Lesson 5: Urban & Regional Planning

Government - City of Kalispell

Lesson criteria:

• City of Kalispell Zoning Layer

• Kalispell Roads Layer – Divided into major roadways and minor roadways.
• Kalispell Growth Policy Boundary Layer
• Kalispell Growth Policy Land Use Layer – Cut down to just GPFL Commercial Zones.
• Montana Counties Layer

Project Goals:

One of Kalispell’s economic drivers is tourism due to various natural attractions, therefore, we want to
create 2 presentation maps to attract new adventure tourism businesses to the area. Map 1 identifies
areas in Kalipsell that are zoned appropriately (commercial). Map 2 displays commercial areas available
and public recreational land for development for new adventure tourism businesses.

Achieve these objectives by using the following methods:

• Bring in data layers and tables and then organizing them in a way conducive to the objectives.
• Turn off or adjust base maps to add clarity on maps.
• Symbolize zoning areas properly based on an established zoning color system.
• Identify Growth Policy Future Land Use area, specially, commercially zoned, by selecting by
attributes.
• Create new layers to differentiate between major and minor roads.
• Symbolize and label roads
• Define MO Counties layer (USA Contiguous Albers Equal Area Conic USGS)
• Present these 2 maps by creating unique layouts with specific features to aid in the story telling of
both.
o Adjust visual hierarchy
o Create color schemes
o Add map elements like north arrows, scales, and legends.
o Export layout
 Clar Dr

Coclet Ln

Old Reserve Dr

Farm To Market Rd

- Major Roads
Minor Roads

Zoning
1111 Business
� Industrial
1111 Health/Medical
� Public
� Neighborhood Business
� Residential

1111 Office
Residential Apartment/

Residential/Professional
Office
� Residential "'
� Unzoned Right of Way ·; Bells Ln

Esl'l NASA, N · A, USGS, FEMA

ZONING MAP 0 0.5 1 2 Miles

City of Kalispell I
I Created: June 2023 Project No. 5-1 By: Kelly Dvorak

Fig. 1 - A map of Kalispell, MO and the designated land zones within the city limits.
Fig. 2 - A map of Kalispell, showing areas in and around the city of commercial growth and recreational features in Montana.
Discussion:

Our target audience would be investors for new businesses in Kalispell, specifically adventure tourism.
Adventure tourism is a strong economic driver for Kalispell, but investment and development of any new
business could be looked at as beneficial. So, in Map 1 – Zoning Map, I focused on creating a map for any
investors looking for commercial areas. The most important display on Map 1 was Land Zones
throughout Kalispell, along with major and minor roads. For the zoning display, Business Zones were
placed at the top of the list for easy identification by investors or business owners. Major roads are
shown as a thick orange line as a method of catching the eye as well. Minor roads are also included and
labeled so these commercial areas can be located for further investigation. The map format was kept
clean and concise for clarity.

In Map 2 – Commercial Growth Map, the focus is geared even further toward investors focused on
adventure tourism. In this map, Commercial Growth Policy Future Land Use areas are displayed in red to
catch investors eye. Major and minor roads were kept as they are still important. Montana public land,
lakes, and rivers, were added to in both the main map and the overview map to display the spatial
relationship between these Commercial Growth Areas and all recreational opportunities nearby that
would create major advantage for the development of adventure tourism businesses.

One advantage to Map 2 was that the commercial growth areas expand beyond the City Zoning areas
because the zoning areas are limited to the city limits. This allows investors to see even more areas
available. I think an advantage of Map 1 was showing areas zoned as residential/professional office.
These locations could still be used to run tourism offices from. The main trade-off between the two
maps, was Map 1 was more generalized and could be considered by any investors of any business type,
but Map 2 displays extra information that would aid in understanding what recreational and adventure
opportunities are available for adventure tourism businesses.

Something I explored in Map 2 was displaying the Public Lands as unique values to differentiate between
the various types of Public Land like National Forest, national parks, state parks, Montana Public Trust
Land, etc. While I think it could be helpful, it created a cluster map visually, therefore, I chose to display
all public areas as green for clarity. I felt the main objective was to show there was significant amounts of
commercial growth areas and public areas for recreation and adventure tourism.

Something I would’ve like to explore further was if there was data available to add about actual
commercial locations for sale or for lease.
Citations:

King, E., Walrath, D., & Zeiders, M. (1999-2023). Problem-Solving with GIS, Lesson 5, /Part 1. The
Pennsylvania State University World Campus Certificate/MGIS Programs in GIS. Retrieved June, 12, 2023.

King, E., Walrath, D., & Zeiders, M. (1999-2023). Problem-Solving with GIS, Lesson 5, /Part 2. The
Pennsylvania State University World Campus Certificate/MGIS Programs in GIS. Retrieved June, 13, 2023.

King, E., Walrath, D., & Zeiders, M. (1999-2023). Problem-Solving with GIS, Lesson 5, /Part 3. The
Pennsylvania State University World Campus Certificate/MGIS Programs in GIS. Retrieved June, 13, 2023.