Planning board to take up vacation rental resort on Lake Five

A new vacation rental-type resort is planned for the shores of Lake Five near West Glacier, but it’s already run afoul of county and state regulators.

Dr. Susie Dietz of Anchorage, Alaska has requested a major land use permit to building two houses, 10 rental cabins, an entertainment structure, two pavilions, two non-rental RV spaces and other structures, including a shop on about 24 acres off Grizzly Spur Road.

The Flathead County Planning Board is scheduled to have a public hearing and consider the application at 6 p.m. Jan. 8 at the county planning offices in Kalispell.

The resort was already under construction when neighbors complained to county officials last June. The county, and the state Department of Environmental Quality, in turn, ordered Dietz to stop construction. DEQ’s cease and desist order was based on septic and water system issues. The county also said the development needed the necessary local permits.

The resort, which calls itself Whistlestop Retreat and already has a Facebook page, is advertising the destination, pending permit approval.

Dietz said she is not planning a large resort. She said she plans on retiring to West Glacier and is currently an emergency medical physician in Alaska.

“I am not planning to build a high-density resort at all. If anyone has heard that, it is categorically false. Like thousands of property owners in the Flathead Valley, I intend to offset my mortgage payments by seasonal nightly vacation rentals. When I purchased this property, my plans had always been to supplement the huge expense with seasonal nightly tourist rentals. I believe I’m one of 16 current nightly rentals on Lake Five, although I hear that none have been able to obtain the public lodging license yet as it is an arduous process,” she said in an email to the Hungry Horse News.

“My existing Lake Five home being decades old is seasonal use only. I desire ultimately to construct my year-round retirement home on the second adjoining parcel and thus am applying now to construct a single family home on 1459 Grizzly Spur. The regulations also allow for the construction of additional cabins with the amount of acreage I have. I am applying for this as well. My application follows the existing CALURS regulations and guidelines,” she added.

But the board saw her project much differently.

The Middle Canyon Land Use Advisory Committee examined the application at its November meeting. According to the meeting minutes, it voted to recommend denial of the project, based on access problems, septic issues, impacts to the wildlife corridor and nearby wetlands and the historic nature of the area.

The road that accesses the development is little more than a driveway, board members noted.

Dietz claimed in her e-mail that she has plans to address the septic issues on the property.