Square-mile land plan to be aired tonight

The Daily Inter Lake

A proposed one-square-mile development with the potential for at least 2,000 homes will be considered at 7 p.m. today by the Kalispell Planning Board.

The Stillwater Meadows project would be west of Glacier High School and south of West Reserve Drive.

The board is scheduled to discuss the development in a workshop session - in which no votes are allowed - following a short regular meeting.

The regular meeting will cover public hearings to create six lots in the two-acre Blue Sky Subdivision southwest of town and annex it, plus to create seven lots in four-acre subdivision along Denver Avenue.

The Stillwater Meadows project would be within the area where the planning board is just beginning to discuss revising the city's urban growth policy.

A few months ago, the City Council approved a policy governing a 13-square-mile area north of the city limits.

The policy covers what Kalispell wants to see in that area when developers seek annexation into Kalispell.

Now, the Planning Board is trying to map out a similar area west of Kalispell. Under most conceivable scenarios, Stillwater Meadows will end up in that western growth area.

And if its developers are consulting with the Planning Board, that indicates that the project will likely seek annexation.

The developers - a combination of a longtime Flathead Valley family, the Grosswilers, and Phoenix-based The Aspen Group - have talked about building 2,000 to 3,000 homes in that area. These were to be single-family houses, townhouses and condominiums with parks, trails and a neighborhood commercial area.

If this project moves beyond discussion stages into a formal submitted plan, here is how it would fit in with other large development projects:

. Las Vegas-based Southwest Homes Inc. recently put its plans on indefinite hold to build 813 homes on 85 acres south of Glacier High School, within Kalispell city limits. Southwest Homes could sell the land or restart the project on its own or with a partner.

. The 139-acre Willow Creek housing project just southwest of Kalispell is on hold as developers Wayne and Hubert Turner ponder direction from the Planning Board to trim the site's originally proposed 711 homes.

. In December, Kalispell annexed the 325-acre Silverbrook Estates site 2.2 miles north of town. The developer, 93 & Church LLC, wants to build 466 houses, 120 townhouses, a neighborhood commercial district and a parks-and-trails system.

. Developer Mike Anders has proposed a 140-acre, 650-house project - dubbed Trumbull Creek Crossing - just northeast of town. He has sent initial feelers to the city government about annexation and utility issues.