Kalispell City Council voted to apply for a $1.36 million U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development grant Monday, simultaneously criticizing the state Legislature’s recent efforts to address Montana’s housing crisis.
If awarded, funding from the grant would flow into city coffers over a three-year period, said Jarod Nygren, the city’s development services director. Municipal officials would use the dollars to complete a housing study, develop water and wastewater facility plans, and update its growth policy as well as zoning and subdivision regulations.
“It is a competitive process, … limited funds are available and it’s a national grant request program but hopefully it will be successful,” Nygren told Council on Oct. 16.
Officials plan on using a portion of the funding to bring on a full-time senior planner within the Development Services Department for three years.
While Council was largely supportive of the grant application, several councilors expressed concern about the scope of the work.
The application comes after the state Legislature approved Senate Bill 382 this past session, legislation that requires municipalities to rewrite land-use planning statutes.
“So we don’t have a choice,” said Councilor Kari Gabriel. “We have to apply to this grant because we don’t have the money to do all the different things that are outlined in [SB 382].”
The legislation also shifts public participation by including public comment on the front-end of the process and limiting input once specific projects are proposed.
“So I want the public to understand this and I hope the Inter Lake gets this right and doesn’t swing and miss again, I want them to understand that this will be the last time — when we do this planning process for five years — when anyone can have any comment on a project that might go in next to their house,” said Mayor Mark Johnson. “Because for the next five years, if that plan complies with the growth policy … your public voice is gone. This is why it’s going to cost so much to do all that front end planning.”
Johnson lamented the loss of local control over development.
“But thanks to the senate and our illustrious governor, we now have a state law that we need to abide by where we front load all of the planning for the next five years,” Johnson said.
Councilor Sid Dauod expressed distrust with the federal government, saying that they take local money and return it to localities in the form of grants. Still, Dauod said he recognized both the federal need to address housing and the effect the grant could have on Kalispell.
“As I’ve matured on Council here, I believe that not seeking these [grants] while they’re available, with the money we’ve already given the federal government, would be wrong,” Dauod said.
The grant application prepared by city staff highlighted the municipality’s past efforts to alleviate the housing crunch, including cuts to impact fees assessed on developers, a point of contention among councilors in recent months.
“I think that the cut in impact fees has likely a fairly minor impact on that,” said Councilor Ryan Hunter.
COUNCIL ALSO approved a budget amendment, which Dauod described as a record-keeping measure for the municipality’s fiscal year 2015 budget, and passed a resolution allowing the expenditure of tax increment finance funding around the city.
The latter resolution draws on dollars raised in the Downtown Kalispell and West Side-Core Area TIFs to fund a remodel of the Depot Park building, purchase land to improve the Parkline Trail, erect signs welcoming people to the city, and retrofit the space currently used by the Parks and Recreation Department into an evidence facility for the Police Department.
Council also approved its consent agenda on Monday, which included awarding an outside firm a design and engineering contract as part of a previously secured federal Safer Streets for All grant aimed at the Main Street and U.S. 93 corridor. The purchase of a crack sealer and a zoning request from Meadowlark Trailer Park were also part of the consent agenda.
Reporter Kate Heston can be reached at kheston@dailyinterlake.com or 758-4459.
