Kalispell OKs sewer service for mobile home park

With a failed septic field and few other options to fix it, the Green Acres mobile home park will be allowed to hook up to Kalispell’s sewer system.

Kalispell City Council voted 7-2 on Monday to approve a waiver of right to protest annexation for the resident-owned mobile home park. Bob Hafferman and Kari Gabriel voted against it.

The waiver lets the 32-lot mobile home park on South Woodland Drive pay sewer impact fees and connect to a city sewer line just west of the property, but means the park can’t protest if Kalispell ever decides to annex it.

The Green Acres request for sewer service raised some larger questions about how Kalispell is handling a large island of developed but unincorporated land inside city limits. The mobile home park sits in the middle of that island, which is made up of about 255 parcels to which Kalispell has gradually been extending water and sewer services.

Hafferman asked why the mobile home park was not recommended for direct annexation, as Kalispell’s growth policy suggests should be done for any land located inside the city’s one quarter-mile annexation boundary.

Planning Director Tom Jentz agreed that the waiver runs counter to the growth policy. But it is in line with a past council directive not to annex properties in the Green Acres island unless they abut city limits, he said.

“Two years ago, planning staff came with a recommendation to look at annexing wholly surrounded areas,” Jentz told the council.

“The direction we got was that even though state law lets the city annex this entire area, all 255 parcels, that doesn’t make sense right now because of the large number of people who are not getting water or sewer or have not signed a waiver of right to protest.”

About 52 percent of the parcels in the island are getting city water or sewer service or have signed a waiver of right to protest annexation.

“Council said don’t go into Green Acres and annex until we reach that tipping point,” Jentz said.

Residents of the mobile home park supported the waiver in exchange for sewer service. Their only other option to fix a failed septic system was to buy land for a new drain field. That was a costly option, even facing an estimated $51,999 in Kalispell sewer impact fees.

In addition to water and sewer services, much of the island also gets occasional police and fire service from Kalispell because of mutual aid agreements.

A cost-of-services analysis found annexing the mobile home park would cost Kalispell more than the property would generate in taxes and assessments. That’s because the city’s police and fire departments would assume primary jurisdiction and the city would take over maintenance of about 600 feet of Haven Drive, a county road.

Mayor Tammi Fisher said she’s not prepared to annex the property but supports adding a new sewer customer.

A $22 million expansion of Kalispell’s sewage treatment plant drove up user rates after projected growth failed to materialize and left the city with excess capacity. “I do know we need more users for our treatment plant and this is an avenue for that,” Fisher said.

Gabriel opposed the waiver, seeing it as the first step toward annexing a property that was not developed to city standards — something she has “no interest” in doing.

“This is the first step to annexation, whether we’re saying it or not,” Gabriel said of the waiver. “If I felt it was strictly selling sewer service, I might feel differently. But I don’t think that’s the way it’s going to go.”

With yet another waiver in hand, councilman Jim Atkinson asked how much closer Kalispell is to reaching that “tipping point” and annexing the whole island. It’s one of several such areas that have become surrounded by the city’s highly irregular city limits.

Jentz said that’s going to be a decision for the council to make, but suggested the Green Acres island is made up of five or six areas that should be examined on their own merits.

“This has been a touchy subject for a long time,” Atkinson said. “I think the policies of former councils and the goodwill of city staff has done well with these folks in trying to meet needs, yet also be true to the city. It looks like a mess, but it is an organized mess.”

Reporter Tom Lotshaw may be reached at 758-4483 or by email at tlotshaw@dailyinterlake.com.