C. Falls denies Kiser sewer request

Subdivision development was put on ice Monday night for one parcel of land on the northwest border of Columbia Falls.

But a 184-unit expansion request from Meadow Lake Resort, tentatively up for discussion next month, guarantees that growth - or at least the City Council's talk of it - will be heating up in that area.

Vernon Kiser, representing the Kiser Family Trust, which holds 16.3 acres of wooded land that his dad and uncle bought in the late 1970s, made a case for laying a city sewer line from the sewer main in Meadow Lake Boulevard eastward to Kiser property along Rocky Lane.

Someday, he said, the family hopes to develop it into a subdivision of .75-acre lots.

But the current request is just for sewer, and only to the southwest corner of their land.

The neighbors don't want it. Several showed up at Monday at the City Council meeting, and three of them spoke about high groundwater, traffic safety and long-term expense to the city.

A recurring theme was their objections to being forced onto city sewer. The city requires that if a homeowner's septic drain field fails, and the property lies near a city sewer line, the property owner must connect.

A lift station operates at Tamarack Road just south of Meadow Lake Resort, serving the homes in the resort and any that are connected to the force main along Meadow Lake Boulevard. Water and Sewer Superintendent Gary Root says it would take a small lift station to serve fewer than 20 homes - the Kiser's plan could have as many as 21. But, Root said, he does not recommend hooking a pressure main to another pressure main because of high operation and maintenance costs.

City Manager Bill Shaw, however, said engineering could solve potential problems.

Kiser said he would have that engineering done if he got city approval for sewer.

It didn't come.

Ron Hagan, a neighbor on 12th Avenue WN, laid out the basic argument that eventually killed the request.

Hagan pointed to a map of the area, ticking off property owner after property owner opposed to the sewer line.

"You're going to have a dead-end sewer line, and not many others are going to want to tie into it," he said. He didn't like the idea of one landowner getting preference over the rest, either.

"It's not fair to the rest of us when we have enough land for a new septic if we need it," Hagan said.

He cited the ducks swimming on Kiser's property as evidence of high groundwater there. "That tells me we would have potential problems," he said.

Hagan also questioned whether Meadow Lake's sewer main is the required 8 inches, based on unverified information that it is 2 inches smaller. And he said that because the resort is nowhere near its sewer capacity, nobody knows how the system will work when it does build out to its capacity contract with the city.

He also had plenty of objections to the subdivision itself but, he said, that is another issue for a different meeting.

Frank Wyman, another neighbor, said he had the same concerns as Hagan.

But he threw out another suggestion for Kiser: Develop 1 1/2-acre or two-acre lots, dedicate a well and septic on each lot, and make just as much or more money in the long run.

"Also," Wyman said, "I hate the thought of being forced onto city sewer."

"The problem out there is the high water table, so we need the city sewer," Kiser told his neighbors. "We all know about the water lawsuit with Plum Creek, so that will be a separate issue."

The timber company is being sued by neighbors and others alleging that for years it has contaminated the water with formaldehyde and other byproducts of its wood-processing operations.

Shaw, citing the pending Meadow Lake Resort request, refocused the evening's debate.

"We will face this issue more than once, so this tonight is really a philosophical issue," Shaw said. "The question is, 'Is it reasonable that sewer be there or not?' How to do it will come later [through engineering]. The money will come out of somebody's pocket."

Typically, the city requires developers to bear the expense of installing infrastructure to meet city code.

Council member Don Barnhart said that one criterion for considering requests is the effect they would have on adjacent property owners.

"We know from the past that property would have been developed if it had been able to," Barnhart said. "The only way to avoid high groundwater problems is with city sewer.

"The bottom line is, nobody wants to be forced to hook to city sewer."

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com.