Don't pave paradise

Last week’s Pilot featured an extensive story on the proposed Downtown Master Plan update and pointed out that the update is scheduled to be reviewed by the City Council on Feb. 17.

One of the items proposed in this update and listed as “Priority Five” is a plan for the city to acquire the seven lots on the west side of Kalispell Avenue at the corner of Kalispell and Third Street and construct a parking lot on those lots.

These seven lots are located in what is referred to as Block 46 and are zoned residential (WR-4). They are the only portion of Block 46 that was excluded form the Council’s approval of a new hotel at the corner of Spokane Avenue and East Second Street.

These lots, and the three houses contained thereon, provide a buffer for the residential neighborhood, both from the new hotel and its parking lot, as well as the general noise and traffic on Spokane Avenue. Removal of these homes and their vegetation will open Kalispell Avenue and the neighborhood to the commercial atmosphere of downtown.

Readers may remember that a few years ago there was an attempt by a building owner on Spokane Avenue to take one of the lots on Kalispell Avenue in the next block, between Third and Fourth Streets, and turn it into a parking lot.

At that time the City Council wisely rejected this proposal as an inappropriate use of a lot in a residential neighborhood. For the City to now propose to do this seem somewhat strange.

Currently, the streets east of the alley running north and south between Spokane and Kalispell Avenue contain only residential structures, with the exception of schools, public parks and churches.

The railroad borders this area on the north and the Whitefish River on the south. The mixed uses, which occur on the west side of this alley, have, probably by luck, not appeared in this area.

To me this is one of the major factors in making Whitefish a special town. It allows citizens who want to live in a “walking community” to have that opportunity.

It provides families with children a neighborhood close to all our schools, where children can walk or ride bikes to school. Few towns still have this oasis.

Once the first parking lot is constructed on Kalispell Avenue in this area, there is no legal reason why every business on Spokane cannot purchase a lot on the west side of Kalispell for a parking lot. The result will be that Kalispell Avenue will be lost as a residential street.

When the lots on the western side of Kalispell Avenue are parking lots, no one will have any interest in living on the other side of the street. The homes will be bought by speculators and used for a variety of uses.

The homes on this street, while not cheap, are some of the more affordable housing in Whitefish. We need more homes that community members can afford rather than less.

If the city wishes to spend tax money on real estate purchases, then a better alternative is to buy these properties, keep the homes and rent them at reasonable rates to our police officers, firefighters, teachers, nurses or city employees who might not otherwise be able to afford living in Whitefish.

As Joni Mitchell sang in “Big Yellow Taxi”:

Don’t it always seem to go

That you don’t know what you’ve got

Till it’s gone

They paved paradise

And put up a parking lot

I would encourage citizens who feel this is an important issue to attend the City Council meeting on Feb. 17 and make your feelings known. If you can’t attend, contact the Council before the meeting.

— John Ellis, Jr., of Whitefish, is a member of the City Planning Board