Board starts to wrap up work on Two Rivers amendment

The Daily Inter Lake

What may be the last or next-to-last workshop on the Two Rivers master plan amendment proposal will be held by the Flathead County Planning Board tonight at 6 p.m.

The board has already held three workshops and a field trip on the project, which would convert the land-use designation on 1,836 acres located north of Kalispell from largely agricultural to a mix of commercial, residential, industrial and open space.

The workshops have resulted in a variety of changes, additions and clarifications to the proposal, largely in response to concerns raised by the planning board regarding transportation infrastructure, parks and pedestrian paths.

It's unclear, though, whether the applicants' suggestions for mitigating these issues - including offers to dedicate substantial road and bike path easements - will prevail. At this point, the board appears to be split, with some members viewing this as an opportunity to comprehensively plan for growth over a large area and other members suggesting that the amendment doesn't adequately address the impacts associated with the type of density that's being proposed.

If the amendment is approved, about 40 percent of the Two Rivers area would be converted to urban or high-density residential, which allow for 3-8 units per acre and 8+ units per acre, respectively. Another 475 acres would be designated for commercial uses, together with 150 acres as suburban residential (2 units per acre), 172 acres as rural residential (1 unit per acre), about 40 acres as industrial and 200 acres as open space.

Planning board president Don Hines, together with board member Kathy Robertson, met with about two dozen homeowners on Monday to discuss some of their concerns about the project.

Most of the people live near the Two Rivers area. During the two-hour meeting, they questioned how the amendment would affect them, particularly in terms of road easements, taxes and annexation. A major fear seemed to be that this project would make it easier for Kalispell to annex some or all of their properties.

Several people said the proposed density was too high. There were also concerns about the amount of growth planned for the area, given that the Two Rivers properties are adjacent to the proposed Glacier Mall and the fact that the proposed Kalispell bypass would funnel even more traffic onto these streets.

Hines encouraged people to attend tonight's work session and the March 30 public hearing if they wanted to have any say in what the eventual land-use designation would be for this area.

"We need as much public input as possible," he said. "We're trying to get as much information as we can to assess this proposal."

Tonight's meeting will be held in the second floor conference room of the Earl Bennett building.