C. Falls Council approves water, sewer for subdivision

By NANCY KIMBALL

The Daily Inter Lake

The first step was taken Monday night for a 146-lot subdivision proposed east of Columbia Falls and just west of Big Sky Waterpark.

Columbia Falls developers Eileen McDowell and Marty Laskey will take their Columbia Ridge zone change, preliminary plat and planned unit development request to the Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board on Tuesday.

But before then, McDowell and Laskey must show they can provide the sewer and water capacity needed. Since Columbia Ridge is in the city's planning jurisdiction, they asked for and received consent for the expected demand.

Final approval to connect will not come until later.

Columbia Falls Investments - McDowell and Laskey's development firm - will pay all costs to bring water and sewer lines across the U.S. 2 bridge over the Flathead River. The city assumes ownership after the services are built and approved.

Bruce Lutz of Sitescape Associates, representing Laskey and McDowell, said peak daily water use would be 53,728 gallons a day after full build-out, based on 200 gallons a person. He estimated peak sewer flows at 41,318 gallons a day.

City Manager Bill Shaw extended the calculations: Water usage would be about 19 million gallons a year, and sewer usage would be about 15 million gallons a year.

Currently, the city's wells pump about 190 million gallons a year, Shaw said, and the sewer plant processes about 137 million gallons a year. The additional flows would be well within both facilities' capacities, he said.

But Shaw pointed out that even after the sewer plant's 2008 upgrade, its capacity eventually will be used up as subdivisions keep coming on line. He said about two-thirds of the city's water-pumping capacity will be used up by full build-out of this and other subdivisions approved to date.

Future water and sewer expansions will be covered by plant investment fees that homeowners pay as they build houses and connect to city utilities.

He expects $600,000 to $800,000 in plant investment fees to accumulate by the time the city needs a bigger sewer plant.

Council member Harvey Reikofski questioned the assumption of 200 gallons a day, and Shaw conceded that is higher than the city's average now. Shaw said Lutz may have assumed that upper-income families living there will be willing to spend more money on water, "but I don't think we will see them wasting water."

The council unanimously approved capacity up to but not more than the numbers included in Lutz's estimate.

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