City annexes Columbia Falls Industrial Park
The Columbia Falls City Council unanimously approved a petition to annex the Columbia Falls Industrial Park north of town during their May 18 meeting.
The new owners of the property formally petitioned the city for annexation on May 5. They also requested a zoning map amendment.
Robert Peccia & Associates submitted the requests on behalf of BID Group Properties, of Vanderhoof, B.C., which acquired the industrial park on Feb. 2.
Columbia Falls city manager Susan Nicosia said the new owners want the 110-acre industrial park served by city sewer. The site is already served by city water.
Plans are also in the works to establish a tax-increment financing (TIF) district for the industrial park in addition to a separate TIF district for urban renewal elsewhere in the city.
“The owners could use TIF funding to assist in bringing in city sewer,” Nicosia told the city council at their May 4 meeting.
BID Group Properties also wants to change the zoning on 26 acres of the industrial park from light industrial to heavy industrial. This proposed area is on the southeast side of the industrial park alongside the BNSF Railway tracks and is the proposed location for a 140,000-square-foot SmartLam manufacturing plant.
The zone change request is being reviewed by city planning consultant Eric Mulcahy of Sands Surveying and will go to the Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board on June 9.
According to the May 5 application, BID Group Properties and Columbia Falls Industrial Park LLC together drafted a conceptual master plan for the industrial park that includes a new roadway that bisects the site and creates access for future light-industrial lots.
Locating the heavy industrial zone along the railroad will also establish a 400 to 500 foot wide buffer between the heavy industrial area and nearby residential areas, the plan says.
Motor vehicle access to the northeast corner of the site would continue from the North Fork Road and to the south side by Fourth Avenue East North. Future changes to ingress and egress are expected as the site develops, but most of the raw materials and finished products from manufacturing are expected to be shipped by railroad.
Mayor Don Barnhart told the city council on May 4 that the Fourth Avenue at-grade railroad crossing is very rough and some commercial truckers won’t use it.
Columbia Falls fire chief Rick Hagen has ordered his crews to no longer enter the industrial park by that route and instead to use the Second Avenue West North railroad crossing or to go over the viaduct to the North Fork Road entrance, Barnhart said.
The industrial park owners are trying to get two spur lines removed from the Fourth Avenue crossing to make the crossing smoother, Barnhart said.