City prevails in case challenging apartment rebuild
The former Swiss Apartments lot, as seen from Third Avenue West.
By CHRIS PETERSON
Hungry Horse News
Flathead County District Court Judge Robert Allison recently ruled a property owner can rebuild nine apartments that were destroyed in a fire in August of 2020.
Neighbors Inge and Mark Cahill, Kerin Gayner, William and Nanette Reed and Irving Erickson challenged a city board of adjustment decision that allowed the owner of the Swiss Apartments to rebuild nine units on the Fourth Avenue corner lot.
A few months after the fire, Chad Ross, the owner of the property, came to the city with a plan to rebuild, with a new configuration that would have three new buildings over the roughly half-acre lot. That plan included a four-plex, a triplex and duplex. The duplex and triplex would have parking toward Cahill’s home.
The Cahills and others argued that the apartments should not be rebuilt because the they were a nonconforming, though legal, use.
Under city law, “Any nonconforming use or building so damaged or destroyed to the extent of more than 50 percent of the real value thereof, excluding foundation, then said nonconforming use of building and the land on which said uses was located or maintained shall, from and after the date of such destruction, be subject to all of the regulations of the use district within which each land and/or building are located.”
The lot is zoned CR-3, which is single family residential.
But the apartments had been built in 1969 on land that was originally unzoned. In addition, the neighborhood is a mix of apartments and single family residences.
Allison found that state law does allow for appropriate variances and in essence, the opposing neighbors were applying the law incorrectly.
“The variance must not be contrary to the public interest; literal enforcement of the zoning ordinance must result in unnecessary hardship owing to conditions unique to the property; and the spirit of the ordinance must be observed, and substantial justice done,” the law states.
Allison found that the board properly applied standards for the variance.
He also found the variance was in the best interest of the community in this case.
“Granting the variance serves the public interest in providing affordable housing for young families and members of the workforce living in Columbia Falls,” Allison opined. “The affordable housing is good for the community. The loss of the legal non-conforming structure to fire constituted an unnecessary hardship to the property owners that is unique to them. The design of the rebuild was created to blend in with the single family residence neighborhood and all other zoning requirements of the CR-3 zone are complied with, aside from the single family requirement, thus, the spirit of the ordinance is observed. The existence of other multi-unit structures in the neighborhood would render a denial of the variance untenable. Granting the variance constituted substantial justice.”