Planning board rejects massive Columbia Falls subdivision east of Flathead River

After a marathon meeting that ended just before midnight, the Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board voted against a massive subdivision east of the Flathead River Tuesday night.

All but one person in a crowd of more than 200 at the Columbia Falls Junior High spoke against the 455-unit River Highlands apartment and townhome complex, which was projected to add about 1,200 more residents to the city.

Columbia Falls resident after resident spoke against the proposal — and it was homegrown opposition to be sure. Aside from an attorney for the Upper Flathead Neighborhood Association, which represents residents east of the river, all but one person gave a Columbia Falls physical address.

Former Columbia Falls Mayor and county commissioner Gary Hall noted over the course of his career he had approved literally hundreds of subdivisions and other projects.

But this one was untenable.

“It is the worse proposal ever presented to this community, I am shocked that staff would support this. My concern now is about the the future of the community I love, and knowing that this project will change our community and its character forever,” Hall said.

The subdivision proposal included a mix of one, two, and three bedroom apartments, along with townhomes.

But Michael Brodie, an engineer with the WGM Group, couldn’t tell the board what the actual breakdown of apartments would be. That was a significant, because the developer wants to provide just 1.6 parking spots for each unit and typically even a one bedroom apartment has two vehicles.

Brodie was the lone frontman for the development, James Barnett, who is leading the development and whose name is on the applications, apparently did not attend the meeting. If he did, he didn’t speak.

The development proposal would also include the donation of one acre of land to the Northwest Montana Land Trust, where up to 10 affordable units could be built. But that was in phase II of construction, if the development got that far.

In addition, as a bit of an olive leaf to the community, the development also included a skate park.

The public was unimpressed, to put it mildly.

Resident Larry Hoerner, who has lived in Columbia Falls for 71 years, noted the site used to be an encampment for Native Americans.

“I think it would be a shame to cover it in asphalt,” he said.

But the biggest concerns boiled down to three issues — the character of the neighborhood, the impact on the Flathead River and perhaps the biggest one all — safety and traffic.

According to a traffic study done in January by the developer, about 80% of the traffic is projected to go north onto Highway 2, rather than south onto River Road and, ultimately, Columbia Falls Stage Road.

People laughed out loud at that, noting that if a resident leaves, they still have to come back someway, and that would likely be up Columbia Falls Stage or Middle Road, two roads that are woefully inadequate for high traffic loads. River Road for example, has a very steep hill that ices up in the winter months and is twisty and winding along the river.

Folks noted that on more than one occasion, drunk drivers have already ended up in their yards, nevermind adding thousands more motorists a day.

The developer has said it plans on putting a traffic light at River Road and Highway 2.

But the intersection already gets an F grade based on Montana Department of Transportation standards and even with a light, would still only get a barely passing C grade, based on studies.

One man noted that Barnett tried to get a similar development built at the base of Big Mountain, but Whitefish rejected it.

“We can’t get it by the rich folks, let’s get it by the poor folks in Columbia Falls,” he quipped.

He conceded that growth was inevitable.

“But growth needs to be reasonable,” he said.

And this development just didn’t past that test with the public. The density was too high and seemed contrary to the city’s own growth policy, which, while it calls for urban residential development just east of the river, it’s tempered by language that calls primarily for single family residences, not an exclusively rental property.

“It’s a recipe for disaster,” one resident said. “This will change the character of Columbia Falls forever.”

Residents also balked at the developer asking for a height variance to make the apartments 45 feet tall, as opposed to the city regulation of 35 feet.

They noted people don’t visit the area to look at apartments, they visit to see mountains, not buildings that high block the views.

Another big concern was drilling city sewer and water lines under the Flathead River. While cities in the Flathead have put utilities across rivers in many areas, residents noted that the Flathead River is a special body of water and is currently the pristine culmination of more than 219 miles of a Wild and Scenic River system.

A break in a sewer line would be catastrophic, they claimed.

“We ask you to keep our river wild, we ask you to oppose this subdivision,” said resident Eleanor Smiley, who is just a freshman in high school, but drew applause from the crowd.

The sheer number of people the development would bring was also a big concern. Twelve hundred more people is 20% of the current city population.

“A development for 1,200 people is a new city … not just a new development,” said resident Courtney Stone.

After taking public comments until 11 p.m., the planning board then took about an hour to discuss the proposal. They brought up several concerns that echoed public sentiment.

After some discussion, the board voted for a couple of amendments to the staff report that better reflected the language of the growth policy that the area should be single family homes, not rentals, and that the development would have an adverse impact on vehicle and pedestrian traffic.

In the end the board voted unanimously voted against changing the zoning of the development from its current CR-3 residential to CR-4. The CR-4 zoning would have allowed the higher density housing.

Boardmember Mike Shepard was absent from the meeting.

CR-3 still allows high density housing, but a bit less, from two to eight units per acre. Built under CR-3, the development would have about 100 fewer units.

The board also voted against recommending the planned unit development and the subdivision itself to city council.

The city council has the final say in the application. It will take it up 7 p.m. Aug. 29 at a special meeting at the Columbia Falls Junior High.

Board chairman Russ Vukonich urged the public to attend.