08/12/01 DI/Mall Proposal Faces First HurdleMall proposal faces
first hurdle
Planning board- holds
Tuesday hearing on
Glacier Mall project
By WILLIAM L. SPENCE
The Daily Inter Lake
The first civic hurdle for a proposed
750,000-square-foot mall in Evergreen
comes this week, with a public hear-
ing on Wolford Development's request
to amend the Kalispell City -County
Master Plan.
The Chattanooga, Tenn., firm wants
to build the fully enclosed shopping
center, dubbed Glacier Mall, on 144
acres just northeast of the intersec-
tion of U.S. 2 and East Reserve Drive,
Owner James "Bucky" Wolford said
the $100 million project would house
four major department stores, each
with more than 100,000 square feet of
space, as well as 90 to 100 specialty
shops, a food court with seating for
510 people, and a movie theater.
The Kalispell master plan currently
designates the proposed site as a mix
of commercial, light industrial and
agricultural uses. County zoning on
the property includes B-2 general
business, I-1H light industrial, SAG-10
suburban agricultural and R-1 resi-
dential.
Wolford wants general business
zoning for the whole property. To get
that, the master plan must first be
amended to designate the entire site
for commercial use.
The Kalispell City -County Planning
Board will hold a public hearing on
the amendment request on Tuesday in
the Kalispell City Council chamber.
The proposal was originally sched-
uled for the board's September meet-
ing, but was pulled up a month (see
related story). A special board meet-
ing has also been called for Aug. 21, to
address a follow-up request for the
general business zoning change.
Approval recommended for
master -plan changes
Tuesday's board meeting starts at 7
p.m. However, Wolford's project is
scheduled near the end of a lengthy
agenda, so it isn't clear when the pub-
lic hearing will begin.
The Flathead County Planning and
Zoning Office is recommending
approval of the master plan amend-
ment.
Director Forrest Sanderson said the
primary reason is because a majority
of the proposed mall location is
already planned for comparable or
higher intensity uses.
A basic assumption in land -use
planning, he explained, is that land
uses range from low -intensity agricul-
tural to high -intensity industrial.
On the WoNord site, "71 of 144_acres
are currently zoned B-2 or I-1H,"
Sanderson said. "And in terms of the
master plan, there's another roughly
30 acres where industrial uses could
be expanded in the future."
Consequently, he said, "it isn't
unreasonable to conclude" that more
than two-thirds of the property
already matches what Wolford is
proposing.
Trading a higher -intensity use on 44
acres for a lower- or comparable -
intensity use on 100 acres seems to
make sense, Sanderson said — hence
the favorable recommendation.
The biggest concerns about the pro-
posed mall, he said, are its impact on
downtown Kalispell, the increase in
traffic associated, and how sewer and
water service will be handled.
Developer says mall could
lure shoppers from far away
During an interview last week, Wol-
ford said Glacier Mall would do little
harm to the independent retail shops
on Main Street in Kalispell.
"I don't think this project will affect
them at all," he said. "Most of them
are very specialized — they aren't
mall -type stores."
With Glacier Mall pulling shoppers
in from a 100- to 150-mile radius, Wol-
ford said, there will likely be some
"spillage" onto Main Street, with busi-
nesses there benefiting from the over-
all increase in retail traffic.
As for the Kalispell Center Mall, he
said, it undoubtedly will suffer from
the competition — but its future is dis-
mal no matter what happens with his
project.
THIS ARTIST'S sketch shows the entrance to the proposed Glacier Mall.
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"Depa, ' ent stores don't want to be
there," cord said of the Center
Street location. "The site is very limit-
ed; it's only 20 acres. My site, just for
the mall, is 84 acres. We've provided
expansion room for the department
stores, so I can accommodate their
growth needs for the next 40 years."
Put another way, he said, Glacier
Mall would close the door to any addi-
tional shopping mall development in
the Flathead for several decades.
"I think that's proper planning," he
said, because it would help eliminate
sprawl and focus retail development
in one central location.
Before starting his own firm three
years ago, Wolford was a founding
partner and the second-largest share-
holder in CBL & Associates Proper-
ties, a $500 million real estate invest-
ment trust that has an ownership
interest in 28 enclosed regional malls,
14 strip malls and 82 community and
neighborhood shopping centers.
"I've developed more than 22 mil-
lion square feet of retail," he said.
"That's been my business for 25
years."
After investigating several potential
mall sites around the valley, the Ever-
green property was chosen because it
offers adequate room for expansion
and peripheral development, it's cen-
trally located along a major highway,
it's well -positioned to capture the
attention of tourists heading to
Glacier National Park, and it's able to
be served by municipal sewer and
water.
Sewer service still a question
mark for Glacier Mall
Whether it will connect to
Kalispell's infrastructure, though,
remains a question.
"I have more than 200 acres under
my control," Wolford said. "I've
optioned enough additional land that I
could do my own treatment plant. The
amount I would spend doing onsite
sewer isn't much different than what
it would cost to extend the city sewer
lines.
"But that's the least preferable
option," he said. "From the beginning,
I've said I want to be part of
Kalispell."
Wolford has actively pursued
annexation into the city. Another
alternative, based on legislation
passed during the last session, would
be to establish an annexation district
that could delay annexation for up to
10 years.
"In the interim, we would be paying
See HURDLE on Page A14
Mall pf a faces
board reviews
city taxes," he said. "The num-
bers we've looked at put our
taxes in the range of $400,000 a
year. So the city gets the bene-
fit, in return for very little ser-
vice."
Whether Kalispell would
lose more than that due to
failed businesses in the down-
town core hasn't been ana-
lyzed.
However, if Kalispell wants
to remain the commercial cen-
ter of northwest Montana —
something officials here have
long maintained — then "it
needs a facility of this type,"
Wolford said.
Following the planning
board hearing, the master plan
,amendment must be approved
by both the Flathead County
Commissioners and the
,Kalispell City Council.