No deal yet for North Shore purchase

Prospective buyers for the North Shore Ranch property near Somers failed to meet a 30-day extension included in a lawsuit settlement, but a deal still could be in the works.

Brad Seaman, outreach and development director for the Flathead Land Trust, said his organization is continuing work on a purchase agreement.

“We’re still in the ballgame and hopeful we can reach a negotiated purchase,” Seaman said on Friday.

The Flathead County commissioners last month OK’d a $1 million settlement in the North Shore Ranch lawsuit, but added an amendment that would allow the property to be purchased within 30 days and placed in public ownership.

That deadline passed on Tuesday.

The county filed a consent decree on the settlement agreement in Flathead District Court on Tuesday, but a judge’s signature is required to make the agreement final, Deputy County Attorney Jonathan Smith said.

If the 364-acre tract on the north end of Flathead Lake can be purchased from Kleinhans Farms Estates, it doesn’t take the county off the hook for the terms of the $1 million settlement.

Within three days of executing the amendment, the county was required to pay $175,000 to the developers. Another $100,000 was due within three days of filing the consent decree in court. Within three days of approval of the consent decree, $225,000 is due.

The remaining $500,000 would be split into two payments in 2011 and 2012.

If the Flathead Land Trust can negotiate a purchase of the land, it would relieve the county of having to pay for three miles of roads in the subdivision — if it were built out — and two turn lanes on Montana 82. The cost of the road work was estimated at roughly $2 million.

The Land Trust is pooling financial resources for the purchase.

A large portion of money is expected to come from Bonneville Power Administration mitigation funding and grants from sources such as the North American Wetlands Conservation Act.

The lawsuit was filed in 2008 after the commissioners voted down the North Shore Ranch project. Commissioners Joe Brenneman and Gary Hall voted against it because they said they believed the county could be held liable for approving a project that had flood easements attached to the property.

Lawyers for Kleinhans Farms Estates developers Keith Simon and Sean Averill successfully argued that the developers not only met subdivision requirements but also exceeded them.

 Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com