Public hearing on city horses next week

The Columbia Falls Planning Board will hold a public hearing next week on a request by Logan and Hannah Nolan to keep five horses on four acres at their home on Talbott Road.

To keep the horses at their residence inside the city limits, the couple needs a conditional use permit. The horses would be fenced in by a three-rail wooden fence and the manure from horses would be disposed off-site.

The planning board earlier this year approved a zoning text amendment allowing up to two horses per acre on tracts with a minimum of two acres and at least one acre set aside for pasture.

But neighbors who live near the Nolan property expressed opposition at the time, citing flies and odors from having horses in a residential neighborhood, large lot or not.

The planning board will take up the matter at its meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 15 at 6:30 p.m. Council, in turn, will hold a public hearing on the issue at 7 p.m. Sept. 21.

Both meetings are in city council chambers. People can also submit written comments to city manager Susan Nicosia at 130 Sixth St. West, Room A, Columbia Falls, MT 59912.

In addition to that hearing, the city will also hold a hearing to abandon a public right-of-way on Sixth Street East between blocks 34 and 37. The city wants to abandon an alleyway there and 10 feet of remaining street that hasn't been maintained. The property is located near a hillside on the east edge of the neighborhood.