The Columbia Falls City Council has approved a planned unit development (PUD) for the construction of what will be the city’s second hotel.
The development, submitted in a July application by Mick Ruis and Ruis Holdings under the name “Staying at the Ruis,” will be built on a plot of land at 230 Highway 2 East that is already zoned for commercial use, and currently houses the Glacier Inn Motel, which is expected to remain on the property. The hotel will be built on 1.1 acres of a 1.67-acre plot. The four-story hotel will be 54,112 square feet and have 65 rooms.
Ruis asked the city for approval of three deviations from zoning standards. Those deviations were related to height restrictions, landscaping requirements, and landscape buffering size. The city council voted to approve two of Ruis’ three deviation requests, which aligns with the recommendations found in the city staff report. The planning board previously voted to recommend approval of the PUD to the city council.
The first deviation Ruis requested was on the total height of the building. Under the CB-2 zoning where the hotel will be constructed, height of buildings is restricted to 45 feet, but Ruis asked for an additional 5 feet.
“The applicant states that the increased height ‘allows more articulation of the building façade,’ which I interpret to mean the articulation of the roof line,” City Planner Eric Mulcahy wrote in a staff report on the development. Approval of the height deviation was recommended in the staff report
Ruis also asked for a deviation on the landscaping requirements of the zoning district, so that he would be responsible for landscaping 7.5% of the landscape area for the development, as opposed to the 15% requirement stipulated in the city’s “Large Building Standards” for structures over 10,000 square feet. The developer asked for the reduction “just in case they need some additional room for circulation around the site,” according to the city staff report.
Staff recommended against approving this deviation because of the importance the city’s growth policy gives to landscaping along the highway corridor, as well as the development’s proximity to a park, and other new buildings in the area like Ace Hardware that are landscaping in accordance with city standards.
Lastly, Ruis requested a deviation for reducing the size of the required landscape buffer around the perimeter of the site from 10 feet to 3 feet because of the location of the building near a sidewalk and boulevard on Second Avenue. City staff had recommended approval of this deviation because the building is not expected to crowd neighboring buildings and because of the boulevard on the Highway 2 frontage.