Hungry Horse News

The Columbia Falls City Council last week unanimously approved an amended planned unit development for the city square on Nucleus Avenue.

Developer Mick Ruis dropped the original plan for a boutique hotel at 540 Nucleus Avenue and instead changed it to 12 residential apartments on the second and third floors of the building, which will sit in the southeast corner of what is the city square.

Ruis tore down the former First Citizens Bank at the site.

The lower level of the building will include a 5,600 square foot restaurant with a casino.

The city took up the application again because the restaurant would have a casino and parts of the building will be higher than what the current zoning allows.

The parapets of the building will be 40 feet and the staircase will jut up 50 feet.

The staircase needs to additional height so firefighters can access it from the roof in event of a fire, city manager Susan Nicosia noted.

Under the zoning, the maximum height allowed is 35 feet without a variance.

The building to the north of this one on the same lot being constructed by Ruis includes commercial space on the lower floors and 48 residential units on the upper floors.

Under the zoning, all of the residential units in both buildings could conceivably rented as short-term rentals, though it seems like that in other buildings Ruis has constructed in downtown, more than a few are not short-term residents.

No one from the public gave oral testimony either for or against the variances, though a few people did write letters opposing the height variance and the casino as well.

Opponents claimed there were already enough casinos in Columbia Falls.

Although the zoning doesn’t require it, the remainder of the lot will have 81 parking spaces.

The City-County planning board voted in favor of the new plan last month.