Planning board to take up zone change for Club

The Columbia Falls City-County planning board will take up a zone change request at its Dec. 12 meeting. The Boys and Girls Club of Glacier Country is asking for a zone change on a parcel of land adjacent to St. Richard Catholic Church from CR-3 (one family residential) to CB-2 (general business).

The zone change request is the first part of the club’s plan to build a community center on the land.

The club bought the property from the church earlier this year.

The physical address is 165 Veterans Drive.

The planning board meets at 6:30 p.m. and the public is encouraged to attend. The Boys and Girls Club has been working on plans for a community center for years.

It currently already serves about 60 youths in Columbia Falls and is headquartered in an old church on Fourth Avenue West, which is too small for demand.

As planned, the new facility will be about 24,000 square feet with a gym, a commercial kitchen, classrooms and other amenities.

Last year the club sought a roughly $600,000 state Community Development Block Grant. But because the site had no infrastructure, the state turned the grant down for the time being, until it could be installed.

Freedom Bank earlier this year guaranteed a line of credit of $299,000 to install the infrastructure.

The actual building and its amenities is expected to cost about $5 million when it’s completed.