Iron Horse wants welcome center in road median
Lynnette Hintze / Daily Inter Lake | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 9 years, 3 months AGO
A proposed Iron Horse subdivision welcome center that has been in the works since late last year is back on the Whitefish City Council agenda tonight for another public hearing.
The Iron Horse Homeowners Association wants to remove the existing guard house and replace it with a single-story welcome center in a landscaped median on Iron Horse Drive at the subdivision’s entrance.
The project also would include consolidating two roads on the south side of Iron Horse Drive into one road to the east of the welcome center. It would provide some parallel parking spaces and a golf-cart crossing with bulb-outs to the east of the welcome center.
Iron Horse Drive is a private road open to the public.
The planning process began in December 2014 with the Planning Office’s recommendation to deny the reconfigured entrance. The Planning Board also recommended not to approve the entrance modifications.
When the City Council was handed the proposal in February, a public hearing was held but the council tabled it until April, asking the homeowners association to address any safety issues, staffing of the center and concerns with bicyclists riding shoulder to shoulder.
In April the Iron Horse Homeowners Association asked for more time to refine the proposal, and supplied a plan to slow traffic through the entrance.
The Planning Office, however, is standing by its recommendation to deny the welcome center, saying it gives the appearance that the Iron Horse roads and subdivision are not open to the public.
Three other public hearings indicate continued construction activity in Whitefish.
q Jason Pohlman of Mindful Designs is asked for a conditional-use permit to construct a mixed-use triplex at 50 W. Second St.
q Lakeshore Group LLC wants a conditional-use permit to build six condominiums in two buildings at 1340 Wisconsin Ave.
q Josh and Peggy Hertlein are asking for a conditional-use permit to build an accessory apartment at 265 Texas Ave.
The council meets at 7:10 p.m. at the temporary City Hall, 1005 Baker Ave.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.
ARTICLES BY LYNNETTE HINTZE / DAILY INTER LAKE
No headline
Food pantry founders turning former Swan Valley boot camp into veterans center
With Allen and Linda Erickson, where there’s a will, there’s a way.
No headline
When the annual Wings radiothon rolls into action this week to raise money for local cancer patients, Joel and Laura Stevenson of Whitefish will help man the phones over the two-day fundraising blitz. It’s their way of giving back to an organization that helped them out when their son was battling a brain tumor.
No headline
Local leader promotes networking, growth
The energy was palpable in the room as Pearl Galbraith called the Inspired Women meeting to order on June 8 at noon exactly, quieting the 70 or so women who were busy chatting, networking and catching up with one another.