Park board suggests closure of Swan River access

Access to the Swan River from Rainbow Drive in Ferndale could close for two years.

The Lake County Park Board voted 4-3 on Thursday in favor of closing the public site for two years while a plan is put in place to mitigate issues with the access.

The park board made its recommendations to the Lake County commissioners, who will make the final decision on the recommendation.

Commissioner Gale Decker said the commissioners will likely decide this week whether to pursue a resolution to close the site. Once the resolution is written and adopted, a public hearing date will be set on the issue. “The commissioners are determined to move forward with a plan for this access before the summer floating season begins,” Decker said. 

“One of the things we need to research is if we can close a public site, and if we can under what conditions,” Decker said.

Lake County owns several parcels that could be developed for parks. In 2012 the county conducted site surveys of many of those properties and developed a Lake County Parks and Trails Management Plan that was adopted by the county in November 2014.

In the Parks Plan the Swan River Access at Rainbow drive is listed as a priority project. 

Decker said the county has enlisted a surveyor to mark the boundaries of the access and make sure the road is entirely on county property.

“We also want to find out exactly where the boundaries of the flood plain lie because that will also have impact on what we can and can’t do,” he said. The access to the Swan River remains open, and Decker said it would probably remain open until the commissioners have a plan of action.

The county has been trying to decide how to resolve issues with the Rainbow Drive access to the Swan River for over a year.

Lake County commissioners last spring temporarily closed the popular river access, which is between homes on Rainbow Drive in Ferndale.

The county closed the access due to concerns from neighbors and because cars parking along the road had become a safety issue. 

The commissioners eventually kept the site open only on weekends.

Many of the problems at the site are similar to issues the county has at other public sites, including limited parking, litter, overuse, dogs and public safety.

The access is a 60-foot wide swath of county property that includes a small, paved turnaround and an unimproved access down a dirt bank to the river. 

The Rainbow Drive access was originally developed to help alleviate traffic at the Rainbow Drive bridge, where people used to put in for river recreation previously. 

Problems with the site in the Lake County parks plan are the size of the site, being too small to expand, inadequate parking, and bank erosion from people walking down into the river and parking along the road being.

“This park is under designed for the use it receives,” the plan says. “However, it provides a critical recreational function because it is one of only two developed access points for floaters on the river below Swan Lake. Addressing the issues at this site is a high priority.”

There is a Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks access about a half-mile downstream from the Rainbow Drive access, with an outhouse and dirt ramp to the river. Some river users say the state access cuts off a good portion of the fishing and whitewater, making the Rainbow Drive access preferable.

The parks plan suggests collaborating with Montana Fish, Wildlife and parks for funding and design assistance on the Rainbow Drive access.

Four courses of action were suggested in the plan, and while no change, and very little change were listed, they were not the recommended courses of action for the site. The long-term suggestions that the plan lists include expanding the site by purchasing adjacent property to increase parking, include sanitary facilities and creating some kind of boat launch to help prevent erosion. The other long-term solution recommended was to develop a new site in the same vicinity that could accommodate the use.

Other priority sites listed in the plan include Mellett Point on the north end of Finley Point, where there are several county-owned properties near each other. The heavily used site from Finley Point Lane has no parking, and can accommodate about 20 people. It has no developed facilities and has a history of conflict with neighboring property owners, according to the parks plan.

The park plan also states that neighbors have reportedly used the public property for private storage.

The Alson Villa Site on Finley point has similar issues with limited parking and erosion. 

The county surveyed and 54 properties that were adjacent to bodies of water, though the majority are strips of land about 40-feet wide. Those strips are remnants of town sites platted a century ago that were never fully developed. Others are abandoned roads. Of those sites, nine had potential for recreational development, including Mellett Point and Swan Sites #2, Rainbow Park, river access,” according to the parks plan.