Downtown parking lot funding OK'd

Council goes with surface lot at Second and Spokane

By RICHARD HANNERS / Whitefish Pilot

The Whitefish City Council unanimously approved construction of a surface parking lot at Second Street and Spokane Avenue on Monday, more than a year after draft plans for a three-story parking structure at the site were unveiled to the public.

The current plan calls for a surface-only parking lot with 81 parking stalls, two kiosks, several sidewalk benches, a bike rack or two and landscaping for $419,000.

Also included in the plan is reconstruction of half a block of First Street, including new sidewalks, curbs and gutters, for another $175,000.

As presented to the council by public works director John Wilson, the parking lot project will be paid for with tax-increment financing (TIF) funds and the First Street work will be paid with resort tax funds.

The Whitefish City Council had voted on Sept. 2 to move ahead with two downtown parking plans that did not include a parking structure, despite opposition by the Heart of Whitefish downtown merchants group.

The merchants had claimed a parking garage at Second Street and Spokane Avenue was the primary catalyst project for the Downtown Master Plan because additional parking is needed and it must be located near retail businesses.

Cost estimates for the parking structure, however, climbed from $5.1 million when it was first proposed to $6.6 million. When combined with the proposed emergency services center at Baker Commons, the two projects threatened to gobble up the city's total TIF bonding capacity, which is about $14 million.

Another factor pushing the need for a downtown parking solution " reconstruction of Central Avenue is slated to begin next year, temporarily eliminating about 50 on-street parking spaces one block at a time.

A deal was eventually hammered out between the city and the Whitefish school district that could provide downtown parking at a fraction of the cost and leave money available for the emergency services center.

Former city manager Gary Marks, who led the effort to find a viable parking alternative, came up with a plan to pave the corner lot at Second and Spokane and build a new parking lot behind the library. The additional lot would create a net 182 spaces after a new city hall is constructed next to the library.

The plan also includes getting Whitefish Middle School staff " and later, city staff and visitors to city hall " to park in the new lot behind the library, which would free up parking spaces on downtown streets.

Marks' plan also called for changing 43 on-street spaces across from the O'Shaughnessy from two-hour to all-day parking, so downtown business workers would stop parking in front of businesses along Central Avenue, and increasing the overtime parking fee from $5 to $20.

Three Heart of Whitefish representatives were present at Monday's meeting, but none spoke other than to comment on the color of the sidewalk benches.

Aesthetics, especially outdoor lighting schemes, seemed to preoccupy the councilors, who asked how the style of light fixture was chosen and if they could be " dark sky" compliant while also providing complete coverage.

Councilor Turner Askew was concerned about security if some areas were not properly illuminated, while councilor Nick Palmer was concerned that " fancy lights" might " gussy up" what is only just a parking lot.