Planning Woes

Mega Subdivision Denied By Ravalli County Planning Department

By Greg Lemon, 8-03-06

Wednesday night, after nearly five hours of deliberation, the Ravalli County Planning Board voted down a motion to deny the proposed Aspen Springs subdivision and then 20 minutes later had a change of heart and voted to recommend the county commissioners to deny the subdivision. Sound confusing? It was.

Ravalli County planning department received the application for Aspen Springs in June of 2005. Due to an expansive backlog of subdivision requests, they weren’t able to get to the subdivision until December. The planning board began taking public comment on the subdivision early this summer.

Aspen Springs is the first of three mega subdivisions facing the overworked Ravalli County Planning Department, and many feel this subdivision will set the tone for how the county handles future mega developments. Aspen Springs proposes cluster-type development, which primarily is single-family home sites with a maximum of 35 units on seven lots for commercial and multi-family buildings – about 671 units in total – on 390 acres east of Florence.

Ravalli County is one of the fastest growing counties in Montana. Yet county commissioners have yet to enact significant countywide zoning regulations to manage growth. Agricultural land is being sold to small and large developers at a rapid pace and though the planning department has been directed by the county commissioners to work with the planning board on county-wide planning and zoning, they’ve been primarily busy with state mandated deadlines imposed on processing subdivision proposals, like Aspen Springs.

Other county officials are concerned with developments like Aspen Springs. Florence-Carlton Superintendent John McGee has voiced concerns for the pressure the development will put on an already under-funded school district and Ravalli County Sheriff Chris Hoffman has expressed concerns about how his department will provide essential services with an already thin budget. Then, there's the traffic it could create into where most of the nearby jobs are -- Missoula.

After four sessions of public comment, which was overwhelmingly against the subdivision, the planning board finally took up deliberation of the subdivision Wednesday night. The discussion included addressing eight variance requests and concerns about effects the development would have on public health and safety, schools and infrastructure.

Two of the eight variance requests were denied, including variance one, which would have allowed the developer to build Aspen Springs in 32 phases over a 22-year period. The subdivision regulations allow for only two phases over four years.

After the hours of discussion, the planning board felt the developers still needed to provide more information to address some concerns with the subdivision. Specifically, issues about flood hazards, roads, and general public healthy and safety.

Developers of Aspen Springs, Missoula-based engineering and development companies WGM Group Inc., and Wesmont Builders, balked at providing more information to address the planning board and planning department’s concerns.

So Ben Hillicoss, planning board member from Florence, made a motion to deny the subdivision. Other planning board members felt they still needed to try and get more information from the developer and Hillicoss’s motion failed.

Then, Deputy County Attorney, James McCubbin, informed the planning board that Ravalli County commissioners had to make a decision on Aspen Springs by Aug. 31. That meant the board needed to give the commissioners a recommendation soon, unless the developer would agree to extend the deadline.

Planning board member, Gary Zebrowski, asked the developers if they would consider allowing the county to extend the timeline on making a decision. Nick Kaufman, engineer with WGM Group, didn’t feel an extension was necessary.

“You need to make a recommendation and move this along to the County Commissioners,” Kaufman said.

So only 20 minutes after turning down a motion to deny the subdivision, Zebrowski made another motion to recommend that Ravalli County Commissioners deny Aspen Springs subdivision as it was being proposed. The motion passed 7-1. The lone board member against denying the subdivision was Lore Schallenberger from Hamilton.

The Ravalli County Commissioners will take up Aspen Springs at a meeting sometime near the end of August. They’ll take public comment as long as no new information is submitted, said county planner, Karen Hughes.

The planning board is an advisory board for the county commissioners. Only the commissioners can make the final decisions on variance requests and whether or not to deny the subdivision.

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