City approves hotel, work expected soon
Columbia Falls has long been the town people drove right through on their way to Glacier National Park. Now they’ll have a reason to stop.
The Columbia Falls City Council Monday night approved plans for a multi-million dollar hotel, the first of its kind in the city limits.
The first phase of the hotel would have 64 rooms and a 3,000-square-foot conference room for 200 people off U.S. Highway 2 immediately adjacent to the Pinewood Park. The land has sat vacant for years and was formerly a mobile home and row house park decades ago. One row house remains and will be removed shortly.
The hotel also has a second phase, which would add 18 rooms, if demand warrants them.
The hotel is being constructed by Ruis Holdings, by partners Mick Ruis and Rod Shaw. The hotel, called Cedar Creek Lodge and Convention Center, is modeled after lodges in Glacier National Park, with open beam timbers and sharply pitched roofs.
The one sticking point in the project centered around parking during last night’s public hearing. The planned unit development crafted for the project initially had asked the developers to share the cost in reconstructing Second Avenue West so it would have diagonal parking. The street parking would ease some of the parking concerns with the project, as it won’t have the required spaces under the zoning codes for both a hotel and a convention center.
Shaw argued it wasn’t fair for the developers to shoulder costs of parking spots they’d have no control over. Mayor Don Barnhart and the rest of council agreed and struck out the language in the planned unit development that would require the cost sharing.
“I think we need to buy into this,” Barnhart argued.
City Manager Susan Nicosia said the street upgrades would likely cost the city about $180,000. The city would have to shift funds from its $400,000 street budget to cover them.
Even with the additional street parking, the project would still fall about 18 spaces short of the requirements under the zoning, but developers argue that the hotel guests generally stay at night, while convention center attendees would use spaces during the day.
Two neighbors both raised concerns about noise and parking, but Shaw noted it was in the hotel’s best interest to keep noise down and he promised the building would be attractive with controlled lighting. The developers are also taking pains to buy materials locally, including trusses from Western Building Center.
A big round of applause went up when council approved the project. City Manager Susan Nicosia said a building permit for the project could be in hand in the next few days. The developers want to break ground this fall, so it can be open by next summer. The city-county planning board approved the project earlier in the week.
Ruis recently bought several other properties in the city in the downtown district, where he has indicated plans for a blend of housing, retail and a restaurant, though no formal applications have been made at this point.