Final approval granted for water-ski subdivision

The two man-made lakes — each 2,300 feet long, 250 feet wide and 8 feet deep — are full, bearing roughly 30 million gallons of water.

Infrastructure is nearly complete, and last week the Flathead County commissioners granted final plat approval for Rosewater, giving a final two-thumbs-up for the area’s first water-ski community.

Developer Bill Tanner has spent the past three years putting the pieces together for the unique, 154-acre development off Rose Crossing north of Kalispell. Now that the subdivision has final approval, lot sales will begin in the coming weeks.

“We have some people who will be closing on lots right away with construction starting in the spring,” Tanner said. “People from all over the country are interested in coming here.”

Eighteen of the lots already are reserved.

The first phase of Rosewater includes 26 single-family lots plus 12 townhouse lots. When a second and final phase is completed, the subdivision will have a total of 35 waterfront lots, 11 lake-access lots and the dozen townhouses.

Once the lakes were filled with water from the Whitefish River last fall, local water-skiing enthusiast Greg Alsbury tested his skis on the lakes, Tanner said. Alsbury has been providing technical and marketing assistance for Rosewater and was among the first people to reserve a lot.

Creating a water-ski community in the Flathead Valley follows a trend that’s ramping up nationwide. Such communities are common in arid states such as California and Florida, but northern states are attracting water-ski developments, too. Washington has more than 50 water-ski communities.

In Montana, water-ski communities are located in Helena, Bozeman and St. Ignatius.

Rosewater’s parallel lakes are lined with heavy polyvinyl chloride material that will permanently contain the water. In response to neighborhood concerns about the potential for groundwater contamination if the liners were ever to leak, the commissioners imposed a requirement for six monitoring wells throughout the property. Carver Engineering is handling oversight of the monitoring wells until the second phase is completed, at which time “qualified management can look after it,” Tanner told the commissioners last week.

The private roads within Rosewater will be paved once the weather breaks, he said.

Commissioner Gary Krueger, who voted against the final plat, voiced concern over access to lots with only a “subgrade” access road in place. He suggested adding language regarding public-safety issues in the subdivision improvement agreement, but didn’t get support from the other two commissioners to make any changes.

Commissioner Pam Holmquist said she felt Rosewater “has followed our steps that we have in place for policies and procedures.

“The SIA (subdivision improvement agreement) is the process we have in place, and I’m not in favor of changing anything,” Holmquist said.

Tanner said $1.1 million in cash was placed with the county as collateral for the project. The commissioners last week agreed to a partial release of $326,562 in collateral, and OK’d a revised subdivision improvement agreement for $771,544.

A lawsuit filed in 2013 by the Rose Crossing Neighborhood Coalition over the commissioners’ conditional approval of Rosewater was dismissed on July 7, 2016, by order of the District Court. No summons was issued in the case and the county was never served, according to Deputy County Attorney Tara Fugina.

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