Third attempt tonight for Cottonwood subdivision
The Daily Inter Lake
The Flathead County Planning Board will hold public hearings tonight on a zone change and preliminary plat request for a major subdivision along Helena Flats Road.
This is the third time in the past year that Cottonwood Estates has come before the board.
The project initially called for 120 single-family and duplex lots on 38 acres located about a quarter-mile north of Montana 35, directly east of Solberg Drive.
When this proposal earned a negative recommendation from the planning board (in part because of questions about sewer service), it was scaled back to 103 lots. That design earned a split recommendation from the board, but was later rejected by the Flathead County commissioners because of density and sewer concerns.
Tonight's proposal calls for 91 single-family lots on the same 38 acres. The developers also are requesting a zone change from SAG-10 suburban agricultural to R-3 one-family residential, which would reduce the minimum lots size for the property from 10 acres to 10,000 square feet.
Sewer service remains a contentious issue with this subdivision. The property is located immediately adjacent to but outside the Evergreen sewer district. However, the developers have been unable to convince either the sewer district or Kalispell to provide sewer service to the area.
That might prove to be a fatal shortcoming: The planning staff is recommending that the project be required to connect to public sewer.
Neighbors also have suggested that the number of lots is still too high, and they say Helena Flats can't handle the anticipated increase in traffic.
To address the latter concern, the developers are offering to construct a bike path along Helena Flats Road north to East Evergreen Drive, where it would connect to a new bike path that's been proposed along East Evergreen from Helena Flats Road to U.S. 2. They've also established future right-of-way easements along Helena Flats in the event the road is widened.
The planning board meeting takes place in the second-floor conference room at the Earl Bennett Building in Kalispell, beginning at 6 p.m.
Other items on the agenda include:
-The preliminary plat of Spring Creek Estates, a three-lot single-family residential subdivision on 14 acres at 1493 Helena Flats Rd.
All lots are proposed to have individual water and septic systems.
-The amended plat of lots 1, 2 and 3 in the Swan View Ranches subdivision, which would create seven single-family lots on 15 acres south of Hodgson Road, off Cowboy Way.
All lots are proposed to have individual water and septic systems.
-A zone change from R-1 suburban residential to R-2 limited residential for 1.4 acres 102 West Reserve Drive and 113 Ardell Drive in the Evergreen Zoning District.
-A zone change from SAG-10 to SAG-5 suburban agricultural for 10.6 acres at 420 W. Springcreek Rd. in the West Side Zoning District.