Lakeside Council opposes lot division

By JACOB DORAN - Bigfork Eagle

Enough is enough!

That was the consensus of the Lakeside Community Council, last Tuesday, when they met to review a request for preliminary plat approval of another subdivision of a lot within the Eagle's Crest Vistas.

The application, labeled Eagle's Crest Vistas Amended Plat of Lot 3 Subdivision, called for the creation of two residential lots, approximately one mile southwest of Lakeside. The current lot encompasses 9.434 gross acres and each of the two lots to be created would measure 4.619 acres in size.

The request may seem fairly insignificant, in light of much larger projects that have come before the Council and Planning Board, but several members of the community council pointed out that the original plat was presented as 600 acres, subdivided into 10 and 20 acre lots.

"Since then, the parcels have been divided again and again," councilor Bruce Young said. "There are going to be cumulative effects from this—drainage that's going to go into Flathead Lake and Peaceful Bay. My concern is that it started as one thing and has continued to morph into many more."

Young also added that the county's growth policy and studies of the soils in the area where the subdivision is located showed that the site was not suitable for development. Young, who served on the original neighborhood plan committee, said that when their own experts deemed the location unsuitable for development, the council saw no need to zone it for any particular use.

In light of these facts, Young accused the Planning Board and County Commissioners of allowing a subdivision the size of the City of Polson to be built on the side of a hill with slopes approaching and even exceeding 30 percent and soils deemed by surveyors to be the worst possible ground for building.

"It's hard to understand how it can go from something that experts said was unsuitable for development to heavy development," Young said. "I really can't support any more of this, until people can provide adequate environmental assessments and sufficient information to show that it is suitable for development. At some point, we've got to be able to say, 'This is too much.'"

Councilor John Ulrich questioned whether or not the application under consideration would be viewed as a test case by other property owners in the subdivision, who would subdivide their lots as well if this application gets approved.

Flathead County planner Alex Hogle said that according to the conditions of the original subidivision, lots could be further divided no more than twice. Since the application currently under review involved a lot that had only been subdivided once, that lot could be legally subdivided again.

Hogle added that, as long as the application complied with all of the legal requirements, the Planning Board is not likely to deny it on the basis of what he deemed to be "sentimental objections."

Based upon his own findings, Hogle stated that the application was in compliance with the existing regulations and requirements. That established, he added that he would recommend the application for approval in his staff report.

Hogle did admit that the lot, along with several of the lower lots in Phase One of the Eagle's Crest Subdivision, falls outside of the Lakeside County Water & Sewer District boundaries, where the district has agreed to provide service. The district has issued a "Will Not Serve" letter with respect to the application. However, this and other lots may be annexed into the district in the future.

Councilor Bill Buxton suggested that the Council recommend approval of the application with the condition that once the lots are annexed into the sewer district they must connect to the existing sewer lines and that a dry line be added with this in mind. While acknowledging the other council members' objections, he believed that the Council would be wiser to recommend approval and get some conditions added into the final approval than to recommend denial and get nothing.

"I think that everyone's concern is that this is not how it was pitched when it came to us four years ago," Buxton said. "I also think that we can't stop it from getting approved, even if we wanted to."

With regard to councilor Young's concern about runoff, Hogle stressed that approval is still conditional upon review by DEQ to show that the storm water management plan is sufficient to contain any additional storm water and not allow that water to go into the lake.

Erica Wirtala, representing the applicant, Lane Clark, added that the property is allowed to release the pre-development amount of runoff, as long as the post-development amount does not exceed the amount prior to construction.

However, Young argued that even the pre-development amount is not technically pre-development, since it still contains contaminants from the various impervious surfaces. Young continued to stress that the density originally approved for the project has already been exceeded and will continue to be exceeded as long as the lots can be subdivided, producing a cumulative effect on traffic, environment and the water quality of the lake.

"What we're saying is, 'That's enough,'" council member Dave Anderson said. "This is not what was presented to us."

Anderson motioned to send a clear message to the county that the community would not support any further subdivision of lots in the Eagle's Crest subdivision or other significant deviations from what was originally submitted to the Council, when the project was presented in 2002.

The Council voted 4-2 to recommend denial of the application.

The Planning Board will hold a public hearing in the Earl Bennett Building conference room on Dec. 12 to review the application and make a recommendation to the County Commissioners.