Forgotten lakefront park may have a future

Whitefish Pilot

Renewed interest in improving a forgotten public park on the west shore of Whitefish Lake is gaining momentum both among local supporters and in the development process for a new countywide parks master plan.

Called for lack of another name "Lake Park Addition," from when it was created in 1913, the half-acre of county-owned land includes mature trees, several picnic tables, a floating dock that is removed each fall by Flathead County Parks and Recreation Department crews, and a rundown pit toilet that has given the place a bad name.

To reach the park, take State Park Road across the railroad tracks, turn immediately to the right onto West Lakeshore Drive and continue about 750 feet to a 60-foot wide county easement that runs down to the lakeshore.

The tiny Lake Park Addition site is one of four public access sites on the shore of Whitefish Lake, where high real estate values will likely make future public acquisitions difficult. The state owns State Park and Les Mason Park, and the city of Whitefish owns City Beach.

The county also owns a small piece of lakeshore property on Lazy Bay, Flathead County Parks and Recreation director Jed Fisher said, but it's 'small, swampy and weedy" and unlikely to be developed into a public park.

Fisher said Lake Park Addition has been 'specifically" discussed under the new parks master plan process. He said he escorted several county parks board members and county administrator Mike Pence to the site to look it over.

County park crews did a lot of thinning and cleaning up last fall, Fisher said, but the park needs much more work. Public parking, handicap-accessible parking and trails, and a vault toilet are the biggest needs, he said.

"I think $50,000 could easily cover those costs," Fisher said, noting no money is currently available in the county budget to pay for those improvements.

That estimate wouldn't include putting gravel on the lakeshore to "improve" the "beach." Changes like that fall under the lakeshore regulations. The park is outside the city limits, but until litigation over the city's claim to jurisdiction over the two-mile planning and zoning "doughnut" are resolved, plans to change the lakeshore are uncertain.

Flathead County planner George Smith, a Whitefish resident, recently submitted a report to the county parks board proposing improvements to Lake Park Addition. His report also mentions access problems caused by neighbors.

"There are reports that potential park users have been directed away from the site by neighbors who have denied public access across the easement," Smith wrote.

He noted that boulders have been placed in the county easement that prevent parking, and he recommended construction of a rustic split-rail fence around the county property to prevent further encroachment.

Fisher said the number one concern of neighbors has been visitors who let their dogs run loose at Lake Park Addition.

He also said the county had been approached by one neighbor, Phil Mitchell, about acquiring the lakefront park by a land swap. Mitchell had proposed swapping three acres of land fronting Whitefish River in Evergreen for the Whitefish Lake site.

Several people from Whitefish called the county to express opposition to the swap, Fisher said, but the proposal never had a formal hearing. The Evergreen property had access and floodplain issues, and Mitchell had never acquired the land, Fisher noted.

"It was not a comparable swap," Fisher said, adding that the county considers protecting land providing access to water a "number one priority" for its parks system.

Smith is now spearheading an effort to get the tiny lake park developed. He said county public works director David Prunty thought his department could come up with manpower, heavy equipment and materials to grade a parking area for 8-12 straight-in parking spaces and to pave an ADA-compatible trail to the picnic tables.

Fisher said he could purchase a vault toilet for $7,500, but that doesn't include installation.

"We need volunteers and funding," he said. "It needs to be promoted as a park."

There is also a petition afoot to rename the park after a well-known and longtime lakeside resident.