Planning Board backs assisted-living expansion plan

Kalispell Planning Board members on Tuesday supported a proposed expansion at Prestige Assisted Living and a proposal to extend city sewer service to the Green Acres Court mobile home park.

Located on Glenwood Drive in west Kalispell, Prestige Assisted Living would expand its 44-unit, 35,000-square-foot building with a 19,000-square-foot addition.

The addition would house eight one-bed living units, 16 memory-care units, a dining area, a commons room and an outdoor courtyard.

Planning Board members voted to support a conditional use permit for the proposed addition.

They also supported a city-initiated zoning change that would rezone the entire Prestige Assisted Living property B1. Part of the property presently is zoned RA1.

Two homeowners protested that zoning change. They said they are concerned about the residential neighborhood west of Glenwood Drive.

PLANNING BOARD members also supported an extension of sewer service to Green Acres Court, a resident-owned mobile home park on South Woodland Drive.

In exchange for the city sewer service, the park, which has a failing septic system, would sign a waiver of right to protest annexation.

The park sits in an “island” of county land that’s virtually surrounded by city property. The island has about 250 property owners and about half of them are getting either city water or sewer service.

The Kalispell City Council has declined to directly annex properties in this island and instead extended services in exchange for a waiver of right to protest annexation.

“The waiver puts people on notice that [annexation] could happen down the road,” Planning Director Tom Jentz told the Planning Board.

Both proposals now go before the Kalispell City Council for consideration with the Planning Board’s recommendations.

IN OTHER business, Planning Board members voted 4-2 to table an annexation request from Eric Daniels and consider it in more detail at a future work session.

Daniels wants Kalispell to annex 4.6 acres of land on the west side of U.S. 93 about a quarter-mile north of West Reserve Drive and zone it R5 to open a professional office and a limited dental practice.

Planning staffers recommended against the R5 zone, arguing that the area is not sufficiently developed to promote small commercial or professional office developments along a federal highway.

“Go south and you have hundreds of places for dentists’ offices to occur,” Jentz told planning board members. “The property has tremendous potential in the future ... It’s the timing of the request.”

Supporters argued the development would have a minimal impact.

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.