City moves ahead with parking plan

By RICHARD HANNERS / Whitefish Pilot

The Whitefish City Council voted on Sept. 2 to move ahead with two downtown parking plans, despite opposition by the Heart of Whitefish downtown merchants group.

Rhonda Fitzgerald said the city's downtown master plan calls for a parking garage at Second Street and Spokane Avenue as a primary catalyst project because additional parking is needed and must be located near retail businesses.

"This is the fourth or fifth council to hear the downtown plan in seven years," she noted.

Fitzgerald also said TIF revenue should not be used for an emergency services center because a third of emergency calls come from outside the TIF district.

Marilyn Nelson said she wanted the councilors to explain their votes. She said she'd heard that the councilors didn't like parking garages because they were ugly, or because transients tend to hang out in them. She said the councilors should not base their vote on such personal opinions.

Jan Metzmaker called TIF money a "slush fund" and said it should only be used on projects that will generate tax revenue in the future — that is, retail projects, not parking.

City officials, however, say there isn't enough TIF money to build a new emergency services center and a downtown parking garage.

Interim city manager Dennis Taylor said the latest estimate puts the city's TIF bonding capacity at about $11 million. Past estimates for the emergency services center and parking garage are $8.8 million and $6.6 million, respectively.

But with reconstruction of Central Avenue slated to begin next year, the city needs to come up with a parking solution while the street is torn up one block at a time.

"We have two options," mayor Mike Jenson said. "Do what we can, or suspend Central Avenue reconstruction."

Jenson also disputed the Heart of Whitefish representatives' interpretation of how TIF money should be used. While 40 percent of taxpayers pay into the TIF fund, the other 60 percent bear the brunt of higher taxes as the cost of city government increases.

"We have already committed to the emergency services center," he said. "We haven't done anything for emergency services in 70 years, and we have an obligation to do so."

The council agreed and voted unanimously to move ahead with paving the half block where the new parking garage would have gone. The $372,000 cost will average $7,019 per space, compared to $37,288 per space for the parking garage.

The council also voted unanimously to direct staff to further refine a concept for a larger surface-parking lot behind the library. The lot could create 245 spaces, with a net 182 spaces after a new city hall is constructed north of the library. The estimated cost is $1.7 million, working out to $7,562 per space.

Metzmaker, however, expressed concerns that conceptual plans show a native tree garden along Depot Street replaced with 16 new parking spaces. She said the garden is used by Whitefish Middle School students.

Ten dump truck-loads of topsoil, 58 tons of rock and a drip-irrigation system went into construction of the garden about 10 years ago, Metzmaker said. The Plum Creek Foundation donated $2,000 in start-up funds for the project, and many volunteer hours have gone into the garden.

Two Middle School teachers wrote to the council urging them to find a way to work the garden into their plan. Chris Holt said she wondered what students would think "if the 'establishment' decides to pave paradise and put up a parking lot, when all of us should be driving less and riding more."

Public works director John Wilson said the parking lot design will need to be reconfigured to account for the garden.