Parties ask court to rule on apartment suit

Both the city of Columbia Falls and the people suing it have given the court a legal nudge to make a ruling in a case that has gone on for about nine months now.

Neighbors Inge and Mark Cahill, William and Nanette Reed and Irving Erickson collectively filed suit in February against the city, the Board of Adjustment and CNS Property Development after the Board of Adjustment approved a variance that would allow Chad Ross to rebuild an apartment building that was destroyed in a fire at the corner of Fourth Avenue West and Talbott Road.

In early November, both the plaintiffs and the city asked the court to make a ruling in the case, or at least schedule a hearing in the case.

The neighbors, who live near the property, objected to the variance and, in turn, sued the city.

At issue is whether the board followed the law when it gave the variance.

The lot is zoned CR-3, which limits buildings to one-family residential. However, there is an apartment building just to the north and the apartment complex that burned down had been there since the 1960s.

The adjacent apartments were built after obtaining a conditional use permit, granted by the city, which allowed for a “non-conforming use expansion” of up to 50%.

Ross could have followed the same route as the complexes, but a 50% “non-conforming” expansion on their smaller lot would still have only allowed them to build four total units, which is why the applicants sought a novel variance for nine units.

Originally, the site had 10 apartments total. The building burned in an August 2020 fire.

Since the suit was filed the lot has sat vacant, pending the court’s decision.