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We are pleased to report that last night the Kalispell City Council voted unanimously to limit citywide the areas in Kalispell where new casinos can locate. The council's actions:
  • Limited the area where future casinos can locate to the few areas zoned B-5, and only as a conditional use which requires additional review for approval. B-5 is a zone for limited business and industrial uses (click here to see map) within the city.
  • Removed casinos as a conditional use from  commercial areas zoned B-2 and B-4.
  • Expanded the distance from 300ft to 600ft that a new casino must be from the property line of a school, church, residentially zoned area, park, or other casino.
  • And prohibited any new casino from locating within 600 ft of US Highway 93 and US Highway 2.
   These zone changes leave very little, if any, additional areas for new "stand alone" casinos to locate.

   Accessory casinos, however, were not limited and the council declined to consider this.
An accessory casino "is considered a minor accessory use to a primary use if the primary use (e.g. restaurant or bar, but not shopping center or other multi-use designation) and its associated facilities constitute at least 80% of the proposed floor space and the casino constitutes no more than 20% of the proposed use. In addition, the casino is generally shielded or screened from view of the primary use and patrons."
  
    Thank you!!! to those who took time to send comments and to attend numerous meeting on this issue. And thank you to the Kalispell City Council for being responsive to the public comment on this issue. 

    We do not believe that there was any public comment in support of continued casino expansion in Kalispell.

    Last spring the council approved a new casino near the intersection of West Reserve and US Hwy. 93 north of Kalispell, which was strongly opposed by residents in this area. The decision to allow the casino was on a split vote of 5 to 4. The council, however, recognized public concerns with additional casino development in Kalispell. They directed the planning office to propose policies that might limit and further condition the location of new casinos in Kalispell and to bring these back to the planning board and the city council for consideration. 
    The new zoning to approved at Monday's City Council meeting comes out of this process.
 
Sincerely,
Citizens for a Better Flathead






Click here to read the 4/22/15/story in the Flathead Beacon.

"In the last 12 months, video gaming machines in the Flathead grossed nearly $30 million, the fourth highest amount in the state behind Yellowstone, Missoula and Cascade counties, according to DOJ statistics." Flathead Beacon


"According to national studies, gambling tends to prey on lower-income families, senior citizens and Native Americans more than other demographics. Another study, conducted by the state's Gaming Commission, estimated that gamblers are more likely to be divorced or separated and experience more than double the average rate of bankruptcies. It also found that gamblers were far more likely to resort to illegal means to support their addiction." Flathead Beacon

"Casinos contribute to patterns of inequality.
"As gambling has spread into economically distressed communities, it has drawn more Americans in the lower ranks of the income distribution into its venues. Low-income workers, retirees, minorities, and the disabled include disproportionately large shares of regional casino patrons. In this way, state-sponsored casino gambling creates a stratified pattern that parallels the separate and unequal life patterns in education, marriage, work, and play that increasingly divide America into haves and have-nots. Those in the upper ranks of the income distribution rarely, if ever, make it a weekly habit to gamble at the local casino. Those in the lower ranks of the income distribution often do. Those in the upper ranks rarely, if ever, contribute a large share of their income to the state's take of casino revenues. Those in the lower ranks do." Page 33, http://americanvalues.org/catalog/pdfs/why-casinos-matter.pdf