Hearing ahead on $1 million settlement

As promised, the public will have its say at a hearing on Monday about a $1 million cash settlement in the North Shore Ranch subdivision lawsuit.

The hearing begins at 9 a.m. Monday at the Flathead County commissioner chambers in the annex building just west of the main courthouse in Kalispell.

A tentative agreement calls for a cash settlement to be made in three installments — $500,000 upon final court approval and two $250,000 payments due on Feb. 1 in 2011 and 2012.

The county also will be required to build and pay for all the subdivision roads and two highway turn lanes on Montana 82.

The proposed settlement provides for the approval of a modified subdivision plat for North Shore Ranch that would scale down the development and increase the open space.

The public will have an easement for access to about 150 acres of open space that could be used for hiking, bird watching and activities consistent with the nearby Flathead Waterfowl Production Area along the north shore of Flathead Lake near Somers.

Another detail of the agreement requires $600,000 of the $1 million settlement be used to buy the open-space easement.

Developers Sean Averill and Keith Simon sued the county two years ago when the commissioners denied approval of a subdivision plan that called for 286 lots on 364 acres. Commissioner Joe Brenneman and then-Commissioner Gary Hall voted to deny preliminary plat approval while Commissioner Dale Lauman supported the project.

Brenneman and Hall maintained that it wasn’t a good policy to approve subdivisions that had flood easements attached to the property, and that the county could be held liable for approving the development if a flood occurred.

The developers contended that there were no legal grounds to deny the project and said it exceeded subdivision requirements.