Raceway subdivision on hold amid density and access concerns
A proposed subdivision at Montana Raceway Park north of Kalispell has been put on hold until the developer comes up with a different design and addresses access issues.
The Flathead County Planning Board on Jan. 11 tabled a planned-unit development request for the 57-lot housing development to allow Thornton Motorsports LLC time to revamp the project.
The Riverdale Land Use Advisory Committee in December declined to issue a recommendation to approve or deny, and instead forwarded its list of concerns — including lack of secondary access, density, stormwater runoff, proximity to the county landfill and impacts on farming — to the Planning Board.
Montana Raceway Subdivision is planned for the area directly west and north of Raceway Park. All lots would be served by individual septic systems, with a common drain field. Two large water wells would serve the entire subdivision.
Meanwhile, a proposed zone change to convert the 40-acre raceway-park tract to suburban residential zoning is making its way through the planning process and is scheduled for a Feb. 23 public hearing before the county commissioners. The property currently is zoned agricultural with a 40-acre minimum lot size.
“It’s not untypical to have the zone change this far in advance, but it is an issue,” Flathead County Planning Director Mark Mussman told the commissioners last week during his monthly briefing. “Perhaps we will urge the applicant to submit a new design before the zone-change hearing.
“If the zone change doesn’t go through, then regardless of how they redesign their subdivision, they can’t get any lots on property zoned Ag-40,” Mussman said.
Also, if the zoning were changed to residential and the subdivision didn’t materialize, it could make for a tricky situation for the race track in terms of allowed use, Mussman said. As a legal nonconforming use in what would be a “sea of 40 acres of R-1 (suburban residential zoning) on top of that hill … if they (the race track owners) went a season without racing, the track would be gone” because it would not be an allowed use.
A key issue with the planned-unit development proposal, Mussman said, is that the developer proposes to take advantage of the density benefits but didn’t offer offsetting amenities. A one-acre park and “some other open space that is inaccessible” were proposed by Thornton Motorsports. The developer’s technical representative has reiterated that 57 lots are what is needed to make the development pencil out financially.
The other big issue is access.
Only one primary access in and out of the subdivision is proposed on McDermott Lane, a road that goes through a flood hazard area and has been affected by high water in the past. According to Flathead County Public Works Director Dave Prunty, McDermott Lane was improved 20 years ago by Raceway Park, but the traffic loading generated by a new subdivision could require further road improvements.
There is no access onto Church Drive, Mussman said, because of a conservation easement to the south of the proposed subdivision. A neighbor recently offered access through his property to Prairie View Way, directly west of the site, but a representative for the developer “wasn’t keen on that” because Prairie View Lane is not a paved road, Mussman said.
Putting roughly 600 cars a day onto U.S. 93 via McDermott Lane was another concern voiced at the Jan. 11 public hearing.
The planning staff report noted the proposed subdivision doesn’t comply with state design standards and subdivision review criteria.
Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by email at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.