C. Falls plan aims to map out growth
Red Bridge revival, potholes in city streets, septic systems on the outskirts of town and potential annexations raised questions among the nine people who attended a community forum on Columbia Falls growth Tuesday night.
The Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board gave its first public airing of the city's growth policy, a document that's been under construction for the past two years as the board worked on the best way to expand the city over the next two decades.
By state mandate, each jurisdiction must have a growth policy by Oct. 1, 2006. Failing to meet that deadline means a city or county can make no zoning changes or master plan amendments, even if the changes are reasonable and necessary.
Columbia Falls is operating under a master plan adopted in 1985.
A lot has changed in 20 years, Tri-City Planning Office Director Tom Jentz told those gathered for the planning board meeting.
With a population that grew an average of 17 percent per decade in the 1980s and 1990s, and a current population of 4,400 expected to reach 6,250 by 2020, the current housing stock is rapidly filling out.
Already only a two-year supply of platted, buildable lots remains in city limits.
After that, the planning board figures, the city will have to stretch to the east and the west.
Just how that stretching is accomplished concerned Lucy Yates, a Columbia Falls resident whose mother lives on 40 acres of family land along Rogers Road. She learned that land would be annexed only if the property owners request city services, sewer being the most likely.
Another question about septic systems on one-acre lots brought an explanation that, although state standards allow half-acre parcels, eventually the gravel underlying the Columbia Falls area would provide little filtration and could threaten water quality downstream.
Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Carol Pike urged the board and city to continue to pursue reopening of the Red Bridge across the Flathead River as a necessary connector to serve the expected growth.
And Conrad Nelson learned that potholes remain in city streets, in part, because of a limited tax base: Half the land inside city limits is public land and produces no taxes.
Bringing more high-end homes into the city will help that situation, Jentz told Nelson.
Highlights of the growth policy include three main areas targeted for urban residential development, allowing two to eight housing units per acre:
The largest extends west from Hilltop Road for about three-fourths of a mile to just east of the Blue Moon Nite Club, north to the Hilltop Terrace neighborhood and south past Walsh Road. The land now is zoned SAG-10, suburban agricultural.
Extending 13th Street West down the hill could provide access to the area.
Another area farther to the north, running for a mile along the west edge of Meadow Lake Resort, is targeted for urban residential use because of its access to city sewer through the resort.
. Urban mixed-use zoning is proposed for the land south of the U.S. 2/Montana 40 junction, at the Hamilton gravel pit to the southeast and the 200-acre Bennett-Edmiston parcel on the southwest which recently sold. It's already zoned industrial. The zone change would allow commercial services, as well as single-family through multi-family housing.
. Two adjacent areas to the west and north are tagged for suburban residential use, allowing one to two units per acre with some limited agricultural use, and limited city services available.
One is the half-mile square around Midway Drive-In at the corner of U.S. 2 and Montana 40, and a stretch north of the Blue Moon and east of Half Moon Road.
The second is Hilltop Terrace, which now is on community water and individual septics.
. A smaller parcel of proposed urban residential zoning extends about three-quarters of a mile east of the Flathead River to Montana 206 and a half-mile south of U.S. 2 to Rogers Road. It's now zoned SAG-5, agricultural.
. Extend that roughly another half-mile to the south and come back west to the state-owned riparian lands along the Flathead River at Kokanee Bend, and you have the boundaries for another area of proposed lower-density suburban residential zoning.
More suburban residential land is targeted to the north and east across the river from Columbia Falls Aluminum Co. Owned primarily by CFAC and zoned suburban agricultural with a 10-acre minimum lot size, the land came into the city's planning jurisdiction last November.
The third urban residential zone is planned for the area roughly defined by the Aluminum City neighborhood. The land runs for about a mile on the North Fork Road north of the Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks, and from the western boundary of CFAC land to about a quarter-mile west of the North Fork Road.
. A final swath of suburban residential land is proposed west of there, stretching to Meadow Lake Resort in developed land north of the railroad tracks.
In addition to the urban and suburban residential and urban mixed use areas, the planning board proposes a rural preserve north of CFAC along the North Fork Road.
It would be about 2 1/2 miles square and include the Cedar Creek Reservoir, buffer lands for the CFAC plant, and Forest Service land up to the Teakettle Mountain crest. The city is beginning the process of selling about 400 acres of that land around the reservoir, however.
The next step in the process will be a June 21 public hearing on the growth policy. It begins at 7 p.m. in City Hall, during the planning board's regular meeting. Once the policy is approved, the board will pass it on to the City Council for final action.
Over the coming month, maps and planning documents will be available for the public to study in the council chambers at City Hall, where City Manager Bill Shaw will be available for questions.
Jentz also will be available to speak to civic organizations or other groups interested in hearing more about the growth policy.
For information, call Jentz at 751-1850 or Shaw at 892-4391.
Reporter Nancy Kimball may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com