The Daily Inter Lake

A revised development plan for Big Mountain Village won planning-board backing last week and heads to the Whitefish City Council on March 5 for a final nod.

Resort operator Winter Sports Inc. is seeking approval of a plan for 12 buildings and accompanying infrastructure that would become the village core outlined in the resort's new master plan. The plan breaks up hotel offerings into several buildings; about 250 lodging units are planned in the new village.

The Whitefish City-Council Planning Board in January postponed a decision on Winter Sports' plan until parking and easement issues could be worked out with Alpinglow Inn and Edelweiss Condominiums.

A revised plan shows no roads or encroachments on Alpinglow or Edelweiss properties, and an access road to Alpinglow has been modified to end in a "T" turn-around instead of a cul-de-sac that would have encroached on Alpinglow land.

Edelweiss has no dedicated parking and Winter Sports has offered to sell it enough land for about 40 spaces. An earlier concern about a right-of-way line that would have crossed a corner of Edelweiss property was eliminated when Winter Sports agreed to build a road with a 40-foot right of way instead of 60 feet.

Access for fire trucks also was a concern, but Winter Sports worked out an emergency-services plan that meets the approval of Big Mountain Fire District, according to the Whitefish Planning Department's staff report on the project.

Winter Sports plans to break ground in June on one of the condominium hotel lodges planned in the plaza, and will spend the summer rebuilding Chair 1, the popular Glacier Chaser lift.

It will cost $5.2 million to reconstruct Chair 1 with all new equipment, Winter Sports President Fred Jones said. It's possible Chair 2 will be realigned this summer, too, but a final determination hasn't been made yet.

A new master plan for the resort calls for Chair 2 to be converted from a fixed-grip double lift to a detachable high-speed quad using existing lift equipment. Its route will shift to the east to connect with the new plaza and will allow the resort to quadruple its uphill capacity on the south side of Big Mountain.

Once the Chair 2 project starts, the historic Big Mountain Chalet that houses Hellroaring Saloon will have to be demolished or relocated.

A new Hellroaring Lodge is planned in the plaza; its construction is still two to three years away, Jones said. When the chalet is gone, Hellroaring Saloon is slated to move into the Mogul's building and Mogul's will move to one of the hotel buildings.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com