City utilities sought near Blue Moon
The Daily Inter Lake
The first concrete step toward developing property at the southwest corner of U.S. 2 and Montana 40 could come at the Columbia Falls City Council meeting tonight.
Schwarz Engineering has a request on tonight's agenda for extending city services to that intersection.
On Sept. 12, the planning board denied a zone-change request from the San Francisco-based Columbia Falls Land Associates on 212 acres southwest of the Blue Moon Nite Club.
That denial effectively scuttled plans for a mix of commercial and residential development that could bring in the city's first big-box store and possibly as many as 802 new housing units.
A preliminary plat for Columbia Falls Business Park - which was not considered by the board - included one lot of 21 acres, plus an assortment of 20 more commercial lots of varying sizes. Two-thirds of the development would have been put to housing, roads and public rights-of-way.
After that planning board vote, developers withdrew their request rather than trying their hand before the City Council.
Tonight's request from Schwarz Engineering may be a restart of that initiative.
In a separate, but related, meeting, the Committee on Power Center Establishments meets at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in City Hall.
Composed of members of the City Council, Planning Board and the public, the committee will begin discussion of future design standards and regulations for potential large-scale retail and other projects. Last week's Planning Board work session introduced issues to consider in Columbia Falls and provided documents from other cities to kick off their research.
Committee members are Karl Anderson, Jenny Draband and Dave Renfrow of the Planning Board, Don Barnhart, Julie Plevel and Harvey Reikofski of the City Council, and Barry Conger and Greg Larson from the public.
The council also will:
. Consider a request from Jon and Angela Lemburg for 90 water and sewer connections for their proposed 29-acre Hilltop Meadows subdivision between North Hilltop Road and Meadow Lake Boulevard.
. Consider a proposal for clearing brush and burning debris at the Cedar Creek South subdivision, with work to be done by LBC Trucking and Excavation Inc. of West Glacier.
. Hear City Manager Bill Shaw's report on preliminary investigation into proposed upgrades and funding for Flathead County's central dispatch system.
. Hold the final readings of two zoning amendments. One would pave the way for the Ski Grace Ann condominium development of 16 housing units at the east end of Talbott Road. The other is a catch-up action to put into law a council vote last February allowing higher housing density on 7.5 acres Jim Etzler owns north of Vetville.
The meeting begins at 7 p.m. in City Hall.