Council OKs casino next to Town Pump

South Kalispell's Town Pump station will add a casino with a liquor license.

On Monday, Kalispell's City Council approved 7-2 a request to annex the Town Pump site, 2910 U.S. 93 S., with a conditional-use permit to allow a casino with a beer-and-liquor license next to the station.

The permit comes with additions that will require owner Montana Commerce of Butte to use hedges or landscaping to create a 6-foot-tall visual barrier between its lot and its neighbors, to use landscaping or fences to hide its garbage bins from view, and to allow a bike path to go through the land.

The Siderius family, which owns much of the nearby land, opposed the addition of a casino. But in case the council approved the casino, the family requested some changes to the permit. The council agreed to some of those changes - including the visual barrier, hiding the garbage bins and keeping a bike path.

This annexation and conditional-permit application has bounced around in a fuzzy area of the city's zoning laws.

Kalispell's zoning laws forbid casinos within 300 feet of city homes. And no city homes are within 300 feet of the Town Pump site.

But some Flathead County homes are 220 feet from the proposed casino site.

Kalispell's city staff interpreted the law to apply only to city homes, and not to county homes. County commissioners have approved a casino at that site. The county does not forbid casinos within 300 feet of homes.

But the Flathead City-County Health Department won't approve expanding the site's septic system to accommodate the proposed casino, which means the site must hook up to Kalispell's sewer lines. And Kalispell makes annexation a requirement for a county site to hook up to the city's sewer system.

That's why Montana Commerce requested annexation and the conditional-use permit.

The Kalispell Planning Board recommended Jan. 10 by a 4-2 vote rejection of the conditional-use permit application. Board members thought that building a casino 220 feet from county homes would violate the spirit of the city's 300-foot limit.

However, many City Council members noted that the Four Corners Bar existed at that site for a few decades before the Town Pump opened there. And several council members wanted the city - not the county - to control the conditions allowing a casino to set at Kalispell's main southern entrance along U.S. 93 South.

"The neighborhood will get a brand-new facility that will be a lot nicer than the Four Corners Bar was," council member Bob Herron said.

Council members Randy Kenyon and Jim Atkinson voted against the conditional-use permit, agreeing with the Planning Board's stance that building a casino 220 feet from county homes violates the spirit of the city law.

Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com.