Developers withdraw application for massive Kalispell subdivision

It seemed like the developers had everything figured out for the Farmstead subdivision proposed on Four Mile Drive — hundreds of different styles of housing units, thoughtful designs for parkland and trails, and even a special European-inspired layout intended to create an idyllic residential neighborhood.

But on Friday, March 5, just days before the Kalispell Planning Board would meet to consider the ambitious proposal, the Farmstead team withdrew its 241-page application, citing the lack of available construction workers as one of several reasons for backing away from the project.

“It just wasn’t in the cards to happen,” Kalispell Planning Director Jarod Nygren said Wednesday morning.

Nygren and the Planning Board were a little surprised to see the plans pulled from the agenda Tuesday evening.

It isn’t common, Nygren explained, for applicants to withdraw their proposals by the time they’ve come up with plans for a planned-unit development, annexation into the city and a preliminary plat, as Four Mile Farmstead LLC. did recently.

Nygren estimated he’s seen applications at this stage get withdrawn two or three times in the past six or seven years. For large projects such as the 110-acre, 455-unit Farmstead subdivision, withdrawing is even rarer.

Reaching the point where developers are ready to seek Planning Board approval requires a lot of financial investment, planning and engineering work, Nygren pointed out.

Four Mile Farmstead LLC, the official title for applicants Dale Crosby-Newman and Scott Harrison, already had enlisted technical assistance from Kalispell’s WGM Group to file the comprehensive application. Together, they had mapped out a phased approach to building the 455 planned units in the Farmstead subdivision, with detailed plans for at least three distinct phases of development.

Nonetheless, Nygren said he understands the applicants’ hesitations.

He said the applicants gave the Planning Board multiple reasons for the decision to halt plans on the project, some of them financial, others logistical and still others a question of timing.

Four Mile Farmstead LLC apparently entered into a buy-sell agreement with a farmer who owns the large swath of agricultural land where the subdivision was to be built, but because of some “moving parts,” they weren’t able to get an extension on that agreement.

That situation was compounded by rising costs of construction materials and labor, not to mention their scarcity amid the current development climate.

Nygren said that left the developers with the option to push back the timeline, because they likely wouldn’t be able to get underway during the upcoming construction season. But they opted not to wait.

“They just decided it wasn’t worth it for now,” Nygren said.

At this point, the future is unclear for the Farmstead subdivision and the 110-acres of farmland where it was slated to be located.

Nygren is confident the property will be on another Kalispell Planning Board agenda sometime down the road.

It’s possible, he said, Four Mile Farmstead might rework some of the current design plans and come back to the Planning Board when construction conditions are more favorable, perhaps this fall or next spring.

But it’s also likely a different developer might jump on the opportunity and bring forward other plans in the meantime.

At this point, the only unlikely plan for that land would be no plan at all. The building boom throughout the Flathead isn’t apt to leave such a large parcel of open farmland untouched for long.

“Certainly, something’s going to happen,” Nygren predicted.

Reporter Bret Anne Serbin may be reached at 758-4459 or bserbin@dailyinterlake.com.