Permit sought for dog kennel in Echo Lake area
The Flathead County Board of Adjustment will hold a public meeting Tuesday, May 7, to discuss three separate requests for conditional-use permits, including one that would allow for a commercial kennel operation in the Echo Lake Zoning District.
The kennel request was submitted by Lisa Batten with All Dogs Aboard Inc. for a property at 645 Echo View Drive in Bigfork. The property is zoned SAG-5 — suburban agricultural with a 5-acre minimum lot size — which defines a commercial kennel as any lot or building where “four or more adult dogs and/or cats” can be kept in a commercial capacity. Batten is proposing to use a shop to house six dog kennels and an office space.
The Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee voted 3-1 in late November 2018 to forward a recommendation for approval to the board, but with a limit of five kennels total and subject to staff conditions of approval. The committee also submitted multiple suggestions, including stipulations that fecal matter be removed from the premises daily and that dog daycare be limited to three days per week.
A second request for a conditional-use permit from CROW LLC would allow for a “cluster housing development in residential districts” on a property located at 1545 Karrow Avenue within the Rural Whitefish Zoning District. The subject property, which is a little larger than 15 acres, is zoned R-2 Rural Residential.
According to the planning staff report, applicants Jake Christiansen and Matt Nerdig are proposing six residential lots with access to a seventh lot that would be open space. The single-family dwellings will have two levels for a total of 2,600 square feet and a 700-square-foot accessory dwelling unit for each property.
The third request, submitted by Evergreen Business Center Inc., is to build 15 duplex buildings on 15 residential lots within the proposed Hidden Buck Meadows Subdivision, which was granted preliminary plat approval in March. The property is located immediately west of 2150 U.S. 2 East within the Evergreen Zoning District and is zoned B-3 community business with an Evergreen enterprise overlay.
The Board of Adjustment will meet from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the South Campus Building, 40 11th St. W. in Kalispell. Decisions made by the Board of Adjustment are considered final.
Reporter Kianna Gardner can be reached at 758-4439 or kgardner@dailyinterlake.com