C. Falls to consider Meadow Lake development
By NANCY KIMBALL
The Daily Inter Lake
Columbia Falls planning board members are facing decisions Tuesday night on proposals to develop 252 new housing lots in and near the city.
By far the biggest chunk is a 182-lot subdivision proposed on about 87 acres northwest of Meadow Lake Resort.
Aspen-Columbia Falls, a subsidiary of The Aspen Group, an Arizona-based investment and real-estate-development company, is asking for a zone change and preliminary plat approval at Tuesday's meeting of the Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board. The group last week announced it had bought North Valley Hospital's current 15-acre campus in Whitefish for $6.4 million. It plans a mixed-used condominium development on the site.
The Meadow Lake development of single-family homes, to be built in four phases, is being called Meadow Lake Northwest.
Aspen is asking for CR-3 zoning on just over 79 acres, and the more-dense CR-4 zoning on just under 8 acres. Lots would range from 7,630 to 36,841 square feet.
Most of the 87 acres are part of the original 1979 and 1983 Meadow Lake master plans, when 160 units were planned on 50 acres. Since then, another tract was added for access to Tamarack Lane. The resort is served by city sewer.
-Another sizable development called Riverbend Estates is up for preliminary plat approval.
It is a 62-lot subdivision on just over 22 acres south of Talbott Road along the Flathead River, a short distance west of the Red Bridge. Landowners applying for the plat are Randy Toavs/Leonard Investments, Bernadette and Donald Newton, and Julie and Patrick Plevel. Julie Plevel sits on the Columbia Falls City Council.
-A third proposal will be considered, for six residential lots on Burke Lane off Columbia Falls Stage Road.
Robert and Ruth Burke applied for the major subdivision preliminary plat earlier but, faced with substantial changes that were going to be required in number and configuration of lots, opted to make the changes and reapply. The six lots are bordered by four one-acre lots on the west, half-acre lots on the south, and five-acre lots on the south-southeast, east and north.
-William and Nancy West are asking for a zone change on about 10 acres of suburban agricultural land on Hellman Lane, near Kokanee Bend south of the city across the Flathead River. It's now zoned for 10-acre minimum lot sizes, but the Wests are asking for five-acre lots.
-A drive-through coffee shop request from Jean To, filing as Yun-Hong Yang Inc., will make its second appearance before the board.
It would place the shop in front of her recently purchased Falls Car Wash and Laundry, on the east end of its highway frontage. She asked for the conditional-use permit at the board's last meeting but met with opposition from unanswered questions. Paul and Sharon Stevens are concerned that cars at the coffee stand would block access for their Sundrop Health Foods store to the east. She is coming back with a drawing to scale, as requested by the planning board.
The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday in City Hall.
Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com.