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Government

Columbia Falls Council Opts for More Time to Consider Development Near Flathead River

The decision to continue the hearing came toward the conclusion of a March 20 meeting that ran more than five hours

By Mike Kordenbrock
A rendering depicting the proposed 7030 Highway 2 Residences development in Columbia Falls. Courtesy image

A lengthy and at times emotional Columbia Falls City Council meeting centering around a development proposal for the east side of the Flathead River ended Monday night with the council choosing to continue its deliberations and deliver a decision at a future council meeting.

Called the 7030 Hwy 2 Residences, the project has been brought forward by Florida-based development group Location Ventures. Application materials have listed property owners as High Country Land & Cattle (MT) LLC, which has an address in Phoenix, Arizona, and Twin Peaks Farms LLC, which has an address in Eagle, Idaho.

The 7030 Hwy 2 Residences would include 180 units of housing through a mixture of single family attached units and apartments built on two properties totaling 22.5 acres. The land is directly east of the Flathead River and north of Highway 2, and 55% of the land in the development proposal is designated for open space. The city has expressed a preference to utilities being connected beneath the Flathead River, but the developer on Monday night presented on the pros and cons of boring beneath the river, or, alternatively, connecting utilities aboveground by attaching those connections to the nearby bridge. 

The developer has asked for a zoning change from suburban agriculture to urban residential.The area in question is designated in the 2019 Columbia Falls Growth Policy for urban residential zoning. The developer has also asked for approval of a planned unit development.

The public would have river access via the property, and some public parking will be available, according to previous statements from the developer’s team. At a planning board meeting last month, Location Ventures CEO Rishi Kapoor said pricing on rental units would be market driven, and that current pricing would be around $2 per square foot. The units would come in a variety of configurations ranging from a single bedroom up to four bedrooms, and 99 units of housing would be single-family attached townhouses, with another 81 units in apartments.

Schematic showing the layout of the proposed 7030 Highway 2 Residences development in Columbia Falls. Courtesy image

Somewhere between 100 and 150 people turned out for the meeting. Of the 46 people who delivered public comment, two spoke supportively about the project. Concerns that have been voiced at planning board meetings stretching back to last summer about developing with density east of the Flathead River resurfaced, with objections focused on location, the cost of housing, speed of growth, potential traffic safety issues, negative impacts on wildlife, and environmental concerns about both developing along the riverfront and connecting to utilities beneath the river.

The idea to take additional time to think over the two-plus hours of public comment, and more than an hour of developer presentations, was brought forward by Mayor Don Barnhart.

The Columbia Falls City-County Planning Board and Zoning Commission on Feb. 14 voted to reject the development. City staff had recommended conditional approval of the developer’s requests, but board members described concerns about the development’s impacts on groundwater and wildlife, including wildlife corridors and the nearby Bad Rock Canyon Wildlife Management Area. Other concerns centered on pedestrian access, the development’s character in relation to the surrounding area, city infrastructure needs, the traffic study the developer commissioned, and impacts to wetlands.

The council was mixed in their initial reception to continuing the Monday hearing, but after some discussion all of them raised their hands in favor. Scheduling conflicts left the issue unresolved, but the city will post a notice of the continuation of the meeting when it is scheduled. The decision to continue the meeting was delivered around midnight, about five hours after the council meeting began.

The team of presenters on behalf of the project included Kapoor, the CEO of Location Ventures, as well as KLJ engineering firm’s Mark Rohweder; Gulf Interstate chief pipeline engineer Lance Thomas; University of Montana Professor Patrick Barkey; and Frank Astor, Location Ventures’ head of single-family housing.

A rendering depicting a housing unit in the 7030 Highway 2 Residences development in Columbia Falls. Courtesy image

Barkey, the director of the UM’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, presented on a study commissioned by the developer. Barkey’s study shows Flathead County needing to net 1,500 new units of housing of all types through 2032 to keep up with growth, for a total of 15,000 new units of housing. Barkey’s analysis showed a deficit of 3,161 units of housing in Flathead County in 2022, something he associated with population growth exceeding housing growth over roughly the last decade. 

During council discussion after the developer presentations, Barnhart said he was concerned about the lack of pedestrian access to the pedestrian path on the south side of the highway.

“I cannot in good conscience say that this is a great place for all those people if they cannot access the city, and the city access is by crossing the highway and using the close proximity to our uptown area,” Barnhart said.

“You can count on us on a commitment to be able, as a condition of the development, to be able to have some kind of pedestrian ingress and egress that is planned for, that promotes safety for citizens,” Kapoor said. “And I’m committed to including that in the project.”

Councilor John Piper asked who would be responsible for monitoring and repairing the sewer line. City Planner Eric Mulcahy explained the developer would install it, but it would be the responsibility of the city to monitor and repair the line, which he said is how things are done with nearly every line that connects to city utilities.

Councilor Darin Fisher asked Kapoor about the idea of having some sort of dedicated housing in the project. Kapoor explained that the concept they were willing to commit to would involve having a window for applications in which a certain demographic—he used a teacher as an example—could apply on a first-come, first-served basis for a certain percentage of units, before the vacancy was opened up to the public for application. Kapoor said it was something he was happy to commit to as part of the project.

During public comment, Kristy Sell, who described herself as a former law enforcement officer and a Columbia Falls High School class of ’86 graduate, shared her concern about the location on the basis that she believes drivers seeking shortcuts would create dangerous situations because of their inability to control their speed and judge closing distance, particularly in the event that they try to cross multiple lanes of Highway 2 in order to get onto River Road from the development to get quicker access to Kalispell.

Vin D’Angelo, a fisheries biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, said he was speaking in a personal capacity. D’Angelo talked about the virtues of the Flathead River and the system of rivers that flow into Flathead Lake, including its value to fish species, and the efforts that have been made over the years to preserve the health of the watershed. “I do think that we could shoot all those efforts in the foot by leaking sewage this close to Flathead Lake. Ecologically, I just don’t think it’s worth it.”

Shirley Folkwein, the president of the Upper Flathead Neighborhood Association, noted that Barkey’s presentation focused on Flathead County housing, and not Columbia Falls specifically. She criticized the city for not conducting a housing assessment. “I think it’s really important to realize that when we haven’t done a housing assessment, when we don’t have a housing plan, this is what happens, the developers can come in and tell us what we need. And that is not right.” 

Another commenter, Connie Riley, described being upset at the money people from out of state had used to outbid on homes in her neighborhood and the use of homes in her neighborhood as vacation rentals, and also acknowledged that locals have been ousted from the housing market.

“But I feel like we’re building for the influx of out-of-staters that are moving in. We got all excited by it, because of all these people moving in. Why do we have to supply them with homes? if they can’t build a home on their own, then maybe they need to go somewhere else. I know that sounds cruel, but that’s how I feel,” Riley said.  

Within the first 15 minutes of the meeting’s start, a local resident, Matthew Padgett, was escorted from the podium by Columbia Falls Police Chief Clint Peters after he refused to step down during open public comment in which he criticized Fisher, city staff, and city officials in general, and called for Fisher’s recusal.

“I do want to caveat, none of this is personal, it is absolutely professional,” Padgett said at the start of his comments. He went on to say a council member needed to recuse themselves from the 7030 Hwy 2 Residences hearing, and referred to propaganda “bought and paid for by the applicant,” which he said involved the use of the council member’s business “as a front of this propaganda video.”

Padgett was referring to a roughly three-minute video with the title “Flathead Valley Housing Focus Group,” which is available for viewing on a website, flatheadforsensiblegrowth.com, promoted in a mailer sent out to Columbia Falls area residents by Strategies 360, a public affairs firm that has been hired by Location Ventures.

The video features a discussion on housing at Backslope Brewing, which is owned by Councilor Fisher and his wife, Carla Fisher. Carla Fisher, who is also the president of the Columbia Falls Area Chamber of Commerce board of directors, is a participant in the video discussion. Padgett also took issue with a March 6 exchange between Barnhart and City Attorney Justin Breck. In that exchange at a city council meeting Breck said the greatest weight should be given to qualified expert testimony,and also said that it’s important to address public concerns during discussions but decisions do not need to be made based on those concerns.  

“You’re getting a little bit on a personal attack at this time, and I think that could be saved for later, so please excuse yourself, thank you, and we’ll see you later in the meeting,” Barnhart said as Padgett continued.

The two began to argue, with Barnhart saying he felt Padgett was being inaccurate.

“Okay so you are going to forcibly remove a member of this community from the microphone?” Padgett said.

“Do you want me to? Don’t push me,” Barnhart said. “Just like everything else, don’t push me, I’m going to adhere to the rules of the state of Montana and the city of Columbia Falls, and you are out of order, please sit down,” Barnhart said.

Padgett continued to argue as Barnhart asked Chief Peters to escort him away. Peters warned him that he would be trespassing, and Padgett said Peters would be committing assault and unlawfully detaining him. Peters then put a hand on Padgett’s arm and another at his back, turned him around and walked him out as Padgett continued to shout, saying he was a U.S. citizen exercising his constitutional rights, that “this is how they will silence you in this meeting,” and that he was being unlawfully detained.

Padgett eventually reentered the meeting and watched the remainder from the back of the cafetorium without incident. The police chief said afterwards that he gave Padgett a warning and told him he could come back into the meeting and was welcome to participate.

Before the start of the council asking questions of the developer, Fisher addressed the call for him to recuse himself, saying that he thinks it was reasonable for his wife to participate given their awareness about housing issues in Columbia Falls, and that he and his wife were not paid for the use of their brewery space, which he said is a community gathering place that other groups use.

“My wife does not need my permission to state her opinions and to participate in community discussion. And my wife’s participation and discussion pertinent to the community does not disqualify me from participating in this process as a councilor,” he said.

Fisher said that on those grounds he did not plan on recusing himself, but that he would ultimately defer to the mayor and the rest of the council. He also disclosed that it had “recently” come to his attention that Location Ventures had donated to the nonprofit Gateway to Glacier Trails, for which Fisher serves as a board member. He said he sits on the board as an unpaid volunteer, and did not believe that the donation should disqualify him from participating in the council meeting. Fisher also noted that dozens of other businesses have donated to the nonprofit. The Gateway to Glacier website shows a $2,500 donation from Location Ventures.

Breck, the city attorney, said that in determining conflicts of interest, as long as Fisher did not receive any pecuniary gain or benefit from Location Ventures, he agreed that Fisher could participate. The only councilor to object was Councilor Kelly Hamilton, who said that while she understood the legal argument, she felt that Fisher should recuse because of how his participation would look and be construed in a small community. In the end, Fisher was given the go-ahead to participate.

Asked afterward about the Gateway to Glacier donation, Kapoor, the Location Ventures CEO, had this to say: “They are tremendous contributors to the community, and we want to support their mission where possible, whether financially, vocally, or otherwise. We have donated to several local groups, including Gateway to Glacier, and were a sponsor of last year’s Cedar Creek Marathon. Location Ventures is also a member of the Columbia Falls and Kalispell Chambers of Commerce. When I said we want to be a part of this community for the long haul, I meant it.”  

Despite contentious moments, Barnhart spoke positively of the public meeting at its conclusion.

“I just appreciate the fact that we had such a good public hearing tonight. It makes me proud to know that the citizens of Columbia Falls can give us the kind of respect we deserve and that everyone else in this community deserves,” Barnhart said. “I think we all need some time. I know I took a lot of notes. And I certainly want to take some time and review this.”