Addition planned for Lakeside Fire Hall

State law will allow a proposed addition to the Lakeside Fire Hall, even though the building project doesn’t meet the Lakeside zoning district’s required rear setback of 20 feet.

The Flathead County Board of Adjustment will hold a public hearing on the project Sept. 6 to give the community an opportunity to comment on the fire hall expansion. Montana law, however, allows agencies to use public land contrary to local zoning regulations provided the agency notifies the board and a public hearing is held.

“The board shall have no power to deny the proposed use,” the law states.

The existing Fire Hall at 125 Bills Road is 10 feet from the north rear setback line. The fire department would like to make the new addition wall match the existing wall and setback, Bigfork architect George Gibson told the Board of Adjustment in an Aug. 11 memorandum. Gibson is handling the architectural work for the Fire Hall project.

Bill Brass, chairman of the Somers-Lakeside Fire Department Board of Trustees, said the department intends to remove a bay off the end of the Fire Hall on Bills Road and replace the bay with an addition to accommodate a fire truck.

The existing bay was used to house an emergency vehicle before the Lakeside Quick Response Unit got its own facility, and most recently has been used to hold the fire department’s brush truck, though “it’s a squeeze to get in and out,” Brass said.

He said the fire board initially thought it would have to present the project to the Lakeside Community Council and ask for a variance, but was relieved to learn from Gibson about the exemption under state law.

The volunteer fire department has some money saved for the addition, but doesn’t know yet how much the project will cost. Fundraising will be done if need be, Brass said.

Somers-Lakeside Fire Department has 15 to 18 volunteer firefighters.

“We could use more volunteers,” Brass said.

OTHER public hearings on the Board of Adjustment agenda include:

n A request from Steven and Julie Kruger for a conditional-use permit to establish a bed-and-breakfast inn at 2620 Big Mountain Road in the Rural Whitefish Zoning District.

n A request from Den Gar Properties for a conditional-use permit to build a 4,500-square-foot tavern and casino at 1945 Hodgson Road near the intersection of Hodgson and U.S. 93.

n A request from Jamie L. Lee for a conditional-use permit to establish a home occupation zoning designation in a suburban agricultural zone to use a detached structure as a jewelry showroom at 120 Highland Drive.

The Board of Adjustment meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 6, in the second-floor conference room of the South Campus Building, 40 11th St. W. in Kalispell.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.