Council backs Glacier Town Center
Chad Wolford hopes to break ground on Glacier Town Center in mid- to late summer, with its shopping complex opening in late 2009 or early 2010.
"I can't tell you how thrilled I am," said the partner in Wolford Development after the Kalispell City Council OK'd the project Tuesday.
The council:
? Voted 7-0 to annex the 485-acre site east of U.S. 93 and north of West Reserve Drive.
? Gave preliminary approval 7-0 for a mix of business and residential zoning for the site. The council also gave preliminary approval 6-1 on some zoning mitigation. Council member Randy Kenyon dissented.
? Approved by a 6-1 vote preliminary plans for the 191-acre, 37-lot western side that will hold a 577,000-square-foot outdoors shopping complex, anchored by three stores of roughly 100,000 square feet each. One lot is to be set aside for a community center. Kenyon dissented. Council members Kari Gabriel and Jim Atkinson were absent.
Wolford Development and its three anchor stores have signed letters of intent to set up at the mall. But actual leases have not been signed.
Chad Wolford declined to identify the three proposed anchor stores.
The corporation also is hunting for a grocery store, which likely would be built on Glacier Town Center's southern side in its second construction phase.
Glacier Town Center's biggest controversy ? dueling stances over putting two mall-oriented traffic lights on U.S. 93 North ? fizzled when the council discussed that matter.
That's because the Montana Department of Transportation will decide whether traffic lights will be installed at future U.S. 93 intersections with an extended Rose Crossing and the southernmost of three roads leading into the mall, a street to be dubbed Many Glacier Road.
Wolford Development, citing its own traffic study that has been validated by the Montana Department of Transportation, wants to put stop lights at those future intersections.
The city's planning staff and Citizens For A Better Flathead oppose putting in those two lights, arguing they would dramatically slow traffic on an arterial highway intended to be a limited access, high-speed connection between Kalispell and Whitefish.
The city planning board agreed with the planning staff, but could not come up with a formal recommendation for the city council.
The project's preliminary plans approved Tuesday do not address the proposed U.S. 93 traffic lights.
City Attorney Charles Harball advised the council to talk with the state transportation department when it finally tackles the traffic-light issues.
The council gave no clear indication Tuesday on how a majority feels about the traffic lights, although council members Hank Olson and Bob Hafferman said they did not object to the proposed signals. Olson said U.S. 93 already has 19 lights between Rosauers grocery in southern Kalispell and the north side's West Reserve Drive.
Wolford "wants to go from 19 to 21 lights. I don't see how that's the end of the world," Olson said. The city's planning board and Wolford Development agreed on most of the proposed project, which includes 632 homes, a street extending south to West Reserve Drive, widening Whitefish Stage Road, and extending Rose Crossing from Whitefish Stage Road to U.S. 93.
For more on this story, see Thursday's Daily Inter Lake.