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Developers List 360-Acre Property Near Flathead Lake

The $5.9 million property has an approved neighborhood plan overlay

By Beacon Staff

A large section of open land is on the market and poised for development near the north end of Flathead Lake.

Glacier Sotheby’s International Realty has listed a 360-acre property owned by LBO Properties and known as Cooper Farms near the intersection of U.S. Highway 93 South and Montana Highway 82.

The $5.9 million property has an approved neighborhood plan overlay on an unzoned section of land and can accommodate up to 700 residential units.

Nichole Perrin, with Glacier Sotheby’s, said the property is open to potential residential and commercial development and has secured water and sewer service through the Lakeside district. Other pre-development measures have also been completed, such as a traffic study that identifies ingress and egress roads along both highways and a defined floodplain study. The Army Corps of Engineers has also approved a wetland crossing and mitigation work, Perrin said.

Perrin estimated that the developers have saved two to three years in entitlement work by securing approval for the infrastructure.

With the neighborhood plan overlay approved, the only remaining regulatory step would be a final plat once plans are proposed.

Perrin said the property is a prime potential development to address the valley’s rapid growth.

The potential development, along the growing corridor between Kalispell, Lakeside and Bigfork, is north of Somers and another large-scale development that recently dissolved along the north shore of Flathead Lake. The preliminary plat plans for North Shore Ranch Subdivision project, which was plagued by controversy and a highly publicized lawsuit with Flathead County, expired in April. There was considerable opposition to the project, which would have been located on more than 360 acres on Flathead Lake’s north shore neighboring the Flathead Waterfowl Production Area.

In 2015, the land was listed for sale at $7.9 million, down from its previous listing price of $8.75 million.

Correction (Aug. 17)The story incorrectly stated the Cooper Farms property is without zoning restrictions. The property is unzoned but has a neighborhood plan overlay that limits potential development to 700 units.