. C. Falls riverfront
Project eyed for east side
Utility extensions could change rural character
River Highlands, a proposed 48-acre housing development that could be the gateway to changing the rural face of Columbia Falls' east entrance, will get its first airing at a public hearing before the planning board Tuesday night.
The Columbia Falls board will consider a zone-change request from Avi Bree Real Estate Holdings LLC, represented by Lloyd Claycomb of Broomfield, Colo. It's situated at Loeffler Ridge along River Road, currently open land with a rural character.
The meeting starts at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall, with this hearing scheduled last on the agenda.
In initialdocuments filed last month, Avi Bree proposes 151 total residences - 77 single-family, 31 townhouse and 30 condominium lots, and 13 cabins. Overall density on the 48.4 acres would be 3.12 developed units per acre, enough to help cover costs of bringing municipal sewer and water services across the river.
To get this density Avi Bree is asking for a zone change from the current CSAG-5, suburban agriculture with 5-acre minimum lots, to CR-3, single-family residential, with a planned-unit development overlay.
The overlay would trade the proposed density for 14.8 acres of open space scattered across the development and along the river bank.
Columbia Falls' growth policy targets the area for suburban residential zoning, with three to eight units per acre.
Only the zone change is up for discussion at the public hearing, but land planner Bruce Lutz of Sitescape Associates also submitted the proposed master development plan to help inform the board as it weighs the decision.
Under the master development plan, River Road would be rebuilt southeast of its current route. The River Road access on U.S. 2 would be moved some distance southeast of its current access near the bridge over the Flathead River. The current River Road would be converted to a bike path along the river, and townhouses, condominiums, cabins and a village market would be built between the river and the road.
It sits just west of Columbia Range, the 72-acre, 146-lot subdivision for which developers Eileen McDowell and Marty Laskey won City Council approval in December 2006. Both designed by Lutz, the communities follow a similar housing mix and layout but River Highlands offers considerably less open space.
Both also lie within what had been the boundaries of the proposed River Road Neighborhood Plan, the vision for development and open-space protection that local residents had hoped would be added to the city's growth policy. After failing to gain support from developers who own land in the area, the neighborhood policy lost its battle before the planning board earlier this summer.
Only one comment on the River Highlands proposal had come to the Columbia Falls Planning Office by the end of last week.
The letter from Luci Yeats, a primary leader in the neighborhood plan that recommended a density of one to two units per acre, opposed the development. Cost to bring city services to the development should not drive the board's decision on housing density, Yeats contended. She also objected to lack of open space for wildlife movement, lack of attractive landscape buffering against neighboring properties, and the potential impacts on the Flathead River.
City Manager Bill Shaw, who also acts as the planning and zoning administrator, recommended approval of both the zone change and the planned-unit development overlay.
Among conditions he placed on the zone change is a ban on structures along the river closer than 100 feet of the high point of the slope adjacent to the bank, a requirement to rebuild River Road to the southeast and move its intersection with U.S. 2 to the east, a mandate for landscape buffers to the west and south where it abuts less-dense property and a requirement to maintain the natural ridge to the north so it's buffered from highway traffic.
He placed 16 conditions on the planned-unit development overlay, allowing variances on lot sizes, restricting access to River Road properties only from side streets, requiring a bike path, outlining what trees can be removed and which natural areas can be disturbed, and several others.
RIVER Highlands follows two other agenda items.
First up is a rezone request from the Jehovah's Witnesses Church for its property on Veterans Drive, which is listed for sale. It's now CR-3 one-family residential, but is proposed for CRA-1 residential apartment. The new zoning allows medical offices.
Second on the agenda is proposed rezoning of land along the Nucleus Avenue corridor to CB-4 central business, old business continued from the last meeting. It would formally establish an uptown business district.
Reporter Nancy Kimball may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com