Columbia Falls Council Hosts Workshop on Growth Policy, Housing

Interest in the Columbia Falls Growth Policy, and its history, spurred a Feb. 27 workshop hosted by the Columbia Falls City Council that turned into a discussion about the city’s housing market, including problems with availability and affordability. Around 30 people attended the recent meeting.

The council is currently scheduled to hold a hearing on March 20 to decide on whether to approve a planned unit development, called the 7030 Highway 2 Residences, which has been proposed for an area east of the Flathead River and north of Highway 2. That development could bring 180 units of housing to 22.5 acres of land through a mixture of single family attached units and apartments. The planning board last month rejected the development, but the council still has the final say.

Part of the meeting also included discussion about the River Road Neighborhood Plan, which was put together in 2008, the same year a 151-unit development was approved for the area, but never materialized amid the Great Recession. That same area is where the River Highlands development has been proposed. The River Road Neighborhood Plan would have offered additional guidelines for development in the River Road area in addition to the growth policy. That plan was ultimately not adopted because neighbors could not come to an agreement, City Manager Susan Nicosia said.

Reviewing building permits over the last fiscal year, Nicosia said that eight were issued for new houses. “The others were a garage, a deck and three remodels. This year since July 1, we’ve issued four single family building permits, and one commercial.”

Planning activity in the city ramped up around 2005 and 2006, but among the projects approved some fizzled out amid the Great Recession, while Nicosia said others have taken 15 to 20 years to fully build out.  The last certified Census results, from 2020, showed about 13% growth over a 10-year period, according to Nicosia. Around 2018 or 2019, she described how people started to show renewed interest in development and began coming around to “kick the tires” on expired development plats.

During the early portion of the meeting, Mayor Don Barnhart relayed an anecdote in explaining how serious the city’s housing woes have become and talked about how infill within the city has left the community with nowhere left to build.

“Our building has just kind of died on us. The only thing we’re looking at now is we’re looking at some place to put the people who live here and work here. We don’t have anywhere for them. What are we going to do with those folks?” Barnhart said. “I talked to one of our new firefighters we just hired full time. She’s paying $1,000 a month for a room. Now that’s nuts, isn’t it? She can’t continue to be a full-time firefighter in Columbia Falls if she can’t find a place to live. The manager over here at my old company can’t find a place to live. What are we going to do with these people? How can we take care of it? That’s the biggest question I personally have, and I think this council agrees with, we have to do something to try and get some building going here, multifamily.”

One audience member questioned how it could help residents needing cheaper housing if new housing isn’t affordable. Barnhart said that based on some of his recent research on the topic, even if new housing units aren’t affordable for the aforementioned professions, they might appeal to people with higher incomes who are currently occupying more affordably priced rentals, thus freeing up better rental opportunities.

Resident Mike Burr cautioned against viewing real estate without more nuance than just a supply and demand problem. He noted that prices are tied to market conditions, building costs, and location, and said he doesn’t think home prices will fall unless there’s a recession.

That had Councilor Mike Shepard reflecting on his time at the Columbia Falls Aluminum Company plant, and he relayed how company officials at one point told him they knew he could be paid less because he wanted to be in Montana and not somewhere else.

“So that’s been our problem here from day one,” Shepard said. “It’s always been low wages in Montana. So the question is, how do you make it (housing) attainable?”