"Will Montana's Kalispell airport expansion take off tonight?"

Monday, August 16, 2004

Will Kalispell airport expansion take off tonight? 
By William L. Spence 
The Kalispell (MT) Daily Inter Lake 


The Kalispell City Council could take its first concrete step toward the
proposed expansion of the city airport tonight by approving the purchase
of two parcels of land near the southern end of the airstrip. 

The property must be acquired if the expansion is to move forward, as
it's directly in line with the recommended realignment of the runway.

The asking price is $550,000 for the two lots, which total 6.4 acres.
The deal is contingent upon the Federal Aviation Administration
approving the appraisal.

The city has previously invested thousands of dollars in various airport
studies, master plans and, most recently, in a 2002 environmental
assessment that detailed what would be needed to improve the 75-year-old
facility to a level that meets the design criteria for a B-II airport.

Tonight's action, though, involves the first expenditure directly
related to the expansion: If the council doesn't approve this purchase,
it's questionable whether the facility will ever be improved. If the
acquisition is approved, the council is essentially committed to
completing the project (although it might, with difficulty, be able to
back out in the future should the situation change).

"This is an opportunity for the council to show the FAA how serious
Kalispell is about the expansion, and it will give us an opportunity to
see how serious the FAA is," City Manager Chris Kukulski said on Friday.

The FAA and Montana Aeronautics Division have indicated that they will
reimburse the city for 90 percent and 5 percent of the total improvement
costs, respectively, but only if the airport is upgraded to B-II status.

The expansion involves widening the runway from 60 to 75 feet and
lengthening it to 3,700 feet, compared to 3,600 today. It would also be
rotated 5.6 degrees clockwise, both for safety reasons and to provide
room for a future increase to 4,700 feet.

The apron area would almost double, so more planes could be based at the
airport. Hangar space would increase as well. 

To accommodate these improvements, the environmental analysis indicated
that 72 acres would have to be acquired, involved 35 individual lots and
18 different property owners. Nine residences, five businesses and 23
other structures would also have to be relocated. 

In addition, the KGEZ radio towers would have to be removed, relocated
or replaced by an array of smaller towers.

The estimated cost of the expansion in 2002 was $6.9 million, which
included $3.04 million for the land acquisition, $3.01 million for
construction, $500,000 to remove the KGEZ towers, and $305,000 in
ancillary improvements. 

Whether those numbers are still accurate today, though, is doubtful. For
example, during this same time frame, the estimated cost of the new
north fire station increased from $1.2 million to $3.1 million.

There are also other costs associated with relocating airplane hangars
that have never been quantified, and that would be borne exclusively by
the city. 

Finally, there's never been a formal cost-benefit study done to
determine whether the proposed expansion actually benefits the community
in any way or generates a financial pay-back for the required
investment.

However, the Kalispell airport is the second-busiest general aviation
facility in Montana, with about 35,000 take-offs and landings each year.
That includes about 14,000 operations from private aircraft that aren't
based here - tourists and visitors who, according to a 1993 report,
contributed more than $1.3 million annually to the local economy.

The environment assessment estimated that total operations here could
grow to 52,000 by 2018 - but only if the improvements are made.

"I think the airport is a community asset that can't easily be
quantified," Kukulski said. "It's like the [Buffalo Hills] golf course,
which generates about $16,000 per year for the city. We can speculate
about how much economic activity the airport and golf course generate,
but people definitely coming to Kalispell to golf or to land their
planes. These are assets to the community. It's hard to quantify what
value the airport will have in 20 or 40 years, but we know once we sell
it, we'll never get it back."

Previous councils committed $1 million towards the city's share of the
expansion costs. Kukulski noted that the money came from the sale of
some airport land along U.S. 93. 

"As long as what we're spending is money from the sale of the airport
land, we aren't taking money away from something else," he said. "And
it's not like we're spending it on something that can't be marketed. If
for some reason the expansion is stopped, we'll still own a bunch of
land that can be sold."

The proposed property acquisition is near the end of tonight's council
agenda. The meeting takes place in City Hall, beginning at 7 p.m.


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