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07/17/01 DI/Developer Plans Huge Mall for EvergreenDeveloper plans E. Reserve Drive . By WILLIAM L. SPENCE The Daily Inter Lake A Tennessee developer applied for a master plan amendment last Cc week that could make room for a 750,000-square-foot shopping cen- ter in Evergreen. C m r The project still has several _J ` major planning hurdles to over- come. The fully enclosed mall would be built on 148 acres located north- east of the La Salle Road/East Reserve Drive interse 'on. James (Buc ymolford of Chattanooga -based Wolford Development said the facility would likely house four major department stores and up to 100 specialty retail shops, as well as a food court and a movie theater. Total construction costs would be around,$100 million, including land acquisition, he said. The four huge mall for Evergreen 711-7101 anchor tenants, who would build and own their own stores, would cover about 40 percent of that. "This is a big development," Wolford said during a telephone interview Monday afternoon. "I know I'm biased, but I think it would be fantastic for the Flathead." The proposed mall would be the largest in western Montana — almost four times the size of Kalispell Center Mall, and more than 25 percent larger than Southgate Mall in Missoula. Whether it actually gets built, though, could depend on an Oct. 1 deadline for zoning changes. The site of the proposed mall lies within the Kalispell City - County planning jurisdiction. Various portions of the property are currently zoned B-2 general business, I-1H light industrial and See MALL on Page A3 The proposed mall would be the largest in western Montana Amendment sought forp"100 million mall -ALL/ Tp .:. SAG-10 suburban agricultural. Wolford has applied for a master plan amendment that would designate the entire site as commercial; he also needs B-2 general business zoning for the property in order to pro- ceed with the mall. However, a 1999 state law forbids planning jurisdictions from adopting some new zon- ing after Oct. 1, unless they have a growth policy in place —something the Kalispell City -County jurisdiction doesn't have. Forrest Sanderson, director of the Flathead County Plan- ning and Zoning Office, said at this point it isn't clear whether the `99 law will be interpreted. in away that allows Wolford to move forward with his project. "If Bucky gets the master plan changed, can I proceed with the (B-2) zoning change?" he asked. "One school of thought is that it wouldn't be new zoning — it would be in accordance with the master plan commercial desig- nation, so it's just routine main- tenance." On the other hand, Sanderson said, the county attorney might decide that changing from SAG 10 to B-2 is still new zoning, regardless of how the site is des- ignated in the master plan. Without the master plan amendment, though, there won't be any basis for chang- ing the zoning. The amend- ment is a necessary first step to building the mall. "The Kalispell City -County Planning Board will hear the amendment on Sept. 11," Sanderson said. "Both the Flat- head County commissioners and the Kalispell City Council have to approve it." That seemingly routine pro- cess could be complicated, however, by the recent break- up of the Flathead Regional Development Office. FRDO handled planning applications for Flathead County, Kalispell, Whitefish and Columbia Falls. But as of July 1, the county has its own planning office; the cities con- tinue to handle planning joint- ly through the Tri-City Plan- ning Office. Because of the planning split, the county feels the old interlocal agreements regard- ing the operation of the three city -county planning boards are no longer valid. Its posi- tion is that there's no longer an established mechanism for how the jurisdictions and their planning staffs will interact. "And in the absence of any interlocal agreement, there's no mechanism for getting (Wolford's) project on to the Kalispell council's agenda," Sanderson said. "I can't put it on their agenda. I'm not on their planning staff." Wolford, who has spent more than two years working on this proposal, said planning office disputes, zoning law interpretations and other such issues are out of his control. "All I can do is present the project on the value it has for the area and the citizens and hope the city and county respond based on that," he said. "I'm not asking for any subsidies. I, just,have to move forward, and see what hap pens."