New hotel on 93 strip given green light

A new 76-room hotel for the U.S. 93 strip has received the green light to begin construction this July.

Whitefish City Council voted 4-1 on April 7 to approve a planned unit development overlay and conditional use permit required for the project.

Hotel developer Larry Lambert plans to construct a Hampton Inn and Suites on the site of the former Wendy’s restaurant. Lambert Hotels out of Missoula operates five hotels in the state.

Lambert expects to employ about 20 workers with an annual payroll of $400,000. He says the hotel will bring the city about $100,000 in taxes.

The three-story, $8 million hotel will feature a façade of rock, wood beams and a stucco finish. An undulating roofline will top out at 42 feet.

“We broke up the mass of the building,” he said of the design. “We added articulations to the roof and building itself.”

The developer requested zoning deviations to allow the hotel to exceed the city’s maximum height limit of 35 feet and to allow for the building’s 20,030 square-foot footprint.

In exchange for the deviations, Lambert offered the city an 80-foot right-of-way at the back of the property for a future extension of Baker Avenue. The right-of-way would connect with a separate right-of-way recently dedicated by the Deer Tracs subdivision to the north.

Council struggled with the location of the proposed right-of-way, noting that the current plan for the extension has Baker intersecting with Park Knoll Lane at an awkward and unsafe location below a steep hill.

“Baker needs to cross our road in a different location,” said Park Knoll Lane resident Don Spivey. “It’s an icy and steep road.”

Public Works director John Wilson agreed, and said planning for the Baker extension has been a challenge from the beginning.

“The route is trying to avoid conflict more than anything,” he said. “There are multiple property owners, which is always a tough issue.”

“I don’t expect this road to be built in my career. It will be a real trick to find the funding. The whole concept has a lot of challenges.”

Since the proposed location of the right-of-way didn’t offer the city much benefit, councilor Andy Feury suggested the right-of-way be dedicated in name, not location.

“I went through the Highway 93 South planning,” Feury said. “It’s a mess. It will be a long time before something happens [with Baker.] This allows Larry to move forward and gives us a dedicated 80-foot right-of-way at some point.”

The 42-foot building height was another area of contention.

“This is a matter of scale and proportion that defines our town,” resident Jan Metzmaker told council. “You will have one giant building that will dwarf the others.”

She contended the added height was simply to allow for more hotel rooms.

Councilor Frank Sweeney argued the height diviation allowed for a more interesting design.

“We need to take this in context with topography and the benefits,” he said. “We would be less happy with a flat roof at 35 feet.”

Also as a condition of approval, council added that the entryway to the hotel be kept as open space.

Lambert plans to demolish the Wendy’s restaurant and landscape the entry as a “park-like setting.”

Plans for the project include the hotel set back 260 feet from the front property line on the 5.7 acre tract. About 60 percent of the property would be devoted to open space and sidewalks to connect the hotel to the highway sidewalk system. Amenities are expected to include a pool, breakfast area, workout room, virtual golf room and conference room.