Brian Montana, owner of Coupeville Health and Fitness, wants to build a new home for his business on NW First Street in Coupeville.

Before that can happen, he needs approval from the town.

Even though he took a step forward Nov. 22 when the Coupeville Design Review Board approved plans for the 2,800 square-foot structure, he is discouraged with what he sees as a long, extended approval process. He wants to build his new business on NW First Street next to the Compass Mental Health building.

Montana said he has worked for more than a year to get his new building approved. He said he had to make changes, including reducing the size of the building, adding more asphalt to the parking lot and going through a boundary line adjustment with the neighboring property owner.

“Changes seemed to reflect the town planner’s conception of how he wanted to see the building,” Montana said. This is Montana’s first time going through the building process.

The town planner, Larry Kwarsick, said town officials met with Montana twice before an application was submitted.

“I don’t think it’s been unusually long,” Kwarsick said. “It does take a while.” He said the original design was too long.

“Fundamentally, it didn’t fit on the property,” Kwarsick said, adding that officials and Montana worked through the size issue. The 72-foot long building originally didn’t meet the 10-foot setback from a neighboring property.

When the Design Review Board approved the property, they attached several conditions. They asked Montana to provide three feet of landscaping between his building and the parking lot and two feet of landscaping between the parking lot and the neighboring property. He also had to go through a boundary line adjustment between the neighboring property owner and he has to provide screening and landscaping to shield any dumpster.

Montana said he thinks the design regulations in town are imprecise and ambiguous. He pointed out of the window of his current health club located on the second story of a building in Coupe’s Village to a dumpster that didn’t have any of the landscaping requirements he had to meet.

Kwarsick said he sees the same thing when he looks out of the window at his office at Town Hall. He doesn’t know why there are businesses that don’t have hidden dumpsters, but he is obligated to enforce current regulations.

He added that he was required to alter his parking lot plans and move it to the rear of his building while there are other buildings in town with parking lots placed in front of businesses.

Kwarsick agreed with Montana, there are a lot of businesses with parking lots in front of buildings, but current regulations prevent parking lots from being placed there.

“The town doesn’t want to see auto-oriented storefronts,” Kwarsick said.

Montana has operated Coupeville Health and Fitness for the past three years. A new building gives Montana room to provide more services to clients.

“We’ve been here for three years and it’s time to expand a bit,” Montana said.

The extra space will allow him to offer such classes as yoga and pilates and install an expanded locker room area.

He hopes being on the other side of the highway will attract more people to his club. Membership in Coupeville Health and Fitness varies from 100 to 200 people.

He said he won’t be able to say when construction can begin on the building until he gets it approved from the town.