City will go ahead with downtown plan
As old buildings go down and new ones go up, the city will look to craft a downtown plan in the coming months to guide the futue of Nucleua Avenue.
The Columbia Falls City Council Monday voted to spend $25,000 toward a downtown plan, using tax increment funds to partially finance the measure.
The city will have about $50,000 total in its newly-formed TIF fund, which utilizes tax revenue in the downtown and U.S. Highway 2 strip area for city improvements. The district funds will be used as a match to Big Sky Trust Fund and state Department of Commerce grants. The downtown plan also is in compliance with the city’s urban renewal plan.
The downtown plan will look to bring city and developer interests together to create a vision for downtown.
The plan will also make the city eligible for New Market Tax Credits, a federal program that gives investors future tax incentives if they’re willing to invest in large projects, greater than $5 million.
Developer Mick Ruis has plans for a housing and retail project at the former Davall Building as well as a host of other projects in the city. Montana Sen. Jon Tester last week announced that the Montana Community Development Corporation had received $90 million in credits.
“This job creating investment will help small businesses open their doors in the pockets of our state that need it the most,” Tester said.
Wood product manufacturer SmartLam had been targeted as a potential suitor for the credits and expansion in Columbia Falls, but the company did not respond for comment after the tax credit announcement was made.
The company did recently expand its business to a previously empty building on U.S. Highway 2 near the airport.
Meanwhile, the city continues to see interest in an industrial park on Railroad Street, though no firm plans have been made.
The council also approved $25,000 in TIF funding toward way finding signs in the city. The city is working with the Graduation Matters group at the high school to design the signs.
In other city news:
• A Driftwater Way resident expressed concern about vandalism in her neighborhood. She said she had bags of mulch scattered in her yard one night, but worse, someone tried to hook up to her pull trailer and steal it another night. City council sympathized with her plight and gave several suggestions, including contacting Flathead Electric to see if they’ve improved the lighting in the neighborhood. The police are already doing extra patrols in the area.
• The Columbia Falls city-county planning board will hold a public hearing at city hall on a zone change request by William and Andrea Brunz. The family wants to change the zoning of about 12 acres of land on Rogers Road from CR-3, with a minimum lot size of 9,600 feet, back to CSAG-5, which is a five-acre minimum lot size. The move would, in essence, revert the land use to a rural character. The hearing is at 6:30 p.m. Dec. 13.