Planning board OK’s $15 million Nucleus development

The Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board Tuesday night unanimously approved a $15 million planned unit development for a mixed-use condominium, health club, restaurant and commercial complex on Nucleus Avenue, though some members raised reservations about the development.

Developer Mick Ruis has proposed two new three-story structures on the block that has long been the home of open space, a few office buildings and the former Bank of Columbia Falls.

Ruis proposes tearing down the old bank and building a building to the north that would face Fifth Street and another building to the south that would face Nucleus Avenue on 1.5 acres in the center of town.

The north building would house the health club, which includes a three-lane pool, a wrestling room/gym, a yoga room, a daycare, workout machines, a juice bar, and a locker room among other amenities.

The second and third floors would have condos.

The south building would include a steakhouse restaurant, two commercial buildings and condos on the second and third floors.

The two buildings combined would have 54 condos.

The planned unit development overlay is necessary for a couple of reasons. For one, the building would have a maximum height of 42-feet, 8-inches. City code in the business district has a maximum height of 35 feet.

The building itself is about 36 feet as designed, said architect Aaron Wallace of Montana Creative, but in order to make the building more attractive and to break up the skyline, parapets and other features have been added which are taller than 35 feet.

Downtown zoning in Columbia Falls is CB-4, which doesn’t require any parking spots, but the complex will still have 81 of them, 47 of them will be under the buildings.

Parking was a big issue with the board and the public.

“Overall this project is too big for the size of the lot,” board member Robert Smith said.

Three members of the public lamented the loss of open space in the city center. One woman said it would ruin events like Heritage Days and Night of Lights, where people have gathered for years.

But others supported the project. Board member Mike Shepard said he’d rather see the high density development in the city, rather than sprawled someplace else like up the North Fork.

On the parking front, Wallace noted that there is additional parking just a block away on property Ruis owns adjacent to Smith’s Food and Drug. City manager Susan Nicosia also confirmed to the board that the city council in the coming months will start working on a transportation plan. One problem with devising a plan is Nucleus Avenue is a state highway, and there’s only so much the city can do without state approval.

For example, angled parking would probably ease parking concerns, one member of the public suggested. The problem is that would take out the center lane of Nucleus Avenue.

Wallace said they have suggested closing Fifth Street along that block and making it into a park, but traffic flow concerns have stymied that idea, for now.

On the height variance, board members were more comfortable with that, because the city now has a ladder fire truck and can fight a fire to that height.

The ladder goes up about 80 feet.

Board member Claudette Byrd-Rinck asked rhetorically what the height limit in the future might be.

City planner Eric Mulcahy responded that the intent of the regulation, aside from fire protection, was too keep buildings at three stories. If this project had proposed a fourth floor, the planning staff wouldn’t have recommended the variance.

The board did add an additional condition to the project that requires a fence around the lot during construction and demolition.

The planning board’s vote is advisory only. The final vote on the project is up to city council. A public hearing and vote is scheduled for 7 p.m. April 6 at city hall.