Plans show public-use spaces, hotels and housing; planned Cold Smoke neighborhood would include 125 single-family homes, 264 apartments
By Jack Reaney ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Lone Mountain Land Company, owner and developer of Big Sky Town Center, unveiled development plans for the area’s remaining land during a public forum on April 2.
Nearly 300 attendees packed the ballroom at The Wilson Hotel for the Community Development Open House, and leaders from LMLC answered questions throughout the presentation, which was recorded and is available online.
Construction plans include multiple hotels and residential areas, a transportation center with parking for buses and vans, commercial and gathering spaces in Town Center Plaza, and a pedestrian promenade connecting the plaza to an outdoor performance space and event barn tentatively called “Bluff Edge Park.”
Another concept, northeast of Town Center and tentatively called “Cold Smoke,” could develop two areas of land—currently forested near the South Fork of the West Fork of the Gallatin River—into 125 single-family homes and up to 264 apartment units.
“We’re thinking about the next 15 years. This stuff isn’t going to happen quickly. There isn’t going to be drastic change in 2024 or 2025,” said Matt Kidd, managing director of Lone Mountain Land Company, who steered the discussion on Tuesday.
Kidd repeated two points: first, that LMLC is faced with great responsibility to develop Big Sky the right way, and accepts that responsibility; second, that Big Sky is already physically developed at 70% or beyond.
“It feels like we’re still so young. We can feel fragile as a year-round community… Big Sky is 70-plus-percent built out. There’s a lot more here today than will ever be created in the future,” Kidd said. “… That means that there’s a limited opportunity to use development to address our challenges.”
He highlighted LMLC’s long-standing goal: for Big Sky to develop into a world-class destination and thrive as a year-round community. He noted the importance of making seasonal residents feel welcome as well, and said LMLC will continue to strive toward economic, environmental and social goals with Town Center design.
“We know that the future of Town Center is the future of this community, it’s important to all of us,” Kidd said.
Three amendments for county approval: public-use spaces, hotel keys and workforce housing
Bayard Dominick, LMLC’s VP of planning and development, took the microphone to dig into details. His presentation included maps and renderings depicting Town Center with possible buildings in spaces that are now largely undeveloped, mostly to the south and east of Town Center’s core.
Dominick said LMLC has been working through an amended master plan, and a planned unit development that will require four applications to Gallatin County. He showed a map of the Town Center PUD approved in 1998—long before LMLC’s involvement—with buildings and residences approved to sprawl across the area and a “resort lodge” near the Hummocks Trail.
“One thing we’ve heard loud and clear over the last two years in the community is, don’t touch the Hummocks and Uplands trails. So we’re not,” Dominick said. The audience rejoiced.
He said LMLC does plan to develop a subdivision of 24 single-family lots in the Uplands area, but the trail system will be preserved and likely expanded for public recreation.
Dominick said 66% of commercial and 55% of residential entitlements have been developed, according to the 1998 plan.
“As we go back to [Gallatin County], we’re not asking for any additional commercial entitlements. We’re not asking for any more residential entitlements,” Dominick said. “We are asking for three things.”
First, “a bucket of entitlements” totaling roughly 105,000 square feet for “public and quasi-public uses,” which could include space for community organizations such as Big Sky Community Library, Big Sky Transportation District and Big Sky Chamber of Commerce. The BASE community center exemplifies this type of public-use space.
LMLC will also request an additional 150 hotel “keys,” or rooms, extending the original entitlement from 350 to 500 hotel rooms in Town Center. LMLC plans show a boutique hotel and annex to The Wilson Hotel, both adjacent to the Town Center Plaza.
“Hotel guests spend a lot more money shopping and in restaurants than vacation renter[s], and we believe it’s an important part of creating a sustainable economy to create more hotel keys here,” Dominick said.
Town Center has built 129 of its 350 entitled hotel rooms. If LMLC is successful in gaining 150 entitlements, then another 371 rooms could eventually be built.
“We need more hotels,” Kidd said. “… If we want to have a thriving Town Center with restaurants and shops, we need people to stay near there.”
Kidd added later that LMLC is exploring an affordable, hostel-style lodge on land between Ace Hardware and the Powder Light apartments, but that would not affect Town Center entitlements.
Finally, LMLC will request entitlements for 50 workforce housing units—the maximum allowable by Town Center’s remaining water and sewer rights.
“If there were more [single-family equivalents] available, we’d push to do more,” Dominick said. He said LMLC is largely done constructing seasonal workforce housing, and these 50 units would include studio and one-bedroom apartments under long-term rental structure.
At full build, the southeastern border of Town Center loosely follows the South Fork. Dominick emphasized that LMLC will create a setback corridor along the river.
“We’re committing to not only protecting the river there, but also to work on enhancing it,” Dominick said. LMLC is integrating a plan to preserve the health of the South Fork, while making it feel like it’s part of the town.
“Sitting here today, it doesn’t feel like there’s a river that flows through Town Center, and we want to make that a public benefit for everyone,” Dominick said.
Cold Smoke for locals
Kidd presented a new concept of a community-focused neighborhood, entirely deed-restricted “attainable housing” for Big Sky’s full-time workforce.
“I can’t get, sort of, totally excited about Town Center unless I think of it in conjunction with this other project,” Kidd said.
It’s tentatively called “Cold Smoke” and would be located on both sides of the South Fork near Kircher Park and the RiverView apartments—in construction along Montana Highway 64 (Lone Mountain Trail). Cold Smoke would be accessed using the road into RiverView, and crossing a bridge over the South Fork.
Kidd said Cold Smoke could be seen as a primary hub for locals as Big Sky continues to develop. Similar to Powder Light and RiverView, Cold Smoke’s two neighborhoods would be developed in partnership with the Big Sky Community Housing Trust, and support from philanthropy and Resort Tax to keep the units affordable.
“This would be available to the entire Big Sky community, there would be no short-term rentals, and we’ll seek to tailor the affordability based on income,” Kidd said.
He said it will take years for these projects to play out, but LMLC hopes to begin construction in 2026 with Cold Smoke’s first occupants moving into homes as early as 2027.
The neighborhood would tie into the Big Sky County Water and Sewer District, although Kidd could not provide specifics on how the sewer infrastructure would cross the river.
“The district has capacity… to use community workforce housing SFEs, so that’s our plan,” Kidd said.
Updates on the Big Sky Events Arena, Skijoring and Buck’s T-4
The Big Sky Events Arena hosts popular summer events including Big Sky PBR and Wildlands Festival, both produced by Outlaw Partners, publisher of this newspaper. The space is located on Town Center land that will be developed into residential space, plans show.
Despite the eventual development of that land—and the apparent incompatibility between LMLC’s conceptual “Bluff Edge Park” and Outlaw’s large concerts and bull riding—Kidd said that “for many years,” Big Sky Events Arena is not going anywhere.
“This section of future residential—that should probably say ‘last residential.’ And so, the arena is not going anywhere for a very long time. PBR will continue, Wildlands will continue,” Kidd said, adding that LMLC is working to find a suitable long-term location to keep those events going.
Every winter, the Big Sky Skijoring Association produces the Best in the West Showdown, which takes place on vacant Town Center land that will be developed by LMLC. It was already understood that skijoring would need to find a new home—BSSJ faced uncertainty and LMLC agreed to provide the land for this winter’s event—and Kidd suggested that Lone Mountain Ranch could host in years to come.
“But also, for several years, maybe continuing that in Town Center as well,” Kidd said.
Kidd also promised that LMLC will preserve a 75-year-old establishment of Big Sky.
In 2020, LMLC acquired Buck’s T-4 Lodge, a historic roadhouse restaurant and dance hall. LMLC constructed employee housing on-site and continued to operate the restaurant and event space. In September 2023, however, LMLC announced it would not open the restaurant until a “perfect partner” emerged to help run it.
“We’re making a lot of renovations to the entire asset. And it will be a workforce housing project, but we will be opening the restaurant again,” Kidd said. That’s expected by early 2026.
“Fully committed, the restaurant of Buck’s T-4 will reopen. I promise,” Kidd said.
In their presentations, Kidd and Dominick described LMLC’s role as not just a developer, but a community builder and problem solver. They repeatedly acknowledged, and accepted, the big responsibility of developing Big Sky.
Kidd said the community can look forward to more public forums like the Community Development Open House, where community members can express feedback and ask questions as LMLC moves forward with its final major projects to develop Town Center.
