Planning board to look at RV zoning on city land

The Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board will hear a request from the city to change the zoning on a subdivision it owns north of town.

The planning board will hold a public hearing on the request in the city fire hall, 624 First Avenue, on Tuesday, Nov. 8, at 6:30 p.m. The Columbia Falls City Council will hold a public hearing on the request on Monday, Nov. 21, at 7 p.m.

The meeting was moved to the fire hall because City Hall will be used for polling on Election Day.

The city wants to place a planned-unit development (PUD) zoning overlay on the platted Cedar Creek South subdivision that would allow one RV or motor coach to stay for up to six months on each of three lots in the subdivision.

The subdivision is located off the North Fork Road. The current zoning there is SAG-5, suburban agriculture.

The idea behind the request is to promote sales of lots in the subdivision that the city developed with money from the sale of the Cedar Creek Reservoir lands. Earlier this year, city councilor Julie Plevel described a new trend of people in high-end RVs who purchase lots and put small homes there.

A similar zone-change was approved last year in Whitefish by the same developers who built the Lodge At Whitefish Lake. The lots are across Wisconsin Avenue from the lodge.