Here’s a look at development around Schweitzer ski resort as ski season kicks off

SCHWEITZER VILLAGE, Idaho – With fresh snow this week from a bomb cyclone, the ski season at Schweitzer will be off to a good start when it begins Friday.

But besides the weather, a lot of changes are happening lately near Idaho’s largest ski resort: A new ski-in subdivision. Plans to build a new base for daytime users. And a controversial request to rezone hundreds of acres of property.

All this the year after Schweitzer’s owner, MKM Trust, sold the mountain resort operation to Alterra Mountain Company, which owns 19 ski resorts in the U.S. and Canada, including Winter Park in Colorado and Crystal Mountain in Western Washington.

MKM Trust meanwhile retained Schweitzer’s real estate development arm, now called Schweitzer Mountain Properties.

The split has caused some confusion among the public as both companies pursue separate projects. (Schweitzer Mountain Resort rebranded to simply Schweitzer in 2021.)

Schweitzer Mountain Properties’ newest development is Crystal View, a neighborhood of 21 lots on the west edge of the ski area near the terrain park.

The quarter- to half-acre homesites overlook the village at the end of a winding road that crosses two ski runs through an underpass and an overpass. The road was recently paved, and welders were sealing up finishing touches on the bridge as snow began to fall at the beginning of this month.

Chief Development Officer Lance Badger said it might be the last good opportunity for ski-in/ski-out homes with direct access to the mountain.

The build-it-yourself lots start at $750,000. Owners could begin building as soon as spring 2025, Badger said.

Crystal View is merely the newest development project in recent years. The Humbird, a 31-room boutique hotel and spa at the center of Schweitzer Village, opened in 2022. Next door, a 26-unit expansion to White Pine Lodge condominiums called 5 Needles was finished in 2023. Badger said there is one unit left for sale.

Looking forward, Schweitzer Mountain Properties is asking Bonner County to amend the comprehensive plan map and zoning for about 1,500 acres on several parcels south and east of the resort.

While a small piece of Alterra property is included in the area, the request was initiated by Schweitzer Mountain Properties, Badger said.

The requested changes from agriculture/forestry to alpine designations would allow higher-density development. Theoretically, it could allow up to 5,681 residential and commercial units, according to Project 7B, a nonprofit that advocates for responsible land use planning in Bonner County.

Badger said public pushback against the request is overblown. It is mostly an administrative effort to clean up outdated and inconsistent map boundaries to align with a large-scale planned unit development, first approved in the 1980s, that designated the area for future expansion. It is not an attempt to increase density, Badger said.

“This is an effort to correct the comp plan to match the existing entitlement documents for Schweitzer Mountain,” Badger said.

But that PUD has expired for unbuilt phases, according to a letter to county commissioners from Project 7B and the Idaho Conservation League that cites Bonner County code.

Susan Drumheller, a Project 7B board member, said the commissioners should wait to consider the request until after the county finishes updating the entire comprehensive plan in the next few months.

Besides concerns about the process, Drumheller said there are questions about environmental impacts and whether there is adequate water supply to support “a small city.”

“This is more than just a paperwork exercise,” Drumheller said, referring to the large scale of the request. “It is hard to believe they don’t intend to build a lot more residential units.”

An attorney for Schweitzer Mountain Properties declined to specify to the commissioners the long-term vision for the property.

Badger said it is important to have flexibility for long-term development planning to respond to the market trends and needs. Development isn’t necessarily housing, he said. Development could be for recreation like bike trails and Nordic trails, or simple infrastructure like a utility line or a road.

The Bonner County Commissioners tabled the issue after a hearing last month and asked for more documentation. The next hearing on the matter is scheduled for Dec. 12.

New ski base

Alterra is not planning any new real estate, it is entirely focused on mountain recreation, Schweitzer spokeswoman Taylor Prather said.

Schweitzer’s master plan envisions a new base camp southwest of Schweitzer Village, called Schweitzer Creek Village. The new area will make the mountain more accessible for daytime users, while lessening congestion for overnight guests.

A road turning off from the roundabout south of Schweitzer will lead to a 1,400-space parking lot, effectively doubling parking capacity at the resort.

Creekside Quad chairlift, which recently replaced the two-seat lift Musical Chairs, was expanded to connect to the parking lot. The day base will eventually get in chairlifts, including another connection point to the North Bowl portion of the ski area.

New ski runs will add green circles and blue squares to the map.

“Currently, we only have two beginner trails, so it will add more of a beginner experience for the resort, which we haven’t had before,” Prather said.

Eventually, the base could have a day lodge and other amenities like ski rentals.

Preliminary work has been done to cut the new road and parking lot, but there isn’t a timeline for when the project will be finished. Prather said he hopes the lot will be open in the next couple of years.

Workforce housing

Before the company split, Schweitzer embarked on an ambitious project to provide its employees with affordable housing amid an increasingly expensive market in the Sandpoint area.

It began with remodeling an assisted living facility into eight shared bedrooms that became known as the Hemlock House.

The next project was to build Schralpenhaus, an 84-unit apartment complex in Ponderay that opened a year ago.

After the split, Schweitzer Mountain Properties kept Schralpenhaus but continued a deal with Alterra for employee housing.

Badger said they have opened it up to housing for other companies and the general public.

Schralpenhaus has two more phases planned. The next is a 118-unit addition. The third is an employee day care.

Badger said the housing market has cooled somewhat since the COVID-19 pandemic, so the need for the next phase is less urgent.