Bonsai Brewery geared for expansion

A plan to expand Bonsai Brewery Project into an adjacent building and add a parking lot tops the Whitefish Planning Board’s final agenda for 2017.

The board meets at 6 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 21, at Whitefish City Hall.

Bonsai Brewery, which operates a microbrewery and tasting room at 549 Wisconsin Ave., is asking for a conditional-use permit to expand its existing microbrewery into a nearby building at 635 Denver St.

The brewery owners intend to move several aspects of their operation into the new building due east of the existing facility, including the kitchen and long-term storage of beer aging barrels, according to the Planning Office staff report. This will provide more room in the existing building for brewery operations.

The adjacent lot also offers more on-site parking. An expansion of any conditional use requires a new conditional-use permit.

Bonsai also plans to add a detached walk-in freezer outside the newly obtained building. The brewery and tap room will continue to operate under State Liquor Board requirements, which limits hours of operation to 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily, and the business can only serve each customer a maximum of 48 ounces of beer per day.

While this brewery is technically a nano-brewery, city code does not differentiate between a nano-brewery and a micro-brewery, so the same requirements apply, the staff report said.

A public hearing will be held on the Bonsai Brewery Project proposal.

There are four other public hearings on the agenda, including two to deal with rezoning 52 properties recently annexed into city limits. The first hearing includes 52 parcels in the Houston Drive area of the Whitefish Lake east lakeshore area, where property will be converted from county to city suburban residential zoning. The second hearing deals with 24 more parcels, largely in the same area, to be converted from county one-family limited residential to Whitefish estate residential district zoning.

The city of Whitefish proposes to amend its downtown master plan to show the future land use of the city snow lot near Columbia Avenue and Railway Street as designated for multifamily residential housing rather than parking.

Eighth Street LLC is asking for a conditional-use permit to develop a residential triplex and convert an existing structure into a professional office at 144 W. Second St.