Zone change aired for U.S. 2 corner
By NANCY KIMBALL
The Daily Inter Lake
A 212-acre zone change request southwest of the Blue Moon Nite Club goes to the Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board on Tuesday night.
The zone change would usher in major commercial development and a subdivision with potential to boost Columbia Falls housing by more than 50 percent.
The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall.
Columbia Falls Land Associates, a San Francisco-based developer, is asking for the zone changes at the junction of U.S. 2 and Montana 40, southwest of the Blue Moon.
The 212 acres currently are zoned for light industrial uses, but have been in open agricultural land that was cropped to grain until two seasons ago.
The developer wants commercial zoning on the eastern third of the land, a central buffer zoned for apartments, professional clinics, day care centers or similar uses, and two classes of single-family residential zoning on the western third that would allow three houses or four houses an acre.
If developers get their zoning request, Columbia Falls could see as many as 802 new housing units - compared with 1,470 counted in 2000.
Specifics on the housing portion will not be known until a preliminary plat is submitted later.
A preliminary plat has been submitted for the 65-acre commercial portion, being called Columbia Falls Business Park. It proposes one large lot suitable for large box stores or major car lots, a pod of four four-acre lots, all fringed by 16 one-acre or smaller lots. The plat proposal is expected to be on the planning board's October agenda.
Columbia Falls Land Associates proposes extending city sewer and water about one mile to the site. After the developer pays to install the utilities, they would become the city's property.
This site also was considered for development a few years back. Developers withdrew their proposal after concerns surfaced about possible high-groundwater problems and the development's potential to drain business away from Nucleus Avenue and the U.S. 2 corridor through Columbia Falls.
Also on Tuesday's agenda, a 20-unit condominium development on two acres along the Flathead River near the Red Bridge is up for discussion.
The first public hearing on the planning board's agenda is Grace Ann planned unit development, a proposal from Skidog Land Development for 20 condominiums at the east end of Talbott Road.
Five buildings, each with four condominium units, are proposed.
Just one stretch of private homes lies between the proposed development and Riverbend Estates, a 62-lot subdivision on 22 acres to the west that the City Council approved in July. It would tie into utilities planned there by joining in any needed sewer lift station or water line improvements along Talbott Road.
An abandoned road that leads into Skidog's two-acre property would serve as the prime access.
Land along the river bank to the southeast lies within the 100-year flood plain, prompting planners to recommend restrictions against basements plus calling for foundations to be at least two feet above the water table.
The staff report also recommends that no soil or natural vegetation be disturbed in the flood plain or on river bank slopes of 25 percent or more, and that no healthy trees in the flood plain be disturbed without city consent. Those lands also are recommended for a conservation easement or similar protective arrangement.
Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com