Swan Lake condos proposal has some lodging a complaint

When residents at the foot of Swan Lake look across to the historic Kootenai Lodge, they shiver at the thought of 57 condominiums and associated development they would bring to the stately lodge property.

But that's what's being planned by developer Paul Milhous, and the Lake County Planning Board will be weighing his major subdivision proposal after a public hearing April 13.

After hearing community concerns at a meeting in Bigfork last month, Milhous revised his original proposal in an effort to address community concerns raised at a meeting in Bigfork last month. But concerned residents were not mollified by the changes.

The Milhous Group proposal has stirred the organization of a community group, "The Swan Lakers," and generated a rush of written comments to the Lake County Planning Department.

County planner Sue Shannon said Thursday the department received about 100 letters, nearly all in opposition, soon after the proposal was first advertised in February.

"Since then, I'd say that has at least doubled," Shannon said.

Peter Leander, president of the newly formed Swan Lakers, headed up a press conference Thursday at a home across the lake from the lodge that once accommodated notables such as Charlie Russell and Charles Lindbergh.

"The hub of this issue is density," said Leander, a Bigfork attorney.

Adding 57 condominiums on the 40-acre lodge property, along with 24 more boat slips, will have environmental, traffic, law enforcement and boating safety impacts, and the density simply doesn't resemble the level of development that has historically occurred on the lake, Leander said.

Lakefront resident John Snyder put the density issue in perspective with the current number of homes on the shores of Swan Lake.

The lodge property accounts for just 5 percent of the northern two miles of Swan Lake's shoreline, yet the development project would increase the number of residential dwellings and the number of boats slips in that same area by 50 percent, Snyder said.

"That gives you a sense of why we are upset about the density," he said.

David DeGrandpre, a former Lake County planning director who now works as a planning consultant for Milhous, said the Milhous group has worked to mitigate all impacts that would result from the project's higher home density.

"If you break the impacts of density down, our application addresses all of those impacts," he said. "I can't think of one impact we have not addressed."

The plan was revised to address those impacts after hearing resident concerns at last month's Bigfork meeting, DeGrandpre said.

For example, the original plan called for 65 condominiums, but that was whittled down to 57. The original plan called for 50-foot structural setbacks from the lake and river, easily meeting the requirement for nearby areas that are zoned.

But the lodge property is unzoned, DeGrandpre noted, and the setbacks were expanded 80 feet.

DeGrandpre said many people have expressed concerns about impacts to wildlife, so Milhous has proposed covenants that require bear-proof garbage containers throughout the development.

To address potential water quality impacts, he said, the amount of road construction in the development was reduced by about 12 percent, or 6,200 linear feet.

The Milhous Group could legally pursue more docks and boat slips, he said, but 24 slips on three docks was considered appropriate.

In an open letter to the public published last Sunday in the Inter Lake, Paul Milhous noted that the project is expected to generate an additional $100,000 annually in property revenues for the county and $400,000 for local schools.

Milhous asserts that the amount of development is necessary to make the project economically feasible.

"We did not choose a development plan that will provide the greatest economic return on our investment," he wrote.

Snyder, a retired economics professor, and other members of the Swan Lakers doubt that claim.

Admittedly, a huge cost associated with the project is planned construction of a sewage treatment plant on a separate 63-acre land parcel recently purchased by Milhous farther south on the lake.

Milhous touts the plant design, which has a Level 2 rating from the Montana Department of Environmental Quality, as being far superior to Level 1 septic systems in use on Swan Lake.

But the adequacy of the proposed plant has been challenged by Jack Stanford, director of the University of Montana's Flathead Lake Biological Station.

"The proposed treatment facility is but a slight increment above a septic system," Stanford says in a letter to the Lake County Planning Office. "With current technology available, this is unacceptable."

Stanford recommends a more environmentally sound "tertiary" sewage treatment plant with a discharge system that does not require a 5,000-foot sewage line. Stanford said the sewage line, running parallel to the lake, would present a constant threat of pollution because of possible line ruptures.

DeGrandpre contends that the sewer plant is providing a community service, at considerable expense to Milhous, because it will have the capacity for other landowners in the area to connect to the system.

Denny Kellogg, a longtime Ferndale-area resident, believes it will be cost-prohibitive for residents to connect to the system.

And Kellogg is skeptical of the covenants that Milhous has proposed to address local concerns.

Milhous has proposed, for instance, a covenant that would prohibit "fractional" or time-share style condominium ownership. The covenant would limit condominium rentals to a minimum of 30 days.

Kellogg said Lake County and surrounding residents will have no say in enforcing those covenants. And he contends that Milhous and the condominium owners can change the covenants at any point once the project is approved.

Other members of the Swan Lakers, a group that is estimated to have a roster of up to 300 people, are worried that the condominium development will set an undesirable tone for future development around the lake.

The Confederated Salish-Kootenai Tribes share those concerns in a letter expressing opposition to the project.

"The Swan Valley remains a place of importance to our people in part because it remains relatively unchanged," the letter states. "For tribal people, the kind of major development proposed at 'Historic Kootenai Lodge Condominiums' represents a profound threat to the protection and maintenance of the cultural environment. This development would not only affect the specific site at the outlet of Swan Lake, but also the general character of the area."

Milhous and DeGrandpre say the project is a more palatable type of development for the Kootenai Lodge property, compared to other types of potential development.

"A hotel and casino complex could go in there without any public review, other than sanitation," DeGrandpre said. "Or the property could be chopped into one-acre lots. People need to ask themselves what are the other possibilities for the property?"

The Lake County Planning Board's public hearing for major subdivision preliminary plat approval is April 13 at the Lake County Courthouse in Polson.

The planning board's recommendation for the project will be forwarded to Lake County commissioners, who are scheduled to consider the project at 1:30 p.m. April 19 in the courthouse.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com