Board OKs Meadow Lake project

The Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board on Jan. 15 unanimously approved a request by Meadow Lake Resort Development for a planned-unit development (PUD) overlay to accommodate 56 condo units and a 30-unit hotel.

The Glacier Village at Meadow Lake Resort project calls for building 14 four-plexes and a hotel expansion on 7.14 acres east of the existing hotel and clubhouse and north of the golf course’s 15th fairway.

The Spyglass Gardens project, approved for the same site in 2007 under the existing zoning with a conditional-use permit, had called for seven 10-plexes, of which one 10-plex was built.

Landscape architect Bruce Lutz, speaking for developers Bill Kahle and Kevin Holliday, noted that densities projected for the resort 30-some years ago “will never likely be reached.” Lutz said the developers changed the design to four-plexes so parking lots could be smaller and still provide two spaces per unit.

City planning consultant Eric Mulcahy said current plans call for construction in eight stand-alone phases with a variance requests for narrower roadways and no curbs and gutters. Vacation rentals would be a permitted use, and the hotel could be set up as a “condotel,” where investors would own individual units but the facility would run as a hotel.

Three people addressed the board during the public hearing. Les Parks, the golf course’s maintenance superintendent, said he was in favor of the project but was concerned that an irrigation main line crossing the site was preserved and that a storm drainage plan for the project doesn’t worsen the flooding that already threatens a sewage lift station.

Barb Riley, who’s worked for or with the resort since 1988 and owns property there, raised 15 issues with the proposal before the planning board, including insufficient parking; increased traffic; the need for recreational amenities, trash, housekeeping and maintenance services, and RV or boat storage for the new project; lack of ADA-compatibility in the four-plex design; safety issues relating to golf balls on the 15th fairway; incompatibility of golf cart paths with pedestrian paths; the need to protect the resort’s last remaining native trees; and the need to protect open space around the golf course in order to maintain its 4.5 star out of 5 rating.

Ted Robson, a vice president for the resort, disagreed with Riley’s take on certain traffic issues, saying the realignment of the hotel’s parking lot entrance would improve things.

The board made changes to the staff report to correct minor language errors and passed it on to the Columbia Falls City Council, which will hear the applicants’ request on Tuesday, Feb. 19, at 7 p.m. Mulcahy told the board he should have some answers to Parks’ and Riley’s concerns by that time.

In other planning board news, four of the six seated members were present at the Jan. 14 meeting — city representatives Don Barnhart, Mike Shepard and Steve Hughes. Absent were county representatives Russ Vukonich and Courtney Nolan.

Jason Bryan has requested to be re-appointed as a county representative, which would leave one county seat and the member-at-large seat open. The board unanimously voted to reinstate Vukonich and Nolan as chairman and vice chairman respectively.