Neighbors object to Valley Ranch
53 Ponderosa Estates households speak against proposed zoning changes
Kalispell could be on the brink of reaching Ponderosa Estates.
But 53 of Ponderosa's 73 households object to the type of subdivision that wants to become their new neighbor.
Gateway Properties Inc. wants Kalispell to annex an 80-acre site - dubbed "Valley Ranch" - that would extend north from Glacier Town Center to reach the built-up yet rural Ponderosa Estates.
Glacier Town Center is Bucky Wolford's 481-acre mall-based business-housing development on Kalispell's northern border. Wolford is expected to seek Glacier Town Center's annexation within the next few months.
Valley Ranch would be catty-corner to the southeast across U.S. 93 from the 325-acre Silverbrook Estates housing subdivision - a recently annexed "island" 2.2 miles north of Kalispell surrounded by rural land.
If Valley Ranch and Glacier Town Center are annexed, Silverbrook Estates would be connected just barely to Kalispell as the end of a crooked finger of city land poking into Flathead County.
Valley Ranch curls around the southern and southwestern sides of Ponderosa Estates.
Gateway Properties wants to build 204 houses, 29 townhouses and a 120-unit assisted-living center on those 80 acres.
The assisted-living center would be in Valley Ranch's northwestern corner next to U.S. 93. Valley Ranch's larger lots would border Ponderosa Estates.
Two Valley Ranch access roads from U.S. 93 are penciled in, as well as one to the east and one to the south to Wolford's project. But none are nailed down.
However, no official Valley Ranch or Glacier Town Center preliminary plans have been submitted to the Kalispell government for scrutiny and approval.
On Tuesday, Gateway asked the Kalispell Planning Board for a recommendation of R-2 single-family-housing zoning with modifications to allow denser housing than allowed by city regulations. Gateway needs to go through the Planning Board before going to the City Council with its annexation and zoning requests.
An R-2 single-family-house zone would allow three to four houses within one acre, depending on how much land is occupied by streets and other public infrastructure within that acre.
Valley Ranch's concept calls for roughly 4.5 houses an acre.
Gateway wants an R-2 zone with a modification to allow as many as five homes an acre.
Roughly 35-40 people showed up Tuesday about the Gateway plan, mostly to protest the requested zoning modifications or parts of the plan.
Five people spoke at Tuesday's public hearing against the plan or zoning changes, and four supported the project.
Sharon DeMeester acted as spokeswoman for the 53 Ponderosa households that support a 12-page document outlining their objections to the Valley Ranch proposal.
These objections included:
. Gateway's zoning-with-modification request does not adequately address several matters. "We just need more details. It's just not there," DeMeester said.
. Major traffics concerns exist. These include overall volumes, problems with entering and leaving U.S. 93, and how Valley Ranch would link at least one major street with Glacier Town Center. Neither Glacier Town Center nor Valley Ranch have addressed that connecting road beyond a preliminary agreement to try to build one.
. A belief that more homes than desirable would be crammed into Valley Ranch.
. Not enough buffering measures are on the drawing board to separate spread-out Ponderosa from a more densely populated Valley Ranch.
Valley Ranch supporters said there is a need for another assisted-living center in Kalispell, and the proposed housing density is not as bad as the Ponderosa people say.
The Planning Board voted 3-2 to recommend that the City Council annex the land with the basic R-2 single-family-house zoning - which would allow three to four houses an acre.
Board members Robyn Balcom, Tim Norton and Bryan Schutt voted for the recommendation, with Rick Hull and John Hinchey opposing it. The "no" voters contended the project is poorly laid out with great potential for traffic problems. The "yes" voters contended Valley Ranch concept meets the city's requirements that it has approved for similar projects.
However, the board then voted 3-2 to delay making a recommendation on whether to modify the R-2 zoning to allow as many as five houses an acre.
Balcom, Schutt and Hinchey favored the delay, with Norton and Hull opposing it.
Board Member Kari Gabriel was absent.
Because the Ponderosa residents filed a formal protest with the support of more than 25 percent of the homeowners within 150 feet of Valley Ranch, state law requires at least six of the nine City Council members to support the Valley Ranch requests before they can be approved.