Council to direct architecture committee on apartment designs

During last Monday’s city council work session, council members had some disagreements about whether or not the legislative body should be a part of the designing phase for projects like the one proposed for south Kalispell, but ultimately decided to allow the architectural review committee to do the heavy lifting.

At last week’s Kalispell City Council meeting, council members found that some of the details in the conditional use permit still did not meet the list of compromises brought by the adjacent neighborhood residents, including exterior building materials. While the neighborhood asked the developer to not use corrugated metal, several council members expressed a mild distaste for the repurposed wood accents.

The Lofts at Ashley project, a 55-unit apartment complex proposed for Airport Road, was met with concern from area residents about the stark change to the neighborhood setting. Residents were able to lobby the city planning board for shorter buildings, eventually whittling the project down from 96 units to 55.

On Monday, the council discussed amending the initial conditions in the permit to require all finishes be reviewed by the architectural review committee, which would typically hold public hearings on matters with such a neighborhood reaction. Councilman Chad Graham is expected to write the proposed language to provide broad direction in material use for the committee.

Kalispell Mayor Mark Johnson supported the idea of providing the review committee with direction to engage with the design details, rather than spending council’s time on them.

“That’s not something that we do at the council level,” he said.

Council member Phil Guiffrida echoed Johnson’s statements, adding that this isn’t where the council incorporates its personal tastes.

“If you look at what our architectural review committee is there for, this is it,” he said.

Council member Tim Kluesner rebutted, saying that a project with such contention from the neighborhood deserves the council’s legislative attention.

“I don’t want to build a new building there that already looks like it’s 30 years old, and I don’t think the neighbors what it either,” he said. “I think we have a responsibility to guide this a little bit... People want their neighborhoods to look cohesive. If I lived there, I’d have some concerns, too.”

Mike Morgan, architect on the project, during public comment said the renderings submitted to the city won’t be final; they were simply submitted to show the buildings’ scale. He said the time for building material details will be later.

“We’ll get into that later, and there’s good reason for that,” Morgan said. “It’s better to take little steps at a time.”

Morgan said the developers have “very seriously” taken into consideration the property’s surroundings, including the Ashely Park neighborhood, the nearby communities and what could come at a later time with the South Kalispell Urban Renewal Plan.

The council at the next regular meeting tomorrow will discuss the proposed changes to the developer’s request for conditional use permit. If the decision to determine what building materials can be used is left to the review committee, the committee will hold a public hearing on the details provided in the project.