Board considers shoreline district

Zoning would restrict land along Flathead Lake to two homes per acre

The Daily Inter Lake

Something old and something new comes before the Flathead County Planning Board tonight.

The new item is a public hearing on the Old Highway 93 Shoreline Zoning District, one of the first entirely new zoning districts to be proposed in Flathead County in several years.

If approved, the district would impose R-2 residential zoning on 111 acres on the east side of U.S. 93, from the Somers Fish Hatchery north along Flathead Lake almost as far as Boon Road.

The R-2 zoning designation features a minimum lot size of 20,000-square-foot, or about a half-acre. Almost 90 percent of the lots in the district are less than one acre in size; not including 25 parcels that are one acre or larger, the average lot size in the neighborhood is about a third of an acre.

More than 70 percent of the property owners in the proposed district have asked that zoning be imposed. Their request was prompted by a couple of high-density condominium/apartment projects that are being built in the otherwise predominantly single-family residential area.

Because of legal concerns related to not having a growth policy in place by Oct. 1, the county has a temporary moratorium on new zoning applications.

However, the Old Highway 93 request will be processed as interim or emergency zoning. The basis for the emergency, according to the planning staff report, is that the condominium projects represent a level of development that's inconsistent with the existing character of the neighborhood; that these high-density projects don't conform with the current master plan designation for the area; and that these intense developments has raised concerns regarding water quality and sedimentary runoff.

Other public hearings tonight include:

. The preliminary plat of Tierhaven Estates, a five-lot subdivision on 23 acres at 3252 Middle Road, south of Columbia Falls.

All the lots would have individual water wells and septic systems.

. The preliminary plat of Logan Estates, a 14-lot single-family subdivision on 23 acres off Holt Stage Road.

Following the public hearings on these three items, the planning board will discuss Haskill Mountain Ranch, a 74-lot subdivision proposed on 530 acres off Browns Meadow Road, in an unzoned area southwest of Kila.

The board unanimously recommended denial of the project in June. However, it failed to amend the findings of fact in the staff report. The county commissioners have asked the board to modify the findings before they take action on the application.

Haskill Mountain Ranch will be discussed under old business. There won't be another public hearing on the project, although there will be an opportunity for general public comment at the beginning of the meeting.

Tonight's meeting takes place in the second-floor conference room of the Earl Bennett Building, beginning at 6 p.m.