalispell. Main Street, First Avenue East and First Avenue West were prioritized to receive traffic safety upgrades including high-visibility crosswalks, curb extensions and roundabouts.  

The plan was meant to minimize crashes on the thoroughfare. Main Street saw 258 wrecks between 2018 and 2022. Eight resulted in serious injury. The roadway currently sees around 18,000 cars a day — a figure that is expected to grow.  

Had Council pursued the project, the thoroughfare would have been shaved down to one lane in either direction separated by a dedicated left-turn lane. The space freed up by the loss of roadway would accommodate wider sidewalks spanning up to 10 feet.  Lanes would have stayed 12 feet wide, and the project would have retained parallel parking. 

While studies show such measures can reduce crashes, Councilors felt the changes were inappropriate for Kalispell’s historic district.   

“I am not in favor of any type of road diet on Main Street. I’m not even in favor of a 30-day diet, not even Ozempic or something,” Fisher said.  

The city was much smaller when talks of revitalizing downtown came up in 2017, Graham said.     

“2017 was a hundred years ago for Kalispell,” he said. “I hate it when people blame stuff on Covid. I’m not blaming it on Covid, but I am saying, the valley has grown 25% if not more. To me that changes my rationale and my thinking on this.”  

Council did, however, vote to move forward with the Main Street plan in August 2024.  

Johnson, the tiebreaker in the 5-4 vote, said that while he supported the plan, shuttering Main Street for construction before the southern portion of the Kalispell Bypass was completed struck him as too risky.  

“We have drafted this plan, we want to move forward, we’ve approved it step by step by step. Now it’s in front of us for decision time ... Do we jump forward, apply for the grant, and proceed on this and not have the other foundation firmly in place for moving traffic? That’s my biggest concern,” Johnson said.   

Fisher suggested Council revisit the project in the future, “and not take the Biden bucks that are being doled out that will probably be DOGE’d away anyhow,” he said, talking about billionaire Elon Musk’s efforts to gut federal spending. 

The money would have come from a Biden-era federal grant program. The city aimed to ask for $25 million for the estimated $27 million project.  

COUNCILORS SANDY Carlson, Kari Gabriel, Jessica Dahlman and Ryan Hunter were in support of applying for the federal grant, saying that wider sidewalks and fewer lanes would quell reckless driving and bring a breath of new life to downtown businesses.  

According to a city study, the lane reduction would delay traffic by 30 to 60 seconds. That hold up was projected to increase to between 60 and 90 seconds by 2045, not accounting for the use of a completed bypass.  

Reducing lanes, also called a road diet, is a widely used technique that has been found to reduce crashes by up to 47%, according to the Federal Highway Administration. Dedicated turn lanes have also been found to reduce crashes by nearly 30%. 

Gabriel and Hunter said their votes were based off years of data and research collected by experts proving that the proposed designs would be effective in minimizing crashes and promoting walkability.  

“We’ve heard from the public that this Main Street plan won’t work. But no evidence was provided,” Hunter said. “I know people have strong opinions, but those are opinions, and this is data based on implementation from other communities.”  

Development Services Director Jarod Nygren warned that Main Street buildings will not survive the growing number of cars on the four-lane thoroughfare.   

“If you were to double down on traffic downtown, literally the buildings will shake apart” due to the rumble of cars and trucks, he said.  

Gabe Mariman, co-owner of Bias Brewing downtown, said during public comment that he has repeatedly reinforced his basement walls because of frequent heavy vehicle traffic. 

Councilors have said in the past that while the federal funding for the project is lost, the Main Street plan is still there. Although it was unclear when or if Council would revisit the project.  

Reporter Jack Underhill may be reached at 748-4407 or [email protected].