Downtown parking sinks application

By ALEX STRICKLAND / Bigfork Eagle

Concerns over downtown parking congestion led the Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee to vote for a recommendation of denial for a variance to allow the building set to replace Chumley's Double Eagle on Electric Avenue to continue with inadequate parking.

According to a Flathead County formula based on lot size, the new building, designed by local architect Joe Magaddino and owned by part-time resident Paul Bradshaw, would require 6.1 parking spaces.

The on-street parking in front of the building only provides five spaces.

Eric Giles of the County Planning and Zoning Office presented a staff report that recommended approval based on "undue hardship" for the owner to provide the recommended spaces. Giles said the application met all of the county's criteria for the variance.

But downtown business owners disagreed, arguing that granting such a variance would set a precedent for parking variances for all future downtown remodels. They also said that parking downtown was already past a critical mass and that adding a larger building with retail space will make a bad problem worse.

But while business owners argued for denial of the variance application, no one offered up an immediate solution to the parking problem.

Mary Jo Naive, who owns Mary Gems next door to the property in question, said the construction of the planned building would be a boon to downtown Bigfork, but could generate an additional 16-18 needed parking spots each day depending on how many tenants use the building. Maggadino's design provides space for up to six tenants, though different configurations could allow any number up to six.

Naive said she "feels like owners come in and ask for a variance after they tear down buildings."

Chumley's was torn down last week.

Naive also helps head a group of downtown merchants who have been meeting regularly over the last few months to discuss a number of issues, the foremost of which has been parking, she said.

Five letters expressing opposition to the project were submitted.

BLUAC acting chairperson Shelley Gonzales said she was concerned about setting a precedent, but that some ideas need to come forward about how to solve the issue. She asked the downtown group as well as the Chamber of Commerce and the Community Foundation for a Better Bigfork to brainstorm ideas that could be presented at next month's BLAUC meeting.

The board voted to recommend denial in a 3-2 vote, with Gary Ridderhoff and Paul Guerrant dissenting.

On the Monday following the BLUAC decision, Bradshaw submitted a letter to the Board of Adjustment in which he asked them to grant the variance and offered his support for a parking solution, should one be reached.

"Hopefully your approval of this project can begin a discussion that results in a broader solution to the parking issue in which we would gladly participate," he wrote in the letter.

In an interview last week with the Eagle, Bradshaw said he would happily participate in a solution, even if it were not figured out what that might be until after his project is completed.

The other application heard by BLUAC was for a conditional use permit to construct a 40,900 square foot tennis and gymnastics facility with an adjoining community center to be constructed behind Grizzly Jack's Saloon and the Crossroads Christian Fellowship church near the intersection of Highways 83 and 35.

That facility, proposed by Bigfork resident Denny Sabo, would house three indoor tennis courts, a 7,200 sq. ft. gymnastics facility and a community center that would be a non-profit entity, separate from the for-profit facilities.

The property is located in a Suburban Agricultural-5 zone, and a "low-impact recreational facility" is permissible with a conditional use permit, according to county planner Alex Hogle.

The main questions concerning the facility were whether or not they should be required to hook up to Bigfork Water and Sewer lines. Though they are within 500 of those lines, Sabo said such a hook up is blocked by prohibitive costs. Julie Spencer of Bigfork Water and Sewer said that Sabo would have to pay a hook-up fee determined by the projected usage of the facility, as well as a latecomers fee to the group that paid $2.3 million to annex the sewer lines to the area in 2006. Sabo said those combined costs could top $200,000.

BLUAC voted unanimously to forward a recommendation of approval to the Flathead County Board of Adjustment with the 20 conditions suggested by Hogle.

Both applications will be heard by the Board of Adjustment at 6 p.m. Tuesday, March 4 in the Earl Bennett Building in Kalispell.

Citizens who live along the Flathead River north of Bigfork spoke at the end of the meeting during a general public comment period about a proposed boat storage and dock facility at 1398 Riverside Road. The proposed facility would house up to 270 boats on trailers in covered building and have three docks to launch boats of up to 44 feet into the river.

Diane Johnson, who lives downstream of the proposed project, said the proposal is already in the final stages and concerned residents have been met with news that the river is largely unregulated. Some of their concerns stem from increased erosion due to higher boat traffic as well as the impacts of 80 boats per day — the project's stated target launch capacity — cruising up and down the river to Flathead Lake.

A public hearing held by the Flathead Conservation District will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, March 6 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Kalispell.