Housing project still won't fly

The Daily Inter Lake

For the third time, a big proposed housing project southwest of Kalispell could not make it past the city Planning Board.

The Kalispell Planning Board voted 4-2 Tuesday to recommend that the City Council not approve plans for the Willow Creek subdivision - contending the project is still trying to cram too many homes into 140 acres.

"I think we indicated what we want to be developed, and we keep getting ignored," Planning Board member Butch Clark said.

The board rejected a more densely packed proposal last October and another proposal - similar to Tuesday's - in May.

The City Council already is considering whether to annex Willow Creek with R-3 single-family-house zoning, which would set a minimum lot size of 7,000 square feet and allow 450 to 500 homes.

What the Planning Board rejected Tuesday was a request by developers Wade and Hubert Turner for a planned unit development to allow lots as small as 4,000 square feet and to allow 580 homes.

A planned unit development is like a contract in which the city relaxes some zoning restrictions in return for the developers' promises to install mitigating measures.

Willow Creek is bordered on the south by Foy's Lake Road, on the north by Ashley Creek, and on the east by the proposed U.S. 93 bypass.

During the past nine months, the Turners have dropped the number of homes in their project from 710 to 580.

The original 710 included 288 single-family houses, 82 townhouse units and 340 condominiums. The current 580 includes 314 single-family houses, 82 townhouse units and 184 condominiums.

In June, Clark and board chairman Bryan Schutt said 450 homes would be an acceptable number for Willow Creek. On Tuesday, Schutt repeated his support for 450 to 500 homes at the site.

The other Planning Board members did not say what their ideal numbers of homes would be. But most indicated they believe the 580-home scenario is too dense.

Twenty-nine people living within 150 feet of Willow Creek submitted a petition Tuesday requesting that the proposed R-3 zoning - with its minimum 7,000-square-foot lot size - be changed to R-1, which calls for lots of no less than one acre.

But board member Kari Gabriel said one-acre lots are not cost-efficient for developers and don't fit the city's vision of what a viable residential area should be.

There were 16 people who spoke against the Willow Creek project Tuesday. They contended it would be too dense, create too much traffic, change the groundwater dynamics to increase flooding south of Foy's Lake Road, and would overburden schools.

Ted Dexter Jr. spoke in favor of the project, contending it would help provide affordable housing to a Kalispell is that is drastically short of those type of homes.

Hubert Turner and consultant Wayne Freeman of CTA Architects Engineers contended that a proposed northern access road into Willow Creek would help relieve an already congested traffic situation along Foy's Lake Road, and that Kalispell's growing population is already overburdening schools regardless of where new homes are built.

Board members Gabriel and Rick Hull recommended that the City Council approve the 580-home planned unit development for Willow Creek. Schutt, Clark, Robyn Balcom and John Hinchey voted no. Jim Wilkinson abstained because of a business-related conflict of interest.

For more information, see Thursday's Daily Inter Lake.