LOCAL

24th Annual Big Sky Christmas Stroll

EBS STAFF

In the spirit of the holidays, Big Sky came together on Dec. 10 and 11 in the Town Center and Meadow Village to celebrate the festive season at the 24th Annual Big Sky Christmas Stroll. Strollers celebrated the annual tradition with sleigh rides, bonfires, photos with Santa, an ugly sweater party and open houses in businesses across town.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BASE STAFF PHOTO COURTESY OF BASE STAFF

PHOTO BY MARCO DELGUIDICE

PHOTO COURTESY OF BLUE RIBBON BUILDERS OUTLAW PARTNERS PHOTO

PHOTO COURTESY OF BLUE RIBBON BUILDERS

OUTLAW PARTNERS PHOTO OUTLAW PARTNERS PHOTO

PHOTO BY JOE ESENTHER / LONE MOUNTAIN LAND COMPANY

OUTLAW PARTNERS PHOTO

Gallatin County advances Flatiron development

BY BELLA BUTLER

BIG SKY – The Gallatin County Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously advanced the Flatiron development project at a Dec. 10 meeting, hoisting the large project over the first of many regulatory hurdles it’s likely to face.

At an inflection point in an uphill battle against public scrutiny, the commission’s approval of the Gallatin County portion of the Planned Unit Development moves Flatiron developer Middle Fork Properties one step closer to breaking ground on the 2,635-unit development at the northeast base of Andesite Mountain.

The commission heard presentations from Middle Fork Properties and contracted experts throughout the seven-hour meeting before approving the project’s Gallatin County PUD, which includes 1,440 units within 14 building envelopes.

The commission also heard questioning and oppositional comment from Flatiron’s neighboring residents and local organizations.

Flatiron garnered broad public attention after Middle Fork Properties presented the project to the Big Sky Zoning Advisory Committee in August.

The committee, which advises the Gallatin County Planning and Zoning Commission on Big Sky and Gallatin Canyon zoning matters, first delayed its vote on the project at its August meeting due to a shortage of information committee members said they lacked to make a recommendation.

The committee in October unanimously voted to recommend that Gallatin County deny the PUD, leaning heavily on public disapproval expressed during the comment period.

The Flatiron PUD was originally slated for consideration by Gallatin County in mid-October, but the developers requested the decision be delayed when some commissioners were absent from the meeting.

“We believe that it was in our best interest to have the Flatiron project, based on its scope and magnitude, reviewed by the entire planning commission,” said Chris Leonard, project manager for Flatiron, in a Dec. 8 interview with EBS. At the Dec. 10 meeting, all but one member of the commission was present.

The entire scope of the project spans 535 acres and, in addition to Gallatin County units, includes 1,195 units within 10 building envelopes in Madison County. The PUD includes plans for retail space, hotels, residential space and workforce housing. According to the developers, at least 75 percent of the PUD is open space.

Only 350 acres of the land is in Gallatin County, which has more extensive zoning approval processes than Madison County, Leonard said, adding that Middle Fork Properties applied the more stringent Gallatin County standards across the entire development.

Questions and concerns have been raised by the public about the project’s impacts on traffic, community water supply, neighboring developments and the surrounding environment, which includes several acres of wetlands and a section of the water-quality impaired Middle Fork of the West Fork of the Gallatin River.

The commission considered more than 100 public comments submitted ahead of the Dec. 10 meeting and heard another hour of oppositional comment during the meeting. While some members of the seven-member commission shared in the public’s concerns, several explained during board discussion that many issues raised would be addressed by subsequent processes the developers will undergo, including subdivision planning along with water and sewer service requests.

Commissioner Scott MacFarlane said that while the commission heard overwhelming public comment in opposition to the PUD’s approval, little of it addressed the zoning questions at hand.

“When we hear overwhelming public comment in opposition,” he said during board discussion, “I feel like the public comment and opposition has to be [based] on the criteria that I’m allowed to evaluate. Otherwise, it’s not valid opposition as far as weighing comment.”

Other justifications for approval provided by commissioners leaned on the more than 60 conditions provided by county staff. Many of these conditions address concerns raised by the public. These conditions cover a range of topics, and many are designed to ensure that plans proposed by the developers, such as implementing access to public trails and including workforce housing, will be actuated.

One heavily discussed condition requires the entire PUD be serviced by the Big Sky County Water and Sewer District. If the developers are not able to secure adequate service, the PUD as approved would not be valid, according to the staff report.

Lone Moose Meadows Unit Owners Association, condos adjacent to the project originally built as the first phase in the land’s previous development plan that are now surrounded by Flatiron, have been among the most vocal throughout the PUD approval process. Lone Moose Meadows owners sent several homeowners and experts to the podium to oppose the project.

“I have not heard any support for this plan from any member [of Lone Moose] that they think this plan should go forward as is,” Deb Kozisek, a board member of the owners association, told EBS on Dec. 8.

Lone Moose owners have been engaged with Flatiron’s developers for more than a year, but Kozisek says Middle Fork Properties has not made adequate changes to their plan based on the feedback provided by Lone Moose owners.

Leonard said he believes those taking issue with the plan are not reacting to the merits of the Flatiron plan itself, but rather to development in Big Sky in general.

Lone Moose homeowners declined to comment following the vote.

Several experts hired by Middle Fork testified on behalf of work they’d done on the property, and spoke about wetlands, hydrology, geology, traffic, resort design and legal discussion.

“If a community isn’t growing, it’s dying,” Leonard said in Dec. 8 interview with EBS. “And what people should be looking for are developers that are thoughtful and putting together a very thoughtful plan that is backed by science.”

Flatiron included several amenities in its PUD proposal that the developers hope will distinguish it as a community rather than a resort, according to Leonard. Among these amenities are a public trails network and 900 workforce housing beds.

“We want to give employee housing,” Leonard said. “We want to make the river better. We want to provide public access. And we also want to contribute positively to the drinking water in Big Sky.”

Middle Fork Properties consists of Bozeman local Michael Schreiner, who first moved to Big Sky in the late 1980s, and two other partners, friends of Schreiner’s who he did not name. Middle Fork Properties purchased the land for Flatiron in 2019.

“Now we will get to work on conditions and continue to improve the plan,” Leonard said.

In addition to approving the PUD, the commission also unanimously approved a variance request from Middle Fork to allow for changes to transportation design and construction standards on Highway 64 that the developers plan to complete on the entrance to the development.

Members of the public listen to the county planning and zoning commission discuss the proposed Flatiron PUD at the Gallatin County Courthouse on Dec. 10. OUTLAW PARTNERS PHOTO

Modular assembly nears completion on workforce housing project Powder Light project will add 228 worker beds in summer 2022

BY BELLA BUTLER

BIG SKY – At noon on Friday, Dec. 3 onefifth of an apartment dangled from the end of a crane as construction crews guided the fully furnished box into place on the second story of the new Powder Light workforce housing project in Big Sky.

Phase 1 of the $17 million project, a modular building made of 60 pre-manufactured boxes, will house 228 local workers beginning summer 2022. With a zero percent housing vacancy, as reported by the Big Sky Community Housing Trust, Powder Light will house more than the approximately 200 people currently on the housing trust’s housing waiting list. Local developer Lone Mountain Land Company is acting as the development manager for Powder Light.

According to an LMLC spokesperson, the entire project is deed restricted for Big Sky workers and will be available to the community.

Though the property was vacant less than a week ago, the nearly 44,000-square-foot building is almost assembled just five days after the set crew started placing the boxes Monday, Dec. 29.

“Big Sky has a housing crisis,” said Bayard Dominick, VP of planning and development for LMLC, at a Dec. 3 Powder Light preview event. “This project is one of many that is going to take to put a little dent into our need.”

Though it only took a few days to assemble, the workforce housing project has been years in the making. Matt Kidd, managing director of LMLC’s affiliate firm CrossHarbor Capital Partners, said LMLC put the land for Powder Light under contract in September 2017 with the expectation that construction would begin in 2018 and the project would be completed in 2019.

“And yet here we are in 2021 and we’re just getting to this point,” Kidd said at the preview event, the partially erected structure in the background.

In November of 2017, the Gallatin County Commission unanimously rejected the proposal for the Powder Light project due to concerns about how the increased traffic turning on and off the busy MT 64 would impact safety.

The Federal Highway Administration then awarded a $10.2 million TIGER grant to Gallatin County in March 2018 for improvements to MT 64, including a turn lane at the Powder Light site. The county and thendeveloper A2LD entered into an agreement that would allow Phase 1 of the project to be built before the turn lane was completed but not occupied until then. Phase 2 of the project can’t begin construction until the turn lane is completed.

The project was stalled once again when the county only received one bid for the road work that was approximately $3 million dollars over budget. To expedite the Powder Light project, LMLC announced in September it would foot the $1.7-million bill for the turn lane. Half of the turn lane was completed this fall, but weather pushed the completion of the lane back to spring 2022. LMLC is also still in discussion with the Big Sky Water and Sewer District sorting hookup rights for Phase 2.

“Our challenges in the development phase of this are examples of how, as a community, we need to come together if we’re going to build more affordable workforce housing,” Kidd said. “It’s not going to get done by one group or any one partner. But as a community, we need to come together and work together to find solutions to get through our county’s processes faster.”

Kidd pondered how many Big Sky housing units were converted to short-term rentals while Powder Light development hurdles were sorted over the last four years, exacerbating the community’s growing housing crisis while the project lay dormant behind red tape. Data from AirDNA shared by the housing trust reveals that while there were 14 short-term units for rent in Big Sky in 2014, that figure has grown more than 6,000 percent to 858 units today.

Dominick said LMLC chose modular construction for Powder Light for a few reasons. According to LMLC, modular construction expedites project completion by 50 percent, minimizes construction waste and allows the majority of building to be done indoors so cold, snowy winter work can be avoided. The 60 boxes that now make up the building have been fabricated over the last several months in Boise, Idaho, by Nashua Builders. Each apartment is made up of around five boxes, depending on the unit size.

Once assembled on site, finishing touches will have to be put on the building, including electrical wiring and plumbing.

Powder Light Phase 1 and 2 will each consist of 24 apartments, six four-bedroom and 18 five-bedroom. Rooms are double occupancy, adding up to a total of 228 beds. Each roughly 1,500-square-foot apartment includes a kitchen and dormitory-style bathrooms. Powder Light amenities will include a fitness room, covered bike storage, onsite waste disposal and recycling, a picnic pavilion overlooking the West Fork of the Gallatin River and a Skyline bus stop, among other features.

“A key part of this was to create a unit that was livable,” Dominick said. “Livability is really key, and sustainability.” Powder Light will also receive power to heat water from a 72-kilowatt solar photovoltaic system.

Dominick later added that LMLC has worked to distinguish each of their workforce housing properties to accommodate different kinds of tenants. For example, the forthcoming RiverView Apartments, which LMLC has partnered with the housing trust to develop, may be single-occupancy rooms, he said.

Laura Seyfang, executive director of the housing trust, said Powder Light will be hugely helpful in addressing the local housing crisis.

“When a company like theirs steps up to address housing needs, that in large part they’re contributing to creating, that’s responsible citizenship and that’s what it takes for this community to grow responsibly,” she told EBS after the preview event.

At a Dec. 3 preview event, Big Sky community members gathered to tour and learn about the new Powder Light workforce housing development. PHOTO BY GABRIELLE GASSER

One fifth of an apartment dangles off a crane as crews work to attach one of the 60 pre-manufactured boxes to the main structure. PHOTO BY GABRIELLE GASSER

Each piece of the modular development arrives on the back of a truck with the furniture already inside. PHOTO BY GABRIELLE GASSER

Montage Big Sky opens doors to Montana’s biggest building

BY BELLA BUTLER

BIG SKY – A new luxury resort opened its doors in Big Sky this month. Now the largest building in Montana, Montage Big Sky’s more than half-a-million square feet reflect the enormity of the mountains surrounding the structure.

Montage, a self-proclaimed ultra-luxury hotel management company headquartered in Irvine, California, adds the Big Sky property, located in the heart of the Spanish Peaks Mountain Club, to its eight other destinations, now covering ground from the Northern Rockies to as far as the Bahamas.

Rick Riess, vice president of operations of Montage International and managing director of Montage Big Sky, says the Big Sky property is particularly special.

“It’s like where all the stars have aligned,” Riess told EBS in a Dec. 10 interview. “It’s got this spectacular setting where we’re looking out at the Spanish Peaks and the mountains all around us.”

In addition to the natural amenities, Riess said, the building is a wonder all its own: finishes include regional wood and stone, and high-end, local art adorns the interior. The resort, which is open to the public, features indoor and outdoor pools, six restaurants, a spa and fitness center, ice skating rink, and bowling alley along with ski-in/ski-out access to Big Sky Resort slopes and the Spanish Peaks Golf Course for lodging guests.

“It’s like there were no corners cut,” Riess said of the approximately $400 million development. “It’s done to an extremely high level. And I sincerely believe that it will become one of the great ski resorts in the world.” The resort includes 150 guestrooms and suites that start at $1,500 per night as well as 39 private residences. Riess said the resort is already booked out across the board—restaurants, spas, and lodging—until mid-January.

Montage broke ground in fall of 2018 and opened to guests on Dec. 15. Lone Mountain Land Company, the development affiliate of Boston-based firm and Yellowstone Club owner CrossHarbor Capital Partners, owns Montage Big Sky, and Montage will serve as the resort’s managing partner.

Montage has already become acquainted with many of the same difficulties that other Big Sky businesses face, according to Riess.

“Without a doubt our two biggest challenges are housing and staffing,” he said. As of Dec. 10, Riess said the resort was staffed at about 75 percent of its optimum workforce of 350. He added that they have near a dozen people “in queue ready to come work” when Montage and LMLC finds them housing.

“Every day we get new applicants,” he said. “Now is the challenge of trying to find a place for them to live.”

Montage Big Sky is currently being supported in part by approximately 50 managers from other Montage properties that will remain on site in Big Sky through the start of the season.

For Riess, who’s been with Montage for seven years, this will be his 24th hotel opening. And, as “the guy that’s responsible for running the operation,” as he says, he will oversee the property until it’s stabilized, perhaps longer.

“One of our values and goals in our business is to be a positive member of the community,” Riess said, adding that the resort intends to be involved with local charities.

“I think it can be sometimes a little intimidating for this big building to come into a small community,” he said. “So, we want to be very aware of that. And very respectful.”

In addition to philanthropy, Riess said Montage will add significant tax contributions to Big Sky, both through resort tax as well as Montana’s lodging sales and facility-use taxes. At other Montage properties, the company has also organized service opportunities such as beach cleanups through its internal Hearts of Montage board, something it hopes to bring to Big Sky.

“We’re kind of pioneering in a lot of ways in bringing this property to Montana,” Riess said. “And we feel a tremendous responsibility that we do it the right way, that we’re doing it very respectfully, that we’re doing it very sensitively; that we’re good, contributing members of the community.”

(left to right) CrossHarbor Capital Partners Co-Founder and Managing Partner Sam Byrne, Montage International Founder, Chairman and CEO Alan Fuerstman and Montage Big Sky Managing Director Rick Riess cut the ribbon to Montage Big Sky in early December. PHOTO COURTESY OF MONTAGE

The inside of one of Montage’s 150 suits and guest rooms. PHOTO COURTESY OF MONTAGE

School board adopts new Strategic Plan

BY GABRIELLE GASSER

BIG SKY – Big Sky School District recently adopted a new Strategic Plan which will guide the district’s efforts as it works to continuously improve and evolve with the needs of the community.

The plan, adopted by the school board at a Dec. 14 meeting, is structured by four strategic areas: Flexible Pathways, Dynamic Program; The District Voice: Communications; Living Our Culture of Excellence; and One Big Sky: Twoway flow: school and community.

“The district is in great shape but especially in education, it is important to seek continuous improvement and make sure the district continues to evolve to meet the evolving needs of the community,” BSSD consultant Skip Kotkins wrote in an email to EBS. “An inclusively-developed Strategic Plan leads to planned and coordinated steps forward as opposed to a bunch of independent actions. A Strategic Plan is also a way that the district can communicate areas it is focusing on.”

A 15-person Strategic Plan Steering Committee led by Kotkins, senior consultant at Seattle-based firm Carney, Sandoe & Associates, developed the Strategic Plan over a two-month period this fall.

Attendees at the meetings included: teachers, administrators, current school board members, past school board members, general community members, school community members and a BSSD student.

In two days of meetings on Oct. 28 and 29, Kotkins took committee members through different exercises to discuss the district’s vision for the future as well as strengths of the previous plan and strategic areas that could use improvement moving forward.

According to BSSD School Board Trustee Kara Edgar, the meetings collectively lasted almost 12 hours in which attendees were divided into different groups to develop and hone their contributions which eventually became the four pieces of the strategic plan.

“It was a very flat structure,” Edgar told EBS on Dec. 15. “We wanted to make sure that everyone felt that they had an equal voice.”

Kotkins originally worked on a strategic plan with the district in 2015 focusing on the district’s adoption of the IB program. The new plan builds on the successes of the old plan, according to Kotkins.

“We experienced lots of growth and everything else through the last few years,” said BSSD superintendent Dustin Shipman. “It was important for Skip to come back and get a pulse on the community, talk to groups of people again, and then help craft the work for us moving forward.”

The process for the new plan included an online community survey to gather feedback and Kotkins conversing with various members of the Big Sky community.

“The Big Sky community responded thoughtfully and constructively which made the process very effective,” Kotkins wrote. “The Strategic Planning Committee, representing an inclusive mix of stakeholders, was great to work with and clearly had the best interests of the Big Sky community at heart. I think everyone enjoyed the process and is pleased with the outcome.”

According to Edgar, the most substantial piece of the new plan is the Flexible Pathways, Dynamic Programming strategic area, which will help the district meet the needs of each student and ensure that there are multiple options available, she said. In particular, she highlighted the third bullet under the flexible pathways focus which will investigate and implement virtual learning options for course offerings.

“If anything, COVID has taught us that we’re all going to need to continue to be flexible,” she said. “So, I’m very excited about potentially expanding virtual learning options that could include additional course load for our students.”

CAP program at Big Sky School District seeks mentors

BY GABRIELLE GASSER

BIG SKY – A program that pairs Big Sky School District students and adult mentors is currently seeking more mentor applicants.

The Child Advancement Project mentoring program has been active in Big Sky for nine years and currently has 11 student-mentor matches that meet for an hour each school week to read, play outside, do crafts or just talk.

The CAP program, run by Bozeman-based nonprofit Thrive, uses their match program to help students from several schools in the area succeed.

Lindsey Herring, who recently stepped into the role of BSSD CAP Coordinator, said she is trying to get the program back up-and-running after a challenging year of virtual meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Her goal is to have 20 matches by the end of the school year.

Originally from Southern California, Herring moved to Montana in 2010 to work for Big Sky Resort. She found her passion working with children through her position at Lone Peak Playhouse and she hopes to use her experience working with children to expand the CAP program at BSSD.

The program matches mentors, community members aged 18-and-older, with kindergarten through 12th grade BSSD students who were nominated by teachers or parents for the school year. Herring says she creates matches based on personality interests and meetings can involve a variety of activities with a focus on supporting students with individualized attention. she is asking the Big Sky community to get involved and create more matches to reach her 20-match goal.

Jan Weber has been volunteering with the CAP program for four years and she has been with her current match for three years. Weber has met with Elijah Brauer each school week since he was in the first grade. The pair spends their time reading, working on projects and catching up, Weber says.

“It’s been crazy to watch how they grow across that period of time,” Weber said. She described the excitement of watching Elijah hit different benchmarks and grow not just physically but emotionally as well.

When Weber and Elijah, who’s an avid reader, couldn’t meet in person because of COVID-19, they had a reading competition where he won a $2 bill for every book that he read.

“I certainly encourage people to volunteer to do this,” she said. “I think as a mentor, you get as much out of it as the mentee does and it’s absolutely rewarding.”

Herring agrees that the program can be just as beneficial for the mentors as it is for the mentees and she says it is a great way for mentors to make a difference in the Big Sky community.

“The CAP program specifically targets students who just need an extra person in their life to listen to them,” Herring said, “someone that can be an extra voice, help them gain confidence, social support, make them excited about their future, maybe work on career goals, college goals, anything like that just to keep them motivated to get through school and make them wake up excited and happy to go to school and meet with their mentor each week.”

Mentor Jan Weber meets with her 4th grade mentee Elijah Brauer. PHOTO BY LINDSEY HERRING