Lakeside plan update advances

An upgrade of the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan took another step forward on Wednesday.

The Flathead County Planning Board voted 4-2 with three members absent to recommend approval of the plan.

An update of the 1995 Lakeside plan, the document has been in the works for three years. 

Keith Brown, chairman of the Lakeside Community Council, noted, “We’ve had a lot of very good, fierce debate.”

Community Council member John Urlich said the plan has wide support in the community, but it is opposed by two groups: those who think it’s too dense and those who want no zoning at all.

Planning Board member James Heim, who lives in Lakeside, supports the plan. Noting it has been revised 27 times, Heim said, “It’s time to move ahead. It’s not perfect. It’s not cast in concrete. It’s just a guide. It’s a vision.”

Margaret Baird questioned whether the Community Council was pressured by development interests.

“We were not pressured by developers,” council member Lona Santana said. “We listened to these guys.”

Santana said the council was looking for something “down the middle.”

The plan is a “middle-of-the-road” approach, she said. “I truly believe it’s a good compromise.”

Mark Unruh opposed the plan, saying it “takes control of way too much private property.”

Mayre Flowers of Citizens for a Better Flathead said the plan is “simply too dense.” With a Planned Unit Development, one could get up to 15 housing units per acre, she said.

In regard to the Lakeside Club development (previously known as Eagle’s Crest), board member Charlie Lapp said the “zoning that’s implied here is not near as intense as what was there before.”

Phases one through four of the Lakeside Club are approved and are being built, Brown said after the meeting. The owners of the club pulled their plat approval on phases five through nine, however.

Board member MIke Mower said he is “reasonably convinced that it’s a sound plan. You can’t build on vertical cliffs,” he said, responding to concerns expressed by some about homes being built on steep slopes. Mower added that he likes the “highly dense cluster in the center [of the community].”

Lapp and Bob Keenan cast the only dissenting votes on the project, with Gordon Cross joining Heim, Mower and Marie Hickey-Auclaire in voting yes. Frank Dekort, Jeff Larsen and Marc Pitman were absent.

The plan now moves to the Flathead County commissioners for consideration.

On the Web:

Detailed maps and other information about the neighborhood plan are available at http://lakesideplan2008.com.