City staff provides comments on new Averill resort hotel project

By Zach Hagadone
Reader Staff

The new plans for Averill Hospitality’s resort hotel adjacent to City Beach are beginning to move through the process, with city staff providing its first round of comments on the initial proposal.

Whitefish, Mont.-based developer Averill filed documents in late July seeking a conditional use permit for a 52-room hotel using the existing Best Western Edgewater Resort building, but with a five-story wing on the south end of the property including 27 condominiums.

In addition to the condos, the new portion of the building at 56 Bridge St. would feature a reconstructed lobby on the ground floor, as well as indoor and outdoor food and beverage service, retail space, a pool and spa, and room for events on the lawn and terrace.

Described in city filings as a “redevelopment and modernization” of the current Edgewater, the new proposal is a substantial departure from what the company had pursued at the site for years. The original plan was to demolish the entire Edgewater building and reconstruct a nearly 300,000-square-foot, $70 million multi-story mix of more than 120 condos and hotel rooms, along with a host of amenities from convention space to curated retail and more.

However, Averill ran into a series of roadblocks, ranging from parking requirements and development impact fees to community pushback and, ultimately, what company representative Ben McGrann characterized in mid-June as rising construction costs and difficulty with pulling together adequate investors.

The last time the company appeared before the Sandpoint Planning and Zoning Commission was on June 16, when it requested — and received — its second one-year extension of the previous CUP. With this new filing, the entire process begins anew and makes Averill subject to the higher development impact fees put in place by the city earlier this year.

“We are evaluating the city’s comments,” McGrann told the Reader on Aug. 5.

Meanwhile, the city’s comments on the company’s new plan represent one of the first steps in the development process, which will eventually result in consideration by the Planning and Zoning Commission.  

“How soon the new CUP application will advance to the P&Z Commission for a hearing will depend on how responsive the Averill team is to the comments, as there are several revisions recommended for a resubmitted plan before staff are comfortable advancing it to the commission,” Sandpoint Planning and Development Director Jason Welker told the Reader.

Among numerous comments, staff stated that the overall project may better meet the Comprehensive Plan by relocating the condo tower to the northern end of the property to preserve views, and that the building as currently envisioned exceeds the city’s height standard.

“The maximum height shall not exceed 65 feet and the elevations show what appears to be an equipment room, or elevator tower, exceeding the max height,” staff wrote. “This is not permitted.”

Several other comments requested revisions related to public access, with the site plan omitting both the easements across Bridge and Dock streets and the existing sidewalk to City Beach on the southern edge of the property allowing the public to move through those areas.

“The site plan should identify a pedestrian easement dedicated to the city along the entire southern property line for the benefit of public access to and from City Beach from downtown,” staff wrote, adding that the easement should be for a 10-foot-wide multi-use path that would connect with the path on Bridge Street, which will be a condition of approval on the project.

In addition, the plan does not show the striped pedestrian path on the west side of Dock Street, nor does it provide an easement dedicated to the city for pedestrian access and mobility on the northern side of the property.

Finally, staff asked that the plans be modified to reflect a widened sidewalk/trail on the eastern and northern frontage to a 12-foot-wide multi-use path allowing for bicycle and pedestrian travel between the City Beach and Pend d’Oreille Bay Trail. 

Other comments focused on parking, which has long been a sticking point for the project. “Parking for this development proposal does not meet city standards,” staff wrote, referring to a table of calculations that show a total of 145 spaces are required based on the square footage of the various uses at the site.  

However, the plan shows 97 on-site parking stalls, making for a deficit of 48 spaces.

“Please note that there are several methods identified in [Sandpoint City Code] to meet your parking demand: 1. provide the required parking per code on-site, which would likely require a structure; 2. prepare a parking demand analysis demonstrating actual demands; 3. provide parking within 300 feet for the residential uses; 4. shared parking reduction with another development within 1,000 feet; 5. in-lieu payments to the Parking Fund,” staff wrote.

Staff comments further stated that spaces in the parking lot in the current plan exceed city standards for width and depth but are one foot shorter than allowed. Meanwhile, dimensions for ADA spaces were not provided.

Finally, staff noted that the project narrative did not include the number of employees associated with the development, as required.

Find the full filing, as well as staff comments, at bit.ly/NewAverillPlan.