Mobile home park planned in Kalispell

A proposed 13-lot manufactured home park on Willow Glen Drive in Kalispell will be considered by the Flathead County Board of Adjustment on July 7.

Randal Remington of Somers is asking for a conditional-use permit to allow the residential development on 2.35 acres at 616 Willow Glen Drive. The board will hold a public hearing before making a final decision on the permit request.

A zone change on the property, from one- to two-family limited residential zoning, was approved in March.

The manufactured home park would be served by a shared water well and septic system.

Among the agency comments submitted to the Planning Office for the development were written concerns from the Flathead City-County Environmental Health Department, which stated its office “objects to the operation of a trailer court” at that property. The department noted that all trailer courts must go through state Department of Environmental Quality subdivision review, and the developer will need to hire a consultant or engineer to do that work.

The developer also will need to obtain property septic permits from the City-County Health Department once subdivision approval is granted by DEQ, and will need to obtain a trailer court health license, the county Environmental Health Department advised.

In other business, the Board of Adjustment will consider a West Valley landowner’s appeal regarding a proposed asphalt plant. Schellinger Construction is asking for a modification to its conditional-use permit for its gravel pit located at 3427 Farm to Market Road near the intersection with Church Drive. The original conditional-use permit was approved in 2005, before the definition of “gravel extraction” was expanded in 2010 to include asphalt and concrete batch plants after a long legal battle.

Charlene Iannucci, represented by local attorney Donald Murray, filed the appeal on May 20. The appeal challenges the Flathead Planning and Zoning Office’s favorable recommendation for the project.

The appeal states any modification of permit is a matter for the Flathead County District Court, and claims the zoning administrator was “erroneous” in his interpretation that the absolute prohibition on asphalt batching in the original permit was subject to modification.

The appeal also claims the zoning administrator accepted and processed an incomplete application. It states the zoning administrator’s staff report has “virtually no information” pertaining to the proposed batch plant, meaning there is “no way to evaluate the proposal and its potential impacts,” such as traffic.

The board originally scheduled to make its decision on the permit modification at its June 2 meeting, but the appeal halted a decision until the board considered the appeal.

If the board decides in favor of the appellant, that would put a stop to Schellinger Construction’s pursuit of their modification unless it would file something in District Court. But if the board decides in favor of the zoning director, it will still “have to consider the merits of the application” and make a decision to approve or deny the modification at a later meeting.

≈at 6 p.m. in the second floor conference room of the Flathead County South Campus Building.