By Brandon Walker
BIG SKY – The settlement of a 2017 lawsuit has breathed new life
into a local housing development. On Nov. 26 the Gallatin County Commission
received a check from developers of the Powder Light subdivision in Big Sky,
which solidified the settlement agreed to earlier this year.
The development aims to
bring local employees approximately 200 additional rooms and will be situated
east of Ace Hardware and Big Sky Vacation Rentals along Highway 64, commonly
known as Lone Mountain Trail.
In addition to funding
from a $10 million federal TIGER grant issued in 2018, one of the largest
components of the settlement was a nearly $200,000 check signed by A2LD
Development Co. to the GCC to pay for two right-hand turn lanes off of Lone
Mountain Trail to alleviate congestion and potential vehicle accidents.
Located at the turnoff
to Ace Hardware and at the easternmost entrance of the development, the turning
lanes were required by GCC in the settlement and were the reason for denying
the initial application, according to A2LD developer Scott Altman.
Construction of the two
left-hand turn lanes will be paid through the TIGER grant, but the two
right-hand turn lanes will be funded by the money A2LD paid from the
settlement. “In order to give a full turn lane, we settled with them and said
we would pay for those two,” Altman said. He added that the lanes must be
completed before development takes place.
The TIGER grant, short
for Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery, is supplying
Gallatin County with more than $10 million to make upgrades to Lone Mountain
Trail, helping alleviate the anticipated increase in traffic from the housing
development, among other projects. The county’s decision to apply for the TIGER
grant stemmed from the results of a 2017 transportation study identifying the
need for upgrades.
Altman said A2LD is on
the verge of selling the lots to John Bauchman, a broker with Big Sky Real
Estate Co. “We close on Dec. 17 on that parcel,” Altman said. “It just took so
long we’re not going to build them ourselves. We … put it in the covenants that
it has to be employee housing to make sure that happens.”
County officials
anticipate Lone Mountain Trail turn-lane construction will begin in summer
2020. Once the two right-hand turning lanes are complete, Bauchman can begin
development of the Powder Light subdivision. Altman said he is encouraged by
the headway the project is making as well as what the housing will mean for Big
Sky.
“Our whole goal in
anything we do is to make more employee housing,” he said. “This one, I
believe, by the time it’s completely done will have probably 200 bedrooms on
the site. That’s what we’re after because that’s what Big Sky needs to kind of
keep going and be successful.”
Lot one is where Ace and
BSVR are located. The remaining three lots will welcome the Powder Lights. Each
of the lot’s zoning regulations require that a commercial space be present on
it, but the remaining space on each lot will be open to employee housing.
