Kalispell Continues Trail Planning to Break Ground in 2020

Kalispell Continues Trail Planning to Break Ground in 2020

NBC Montana | 2/15/2019 | Mackenzie Dougherty

KALISPELL, Mont. — The city of Kalispell is almost done designing the new Kalispell trail that will go through downtown. It is part of the Core and Rail Redevelopment project.

A new industrial rail park was completed in October 2018. Before taking out the old train tracks, city officials said they have to wait for the rail businesses to relocate to the new rail park.

The city is still working to design the trail that will go in where the old tracks were.

Over the summer they took comment from about 1,000 community members. People said they wanted to see a multi-use trail, possibly including artwork along the trail, keeping the landscape green and other amenities added.

City officials told NBC Montana they will have a concept design at the end of February.

“You won’t see a lot of development out on the track in 2019, because we have all the planning and nailing down the details to do in 2019, so that we will hit the ground running spring of 2020,” said Katherine King, Kalispell’s Community and Economic Development assistant director.

King said they hope to have the trail finished by fall of 2020, but it will be a trail that grows with the community for years to come.

She encourages the community to actively participate in the project.

Click here for more information on the Core and Rail Redevelopment project.