Arizona firm submits plans for former hospital site
By RICHARD HANNERS
Whitefish Pilot
A Scottsdale, Ariz.-based investment and real estate development company has submitted Phase 1 plans for The Banks At Whitefish, a “planned resort-style residential development” to be built at the former North Valley Hospital site.
Aspen Group closed on the 11.75-acre parcel for $6.4 million in June 2007. The original offer was $6.9 million, but after Aspen Group discovered the city’s long-range transportation plan calls for running 13th Street east across the Whitefish River, the company declined to purchase land from the hospital that lies along the river north of 13th Street.
The company’s plans came to the city planning office in two binders, with one devoted to the city’s Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO). Aspen Group’s planned-unit development (PUD) will be the first subdivision to fall under the controversial ordinance.
Aspen Group plans to build 51 homes on the seven-acre eastern portion of the site. The homes would include detached single-family homes along the Whitefish River and three-story, four-unit condominium buildings in the project’s interior. The rest of the site will be held in reserve for future development.
As part of Phase 1, a bike path will be built along the river as part of the citywide Fish Trails path system, Columbia Avenue will be continued south to Greenwood Drive as a collector street, and a clubhouse will be built on the northwest corner. Plans for a swimming pool have been scrapped.
Homes along the river will be capped at two stories, but Aspen Group will request a height variance for the condominium buildings. The company will also request a variance from city road standards. Interior roads will be owned and maintained by the homeowners association but be open to the public.
The traffic study submitted by Aspen Group estimates about 983 daily vehicle trips will be created by the project, but there will be “minimal impacts to the surrounding roadway network.” Extending Columbia Avenue to the Super 1 Foods-Mountain Mall shopping complex is expected to improve traffic flow.
Portions of the project site fall within the 100-year floodplain, but 48 North, a Kalispell engineering firm, found no evidence of stormwater “ponding” on the site and no slopes exceeding 20 percent. Marginally unstable slopes are outside the development area, and best-management practices will address erosion issues.
About 34 percent of the 11.75-acre site will have impervious surfaces when the project is built-out. The project’s stormwater management plan calls for minor holding facilities and bioswales, but mechanical treatment of sedimentation will be employed if necessary.
The Whitefish City-County Planning Board is scheduled to hold a public hearing on The Banks At Whitefish on March 19.
Aspen Group is involved in two large projects elsewhere in the Flathead. The company announced plans in 2006 to develop 84 acres next to Meadow Lake Resort in Columbia Falls with 182 single-family homes.
The company also plans to build the Starling project at the former Grosswiler dairy farm. That project calls for 3,000 homes on 640 acres on Stillwater Road west of Glacier High School.