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Whitefish Downtown Project to Go Up For Bid

By Beacon Staff

After five years of workshops and tinkering, as well as a late opposition movement over the past month, a multi-million dollar street project in downtown Whitefish is ready to go up for bid.

On April 6, the Whitefish City Council will vote on whether to proceed with advertising bids for the first phase of construction. The project is slated to break ground in the fall.

It has long been known that the city needs improvements to its downtown storm drainage and main water system, which includes replacing pipes and manholes. The renovations would require tearing up the streets and sidewalks, so for the past six years city officials have been looking into options to make downtown more attractive upon rebuilding it.

In 2004, a team of engineers and planners led by Portland-based Crandall Arambula held the first of six public workshops as it developed a downtown improvements project. The idea is to make the city’s core more pedestrian friendly, with landscaping, decorative lights and other features for both aesthetic and practical reasons – the practicality stemming from the belief that better-looking shopping districts attract more visitors and thus stimulate the local economy.

A variety of concepts – including mid-block crosswalks – ultimately met the chopping block, leading up to the current plan. The proposal now calls for gently raised crosswalks that eliminate the sharp curbs at intersections; “bulb-outs” at the corners of intersections which will have landscaping such as trees; benches; bike racks; decorative streetlights to replace the current ones and other features.

The focus of the project is Central Avenue, as well as the intersecting First and Third streets. The sidewalks will be widened along those streets, sticking with the pedestrian friendly theme while subsequently narrowing the driving lanes slightly. Engineers say it will also improve storm water drainage.

Public Works Director John Wilson said if the city were to make the water system and drainage improvements, and then rebuild the streets and sidewalks exactly how they were before, the cost would only be $124,000 cheaper than the current plan with the aesthetic additions. A few improvements to sewer lines will also occur.

In February, downtown property owner Toby Scott distributed a petition supporting the replacement of utilities and streetlights, but opposing features such as wider sidewalks and raised crosswalks. The petition prompted a public meeting at the O’Shaughnessy Center on March 25. The Heart of Whitefish, a nonprofit group that has been instrumental in the project’s planning process, organized the gathering.

About 60 people showed up at the O’Shaughnessy meeting, which mostly revisited the same concerns that have been raised in the past: the effect the project will have on both parking and driving space; the price tag; the necessity of certain aesthetic additions; who is responsible for maintaining the bulb-outs; snow removal issues and other questions.

Rhonda Fitzgerald of the Heart of Whitefish stresses that “the enhancements do not cause a loss of parking spaces.” The city has to eliminate four spots to get up to date on safety and handicap codes, not to make room for the pedestrian friendly improvements, Fitzgerald said.

Initial estimates pegged the price tag at roughly $5.5 million. Wilson said the inflated figure was a safe estimate to compensate for possible unforeseen costs and contingencies. He said the true figure, as recently calculated, is $4.3 million, within the $4.4 million allocated by the resort tax committee. Resort tax funds will pay for the entire project.

Peter Elespuru, a local Realtor, has argued at public meetings that it’s unfair to put so many of the resort tax funds into one project, while leaving out other infrastructure needs. He reiterated this stance at the O’Shaughnessy Center, saying: “What about my business? What about my street?”

Mayor Mike Jenson emerged from the audience and grabbed the microphone to refute Elespuru’s claims. Jenson argued that downtown retail businesses generate “the lion’s share” of resort tax revenues and, to date, haven’t seen the fruits of their efforts. Resort taxes are collected through 2 percent assessments of a business’s gross monthly sales and are reserved in a fund for infrastructure improvements. Many in the crowd clapped when Jenson spoke.

Construction will take place during the shoulder seasons – fall and spring – beginning after Labor Day this year and running through 2012. Under this plan, construction would not inhibit the busy winter and summer seasons.