Kalispell approves deal with 81-acre subdivision

The Kalispell City Council gave unanimous preliminary approval Monday to a planned-unit-development agreement with Gateway Properties Inc. for the Valley Ranch subdivision.

A planned-unit development is a type of contract in which the city relaxes some zoning requirements in return for the developer's promises to install mitigation measures.

Valley Ranch's 81 acres are bounded by unincorporated Ponderosa Estates to the north, U.S. 93 to the west and Glacier Town Center property to the south.

The city annexed Valley Ranch in July 2007. But people and the city government questioned the project's density and traffic matters at that time.

Gateway returned last summer with a revised request for a planned-unit development for the site.

The revisions include putting a 160-unit apartment or condominium complex near the site's center -Ê a measure not in the 2007 proposal.

A 104-unit assisted- and independent-living complex for the elderly also would be built near the site's center. The 2007 proposal called for a 100-unit complex next to U.S. 93.

There are 33 townhouses proposed that were not in the 2007 proposal. A total of 85 single-family houses would be built, instead of the 222 proposed in 2007. The minimum lot size in the R-2 residential-zoned areas would be reduced from 9,600 square feet to 8,146 square feet.

Gateway hopes to build in three phases during the next six or seven years.

Its plan is to build the middle of the site first as well as a few homes.

The second phase would be land north and south of the first phase. The third phase would involve the northwestern corner next to U.S. 93.

Gateway has not yet submitted a preliminary plat application for Valley Ranch's first phase.

Questions have arisen about the capacity of the city's Grandview sewage lift station to handle increased sewage flows from future Kalispell developments - including Valley Ranch - that have not yet received approval for preliminary plats.

That brings into play the possibility that developers in north Kalispell might have to build a new north-south sewer line.