Kalispell City Council on Monday will review the first two chapters of the new land use plan meant to guide the city’s growth for the next 20 years.  

Council meets at 7 p.m., Jan. 26 in City Hall, 201 First Ave. E.  

Councilors last month took their first look at the 150-page document, deliberating over how it should guide future housing and commercial development, including potential revisions to the future land use map to ease zoning barriers and changes to the public comment process required by state laws.  

The Montana Land Use Planning Act, which was passed in 2023, required 10 cities, including Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls, to draft a new guiding document that focuses on increasing housing supply through zoning and subdivision regulation reforms. 

Much of the document — crafted by city staff with the guidance of the Planning Commission and input from the public — echoes the growth policy Council adopted in 2017. 

Council plans to hold a series of work sessions to review the document before voting on whether to adopt it by May 2026.  

The plan’s first chapter is six pages long and outlines Kalispell’s existing population and estimated growth, creating a baseline for the city’s projected needs. It examines the parts of town experiencing heavy growth and the strain it will put on public utilities and infrastructure.  

City Hall anticipates 23,000 new residents by 2045 and will need up to 10,000 additional housing units — about 500 per year — to combat high housing costs and low rental vacancy rates, according to the land use plan. Over the last roughly five years, the city has approved 7,000 units, but only 2,000 of those have been built, according to city officials.  

The document’s 14-page second chapter outlines Kalispell’s planning history and breaks down the current land use and zoning that has shaped development around the city.  

The city’s first master plan was adopted in 1962, updated in 1974 and later replaced by the growth policy in 2003, according to the document. A major public outreach effort in 2012 resulted in the city’s most recent growth policy, which was meant to guide development through 2035.  

Growth in Kalispell ebbed and flowed from the 1990s until between 2015 and 2025, when the city became one of the fastest-growing micropolitan areas in the nation.  

Kalispell’s new growth policy planning area stretches three miles beyond the city's limits and spans about 28,000 acres.  

The chapter outlines Kalispell’s intention to gear future land use toward a variety of housing types, including high-density urban residential areas, suburban neighborhoods on the fringe of city limits, as well as mixed-use centers blending housing and commercial development. 

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 758-4407 and [email protected].