Clock now ticking on petition drive
By JOHN STANG
Effort to rewrite growth policy needs 2,653 signatures
The Daily Inter Lake
A drive to put to a public vote a substitute growth policy for the area north of Kalispell has until Dec. 26 to collect the required signatures.
Flathead County and Kalispell officials verified the required number of signatures Wednesday, starting a 90-day clock that ends Dec. 25, said Monica Eisenzimer, the county's elections supervisor.
Because Dec. 25 is Christmas, the deadline will be Dec. 26.
The substitute growth policy, among other things, would prevent the proposed Glacier Mall from being developed within city limits.
The petition drive must collect at least 2,653 signatures to get two connected referendums piggybacked on the fall 2007 ballot. That number is 15 percent of the people who voted in the eligible area last year.
If the drive collects 4,421 signatures - 25 percent of last year's voters - the issue will go to a public vote earlier through mail-in balloting.
The eligible voters are people living in Kalispell's growth policy area, which is the city itself plus a zone that surrounds Kalispell.
Originally, it was believed that only Kalispell residents could vote until officials reviewed the law, concluding that rural people within the growth policy area also could vote. That delayed the 90-day signature-collection clock by a few weeks.
Two ballot issues are proposed by Town Champions, a new grass-roots group led by Kalispell residents Roxanna Brothers and Jo Ann Nieman.
The ballot issues address an Aug. 7 change in Kalispell's growth policy that provides guidelines for almost 13 square miles north of the town.
Two public votes are needed - one to determine if the City Council's Aug. 7 policy changes should be revoked, and a second to see if voters approve the Town Champions' proposed northward policy amendment.
If they want to enact zoning, local governments in Montana are legally required to have growth policies. Cities' policies are supposed to cover how they plan to absorb areas immediately surrounding them, including written visions on zoning and neighborhood make-up.
Kalispell's growth policy addresses a 360-degree circle around the city, but the Aug. 7 changes tackled only the area extending north from West Reserve Drive to a line roughly defined by Birch Grove Road and Church Drive - with the Stillwater River on the west and U.S. 2 on the east.
Kalispell does not have direct planning control over the rural parts of the growth policy area. But landowners seeking annexation into the city must comply with the growth policy. If a rural spot within the growth policy boundaries does not eventually seek annexation, the city has no say over it.
The city's real clout involves developers who want to connect to Kalispell's water and sewer systems, which would mean eventual annexation.
In broad strokes, the new northward Aug. 7 policy restricts industrial and commercial development to areas next to the current city limits. Residential development would be encouraged elsewhere in the almost 13 square miles with small neighborhood commercial spots allowed at key crossroads.
The controversial portion of the Aug. 7 amendment focuses on 600 acres - dubbed "KN-1" - just beyond the northeast corner of U.S. 93 and West Reserve Drive. The bulk of that land is controlled by developer Bucky Wolford, who wants to build the Glacier Mall retail complex there.
Wolford has proposed a 735,000-square-foot enclosed shopping mall, a 350,000-square-foot "power center" for big box stores, another 80 acres of peripheral commercial development and a 56-acre mixed-use residential/office area.
The city's Aug. 7 amendment allows up to 270 acres of the 600-acre KN-1 area to be used to commercial purposes and up to another 150 acres to be used for a mix of residential, commercial, office and industrial uses.
Town Champions' proposal more or less mirrors the city's Aug. 7 amendment - except for the KN-1 area.
The group's proposed changes would restrict commercial development to 36 acres of the 600-acre site and would limit any commercial building or set of connected commercial buildings to a maximum of 60,000 square feet.
The initiative also calls for any annexation to be studied for its long-term and short-term effects on jobs, taxes, city services and businesses in Kalispell.
Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com