After approving a short list of zoning ordinances in the consent agenda, Kalispell city councilors spent most of last night’s meeting listening to residents on topics ranging from buckling sidewalksand unkept lawns to law enforcement wages and speed control.
The majority of public comment, however, centered around a proposal to annex and amend the city’s growth policy to permit a neighborhood business and a high-density residential area at the northwest corner of Old Reserve Drive and Stillwater Road.
In the application put forth by Spartan Holdings LLC and Whispering Trails LLC, the Reserve at Johnson Ranch would include a residential lot with 186 single-family units, two multi-family lots totaling 493 dwelling units, and a commercial lot for the neighborhood on just over 90 acres. The land is currently undeveloped and has historically been used for agricultural production.
Several residents who spoke out against the Johnson Ranch development pointed to existing traffic concerns on the narrow roads that border the would-be neighborhood. Stillwater Road has two consecutive 90 degree turns in that area. There are also slow-moving gravel trucks coming from nearby excavation pits that neighbors say already create safety hazards.
Bob White, a resident who said he grew up on Stillwater Road, expressed appreciation for the Johnsons and recalled watching the family pull cars out of the road’s adjacent ditch in the wintertime. He acknowledged the city’s need for “above average density of the plan in a growing community, where we’re faced with either accepting higher density development or uncontrolled urban sprawl.”
“That being said, there’s an old saying in the planning world that a camel is a quarter horse built with a lack of planning,” White said. “We can’t overlook the very real consequences of this proposed high-density development and the related safety issues and economic costs to the community.”
Kyle Voigtlander, a city council candidate up for Ward 3, also shared concerns around expansion that does not explicitly address low-income housing, a majority of which “is needed for seniors.”
“We’re going to go cram more homes in, overload the school, overload the road, put more people in danger,” Voigtlander said.
The proposal’s annexation and growth policy amendment is scheduled to go up again before council on August 4.
I’m Zoë Buhrmaster, here with you for the latest news from around our little northwest corner of Montana.
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