Development gets early OK from C. Falls

| September 7, 2006 1:00 AM

By NANCY KIMBALL

The Daily Inter Lake

Jon and Angela Lemburg got the green light Tuesday night to begin work on their plans for a residential subdivision in northwest Columbia Falls.

Their Hilltop Meadows rezone request for about 29 wooded acres of their family's land between North Hilltop Road and Meadow Lake Boulevard won unanimous support from the Columbia Falls City Council.

The council, with members Charlie McCubbins and Mike Shepard absent, backed the city-county planning board's recommendation, which scaled back on the density the Lemburgs initially requested.

The Lemburgs sought zoning that could have allowed up to 143 housing units. The planning board's recommendation scaled that back to 42 units. But the Lemburgs may be able to build more housing units than that - as many as 107 - if they negotiate a planned unit development with the city. That final density will likely be much lower and won't be determined until the Lemburgs propose a preliminary plat for Hilltop Meadows.

The land was previously zoned for single-family homes on one-acre lots.

"We could develop this to be very nice without the zone change," Jon Lemburg told the council. "But I have been asked by so many people, when am I going to build a road there? It desperately needs one," but Lemburg said he needs the revenue generated by more-dense development in order to build it.

A public connector road between North Hilltop and Meadow Lake Boulevard must be built as a condition of this zone change. The road is a prime concern for Hilltop Terrace residents worried about the high rate of traffic accidents at North Hilltop's intersection with U.S. 2.

After working with City Manager and Planner Bill Shaw, the Lemburgs asked to rezone the northeastern third for eight or more units per acre and the southwestern third for six units per acre, and to leave the northwestern third along the Garnier Creek floodplain in open public-access land.

The Lemburgs designed their request to comply with the city's growth policy, which calls for eight or more multifamily homes per acre in one area of the property, and for two to eight homes per acre in another area.

The planning board and council countered with zoning that allows three single-family homes per acre to the northeast and two single-family homes per acre to the southwest. It leaves open the option for a planned unit development overlay on the underlying zoning, offering open space and other amenities in exchange for greater density in other areas.

In addition to the road, the Lemburgs must produce a survey map within 45 days that specifies the two zoning boundaries and exactly where the open-space boundary will be established. This should protect the floodplain and ensure public access to the open space.

Also as a condition of the rezone, they must provide a 60-foot right-of-way where their land touches Meadow Lake Boulevard so the city has access to its high-pressure sewer line.

And they must extend city water and sewer lines to the property.

Traffic safety was a top priority for the council and the audience at the public hearing.

Allen Jangula, who lives on Dawn Drive, said he was one of the neighbors who have petitioned the Department of Transportation for years to get a stop light at the U.S. 2-Hilltop Road intersection, only to be told that it would not happen.

"The only way it will be settled is with a lawsuit for criminal negligence when there is a traffic death there," he said. "If it's my kid that gets killed out there, I'll have nothing else to do with my life."

He asked whether the access road will empty onto Meadow Lake Boulevard or U.S. 2, and told the Lemburgs he was grateful for the prospect of an alternate road going in there.

Lemburg said the route has not been determined, but he expects the road to access North Hilltop Road somewhere between Lemburg Lane and Garnier Creek to the north.

Jangula also alerted the council to the possibility that the Columbia Falls School District could cancel its bus route to the North Hilltop area if the connector road shortens the distance to Glacier Gateway Elementary below the statutory three-mile minimum for bus service. That would add traffic to an already "ugly road," he said.

Dawn Drive neighbor Nancy Burns reiterated her concern with density, but conceded the need for an alternate road. She also raised concerns over the potential density bringing landlord-tenant housing instead of owner-occupied housing, increasing chances that the homes and grounds would be neglected.

An agent working with Lemburg spoke in Lemburg's defense.

"Jon has had a lot of developers make offers on the land. If they come in, you'll see your nightmare," the agent said, referring to Burns' comment. "But he is your neighbor, his intentions are nothing but pure out there … It will be children friendly. He has specific ideas, he wants to be friendly for the native territory.

"But if this is made too difficult for him, there are plenty of people who would develop it that would not be as friendly."