Council approves 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 approved 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.

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 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.

However, the planning board and Wolford Development disagreed on a few points.

The council:

. Backed the board 6-1 to require six streets to extend south from the lengthened Rose Crossing into Glacier Town Center. Hafferman dissented. Wolford Development wants four streets.

Council members said they can change their minds later, depending on how housing projects to the north shape up.

. Went with Wolford Development's wish 5-2 to install a "three-quarter intersection" at U.S. 93 and the centermost new road going east into the mall. A three-quarter intersection is a T-shaped intersection will allow left turns into the mall for southbound traffic on U.S. 93. Traffic leaving the mall will not be allowed to turn left or south.

The planning board recommended that only northbound traffic be allowed to enter and leave the center access road. Kenyon and Olson backed the board.

. Went with Wolford Development's request 4-3 to remove a board recommendation that the developer set aside three acres next to Rose Crossing for three years in case the state requires an overpass-oriented interchange there. Mayor Pam Kennedy and Council Members Duane Larson, Tim Kluesner and Hafferman backed Wolford's request. Olson, Kenyon and Wayne Saverud opposed it.

Some loose ends still remain to be addressed.

Council members fretted about getting a road impact fee system approved before Wolford Development obtains building permits. Any individual construction project with a building permit before the council approves a fee system is exempt from the assessment.

A road impact fee is a one-time assessment on a developer to help pay for the streets that must be built and maintained to serve a project. The roads impact fees are expected to be high for commercial buildings that draw huge amounts of traffic.

An impact fee committee is expected to send a recommended set of fees to the council in February or March, City Public Works Director Jim Hansz said. City Planning Director Tom Jentz expected it will take a few months before Wolford Development is ready to apply for building permits.

Also, some council members agreed with the Flathead Business and Industrial Association plus Citizens For a Better Flathead that a study is needed to look at the entire traffic situation along the U.S. 93 North corridor. The lack of such an overall study contributed to the duel over what U.S. 93 North traffic controls should look like.

Sharon DeMeester, representing North 93 Neighbors, said the organization and Wolford Development still have not signed off on a legal agreement in which the group dropped its lawsuit against the developer - even though the two sides have settled their differences.

"It's all tied up with the lawyers," DeMeester said.

North 93 Neighbors has been pushing for Wolford Development to speed up construction of streets leading to the proposed community center - wanting to move that work from the overall project's third phase to its first phase. That matter is still up in the air in the organization's eyes.

On another matter, 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.

Four years ago - when the project was planned as an enclosed shopping mall in Flathead County's jurisdiction - Herberger's and Dillard's had announced their intentions to build anchor stores for Wolford's shopping center.

The corporation also is hunting for a grocery store, which would likely be built on Glacier Town Center's southern side in its second construction phase.

Wolford said the company also has looked at some suggestions made Monday by Dan Burden, a prominent Florida-based traffic consultant hired by Citizens For A Better Flathead.

Burden suggested:

. Putting a frontage road between the mall and U.S 93 to siphon traffic off the main highway.

Wolford said an obstacle is that Eisinger Motors is where a frontage road's southern entrance would be, and a cemetery occupies the best spot for another access to a frontage road.

. Extending the centermost access road through the mall to connect with its counterpart street east of the shopping complex. The idea is that the joined road would provide two major east-west arterial streets - in addition to a lengthened Rose Crossing - between U.S. 93 and Whitefish Stage Road.

Wolford said a major east-west road splitting the shopping center in half would make the complex significantly less pedestrian-friendly.

The City Council on Tuesday did not address any of the suggestions that Burden made Monday, including a proposal to lead Wolford Development and city officials plus the public through a revamping of Glacier Town Center's road system. Burden contended that effort would take only two weeks and not hurt any construction schedules.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com