Kalispell approves 531-home project
A long-embattled housing project is now annexed into southwestern Kalispell with the City Council's OK to build 531 homes there.
The Kalispell City Council voted 7-2 Monday to annex 165 acres belonging to Wayne and Hubert Turner with preliminary approval to zone 140 acres - dubbed Willow Creek - for single-family residential use with some modifications.
The council also voted 7-2 to approve Willow Creek's preliminary plans to build 361 single-family houses, 18 townhouses, 152 condominium units in 15 buildings and a major new street to connect Foy's Lake Road with U.S. 2 West.
The project is to be tackled in seven phases; the first phase will consist of single-family houses and the new arterial street.
Willow Creek is bordered by Foy's Lake Road on the south, Ashley Creek on the north and the future U.S. 93 bypass on the east.
Council members Jim Atkinson and Randy Kenyon cast dissenting votes on Willow Creek.
Council member Tim Kluesner said: "This development is a great example of what would be good for the city. It's not leapfrogging out there. … They're taking an industrial area and turning it around."
Part of Willow Creek is a former mill site.
"Leapfrogging" refers to the city annexing or considering annexing pieces of land north of town that don't connect to the main part of Kalispell.
The city government eventually plans to connect those islands to the rest of Kalispell.
Willow Creek has struggled for months to get the blessing of the Kalispell Planning Board, obtaining it Nov. 13 after trimming the proposed number of homes from 710 to 531.
The Planning Board's main concern - which was eliminated last month - was that the project crammed homes too densely within the 140 acres.
Many neighbors have objected to the housing density of the project and its potential for run-off water seeping into their lands.
Neighbors living on 18 lots - 25 percent of the lots within 150 feet of Willow Creek - signed a petition objecting to the single-family residential zoning and the zoning modifications to which the council gave preliminary approval on Monday.
That petition's 25 percent figure required at least a 6-3 council vote to approve the Willow Creek measures.
Reporter John Stang may be reached at 758-4429 or by e-mail at jstang@dailyinterlake.com