Oversight left Libby subdivision without fire suppression pond

Property owners at a Libby-area subdivision have gone without a piece of fire suppression infrastructure that should have been included in the development but wasn’t owing to an error in Lincoln County’s permitting process.

While the Lincoln County commissioners approved the plat for Panoramic View Estates in 2011, the 242-acre development still lacks a fire suppression pond. The reservoir — which officials included an easement for in the plat and developers put up a bond for but never built — would provide an essential water source for firefighters in the case a blaze erupts in or around the forested neighborhood.

Some property owners were unaware the subdivision didn’t include the required infrastructure. Lisa Bybee, who purchased a lot in the subdivision in 2020, said she hadn’t heard of the error before she was contacted by The Western News. While Bybee, who grew up in Libby but moved to New Hampshire, is not planning to build on the lot, she said she would have liked to know about the pond before purchasing the property.

County subdivision regulations allow developers to either install required fire suppression infrastructure or secure a bond for the installation of the infrastructure. In the case of Panoramic View Estates, developers put up an $18,500 bond for the pond.

But rather than resting with the county, which would have allowed officials to collect the money if developers didn’t build the pond, the bond rested with Lincoln County Rural Fire District No. 1. Mark Peck, former county commissioner, attributed the mix-up to county staff being stretched thin.

“Lack of staff is part of the problem in a small rural county,” he said in an October interview.

Peck was not a commissioner when the county approved Panoramic View Estates.

KRISTIN SMITH, who was serving as county planning director in 2011, said the development was one of the earlier projects she worked on and described it as a busy time for planning staff.

But Smith claimed she faced pressure during the process from at least one member on the Lincoln County Rural Fire District No. 1 Board of Trustees who had a background in development.

Richard Wood, board chair, said he was unaware of any pressure put on Smith. The board released the bond without requiring the developers to install the pond because the rural fire district decided not to annex the subdivision, according to Wood. He said the subdivision’s steep, angled roads precluded it from annexation.

The board opted not to collect the bond from the developers because the onus of installing the tanks would have then fallen on the district, according to Wood.

Kurt Spencer, one of the Panoramic View Estates developers, said he and his partner, Mike Chapman, followed county requirements through the subdivision approval process and the county commissioners "signed off on everything.”

While Panoramic View Estates falls outside of Lincoln County Rural Fire District No. 1, Steve Lauer, chief of the Libby Volunteer Fire Department, said local firefighters would respond to a blaze in the subdivision if crews could reach the fire safely. In the case of a structure fire, Lauer said the department might be able to bring enough water up to the subdivision using engines and tenders.

But in the case of a wildland blaze, firefighters could find themselves short-handed due to a lack of nearby reservoirs.

“Panoramic View should have a water source due to distance,” Lauer said.

Developers have sold off enough properties in the subdivision that the burden of installing the pond would now fall to the development’s homeowner association. Cole Spencer, who owns property in the subdivision and is the son of Kurt Spencer, said the association was not planning to put in a water source.

For some property owners, the absence of the pond isn’t a serious issue. Randy Hardy said he didn’t remember hearing about the pond when he bought a lot. But he noted that forest fires are a fact of life in the area and that if a large blaze tore through the development, the reservoir would be unlikely to make much of a difference.

“If it’s going to burn, it’s going to burn,” he said. “Who moves to Montana to live on a mountain and then complains about living on a mountain?”

While Hardy has firewised his property, he said he would focus on evacuating the area safely if a significant wildland fire threatened the development.

Smith said county officials have recently updated subdivision regulations to strengthen fire risk analysis. Local requirements, which now include thinning work, go beyond regulations set by most Montana counties, said Smith.