Columbia Falls City Council Provides Direction on Development Amid Wastewater Capacity Limitations

The Columbia Falls City Council this week set priorities for the city as it navigates future growth amid an imbalance between development applications and wastewater treatment plant capacity.

City councilors largely agreed with a path forward approved by the planning commission, which includes prioritizing infill development, as well as multifamily housing and townhomes, and preserving reserve capacity for future development opportunities. 

Both the council and commission also expressed a distaste for an indefinite, out-right moratorium on development while further analysis on wastewater capacity is completed. 

The plan supported by the city council instructs city staff to use the wastewater treatment plant’s remaining capacity strategically while awaiting further data, noting that any moratorium on development applications would need to be narrowly tailored, temporary and clearly tied to infrastructure analysis timelines. 

City staff in several meetings have reassured the community that ongoing capacity allocation decisions won’t impact permitted by-right developments of residential properties within the city.

“I do like the moratorium part being more tailored,” Councilor Kelly King said at Monday’s regular meeting. “The moratorium word can panic people and this kind of gives us a little more leeway with that.”  

City Manager Eric Hanks and city staff came to both the planning board and city council last month to brief officials on the city’s uncertainty on the maximum capacity for its wastewater treatment plant — all stemming from a historic 2022 rainfall event that led to the flooding of the Flathead River.

Hanks in December told officials that factoring the June 2022 event into the estimated maximum capacity for the current wastewater treatment facility would hamper the city’s room for population growth to roughly 816 people. Seeing the flooding as an anomaly and removing its metrics would boost the city’s wastewater capacity for population growth to 1,894 people, he said.

Either way, the city’s current wastewater infrastructure would still be short of the roughly 2,100 people accounted for in approved and current/near-term development applications. 

Exceeding the wastewater treatment facility’s maximum capacity would hamper its ability to remove nitrogen and phosphorus from the material — not its handling of liquid content. Limited availability for nitrogen removal as the city grows is still cause for concern, however, since the city’s wastewater plant discharges directly in the Flathead River, meaning it’s held to a high standard by the state on its nitrogen discharges.

In an update to city council earlier this month, Hanks corrected the December calculations, saying the June 2022 report was included in a 2023 engineering report of the facility; the city initially thought the rainfall event wasn’t included in those capacity estimates. 

This means that moving forward, the city will be working under the baseline assumptions that the current wastewater treatment plant design capacity is .71 million gallons per day and can support a projected service population of 8,174, according to city documents. With a current estimated service population of 6,280 people, the plant’s remaining capacity is 1,894 people.

“After finding that out, that is why we’re going forward with the determination that we’re going to use the 1,894 number in discussion with the engineers,” Hank told councilors on Jan. 5. “That’s what was approved by [the Montana Department of Environmental Quality] right now and that’s what’s in our 2023 engineering design that was completely modeled out.” 

Additionally, the city in the fall will do a study of the plant as its new bioreactor completes its first full year of use, which would provide an additional, more accurate data point to consider in the calculation.

Environmental advocates earlier this month expressed their support of including the June 2022 rainfall event into the maximum capacity calculations. 

Climate Smart Glacier Country — a nonprofit focused on local climate solutions in and around Glacier National Park — sent a letter to Hanks on Jan. 8, which stated that historical flood data suggests that the June 2022 flooding wasn’t an anomalous event.

“The USGS Flood Inundation Mapper categorizes this as a ‘minor flood’ that was much smaller than the top 10 flood stages recorded at the Columbia Falls Gage Station … Therefore, it does not seem that 2022 should be considered a high-water anomaly,” the letter states. 

The letter also noted that 12.4%, or 326 properties in Columbia Falls, are at risk of flooding over the next 30 years, according to First Street — a national business that provides climate risk financial modeling for local governments, institutions, home buyers and the real estate industry.

With a maximum capacity set, city councilors then had to decide how city staff should proceed with the approximately 2,100 development applications vying for the 1,894 spots of projected remaining capacity.

The city has already committed to developments that amount to 720 people of future wastewater capacity. But in near-term development applications that are awaiting city review, an additional 1,380 people could be quickly figured to the future wastewater plant capacity calculations.

City staff recommendations included allocating up to 95% of the wastewater system’s total population capacity, specifically allocating capacity for up to 1,500 people and reserving 400 people for future projects. Staff also recommended considering a moratorium for any large-scale developments — not ones on the list of current/near-term applications — while retaining capacity to approve future applications for affordable or deed-restricted housing and/or permitted use in residential and commercial zones.

When reviewing the recommendations, the planning commission earlier this month expressed significant concern regarding broad or indefinite restrictions for any type of moratorium. Commissioners also provided city staff with broader policy guidance on what type of housing should be prioritized and where. 

Commissioners reached a consensus over prioritizing multi-family housing, townhomes and attached units, in addition to some single-family homes in larger multi-family developments. The commission also stated a strong preference for infill development or for development to at least be adjacent to existing infrastructure and discussed exploring incentive-based tools to attract affordable housing.   

City councilors at Monday’s meeting all expressed satisfaction and support for the planning commission’s recommendations to address the influx of development.

Councilor Kathy Price largely agreed with the path forward but was against some of the incentive-based tools such as narrowing streets, saying the city should do what’s ultimately best for residents, not developers.

“I know we have to plan for the community to grow and what we want it to be, but we also want to keep the hometown feel of Columbia Falls,” Price said. “I don’t really want the residents that are here having to deal with issues when we make adjustments for the developer because the residents then have to deal with it for a lifetime.” 

Mayor Donald Barnhart suggested the city also look at prioritizing subsidized housing and building, saying the city will need to embrace ways to make housing truly affordable as it looks to the future.

“Geez, look at the median income then look at the percentage of folks inside the city that don’t even meet it; we’re talking 50-60%,” Barnhart said. “We need to house those folks. Those are the people that make Columbia Falls.”

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