City Hall, boutique hotel enter parking talks

The Whitefish City Council took a closer look last week at what a parking garage in downtown Whitefish might look like.

They city’s parking consultants presented council with conceptual plans for four sites: in conjunction with a new City Hall on Second Street, at the corner of Second and Spokane Avenue, adding a deck to the BNSF parking lot north of the O’Shaughnessy Center, and the block between Third and Fourth streets along Baker Avenue.

The council decided to look in more detail at the current City Hall site and select another site later for more investigation. The city is expected to select two sites for further study.

Kimley-Horn and Associates is the city’s consultant evaluating the public parking lots and doing a parking structure feasibility study. Dennis Burns, project manager with Kimley-Horn, said the parking analysis has been updated from the previous analysis of 2008.

Burns said there weren’t any large changes in the analysis. The consultants found that occupancy rates for on-street parking in downtown was 65 percent. This is a slight rise from the previous 62 percent.

“Of the available spaces, during a snapshot at mid-day, it was slightly elevated,” Burns said.

Don MacArthur, an architect with WGM Group who is part of the consultants, said because all of the proposed sites are downtown it’s important to look at how they will impact businesses.

“You have to think about how this focuses on retail and the pedestrian experience,” he said. “You want to have those active retail uses on the first floor so the structure doesn’t deaden the block it’s on.”

The current City Hall site is proposed to include the new City Hall building and a parking garage. Concepts include constructing City Hall offices on the first floor of the building with parking on two levels above. An alternative design would put City Hall on three floors along Second Street and the parking garage to the north of the block. Access to the garage would be off First Street.

Depending on the configuration, the City Hall site could have roughly 200 to 300 parking spots. The cost is estimated at just under $5 million to $6 million for the parking garage.

A second option is to turn the surface parking lot at the corner of Second and Spokane into a parking garage with three levels. The garage would have roughly 270 spaces at a cost of $5.4 to $5.7 million. The concept for that garage include retail space on the first floor along Second Street.

Adding a parking deck to the BNSF lot on Railway Street is also being considered. That option could result in roughly 100 spaces at a cost of $4.2 million. This would only create city parking on the second level through a lease and would leave spots to be used solely by the railway. Access to the garage is proposed off of Baker and Central avenues.

While this site has drawn interest in the past, a few on the council questioned whether the site would even be useable during the summer Farmers Market or other events that close Central Avenue in front of the proposed site.

“If you’re running Farmers Market down there this becomes dead space — you can’t get to it,” councilor Frank Sweeney said. “If you want to park downtown you can’t get to it.”

During public comment, Rhonda Fitzgerald asked council to look at the site further and ensure that access to the parking deck would be off the northern portion of Central or Depot Street. She also noted that the city’s recently completed Depot Park master plan is meant to create an improved setting and the parking should be complementary to that.

“There’s a future scheme to that area which uses Central for community events,” she said. “You wouldn’t be able to get access to the parking because of the community events.”

A final option is a lot along Baker between Third and Fourth. The city doesn’t own the proposed site, but the option is being considered as part of a potential downtown boutique hotel at the site. The idea is that the city could partner with the hotel to provide public and hotel parking. That site could have 100 sites on two levels with a cost of $2.3 million.

Tentative design plans have a few of the garages above the city’s building height restriction. Buildings can’t exceed 35 feet in height with a 45-foot restriction at the internal portion of the building.

“Exceeding the height restriction may allow for more efficiency for more spaces,” Burns said. “Is that a trade off worth exploring? You have to decide if you even want to go over. We want to make sure to not get in the way of your viewsheds.”

Council’s response to the idea of exceeding the height limit was mixed.

Councilor John Anderson said if it’s a few feet he would consider it, but that 10 feet was too much over the limit.

Councilor Chris Hyatt said the city should follow its own rules.

“Without seeing the comprehensive design it’s premature for me to say what I would be willing to support,” Bill Kahle added. “We have a 35-foot height restriction for a reason.”

The city Board of Adjustments would have the final say in whether a height above the restriction would be allowed. A variance would be required to exceed the restriction.

Ian Collins addressed the council saying that the height restriction was put in place for a reason.

“Pay attention to that height diagram,” he said. “The fine print is 35 feet or two stories. With a design like that you could be running into variance issues.”

The consultants will take council’s suggestions and create refined concepts for the preferred sites and return to the city. Geotechnical analysis will also be performed on the sites.