83 home plan before Missoula County commission
Source: Missoulian.com, by Chelsi Moy
February 26, 2008
Missoula farmer Carl Saunders thinks he can increase his alfalfa production by farming less land.
Saunders' idea to subdivide his 113 acres - identified as prime agricultural land just northwest of Missoula - and put 83 new affordable homes on the site is now before the Missoula Board of County Commissioners. He'd develop about 75 acres, continue to farm about 38 acres and use the residents' waste as fertilizer, converting his dryland crops to irrigated ones and, in theory, increase his net production.
“It's a win-win situation,” Saunders said Monday at a meeting with the commissioners. “If I can farm 30 acres instead of 70, it looks like I've enhanced agriculture, not hurt it.”
County planners, however, are not so sure.
They are concerned with the loss of agricultural land and the location of dense development out of the reach of city sewer and water services. They are recommending reducing the number of homes to 12.
The county commissioners are scheduled to make a decision on Saunders' Bentgrass Meadows subdivision Wednesday at their weekly public meeting.
The Bentgrass Meadows subdivision is located about four miles northwest of Missoula International Airport, more than a mile past the Wye, near the intersection of Pulp Mill Road and old U.S. Highway 10. It's located inside the Frenchtown Rural Fire District.
The plan calls for 83 homes on 113 unzoned acres. The average lot size is less than an acre.
When Commissioner Jean Curtiss asked what “affordable housing” meant, Saunders replied that he will allow manufactured homes on the property.
Because it's located so far outside the city's water and sewer district, the subdivision will have its own community water and sewer system. It will include treatment lagoons and a holding reservoir located on the property. Wastewater will be treated, and then used to irrigate alfalfa.
County Attorney Mike Sehestedt expressed concern over the wastewater system. If the county approves the subdivision, and if the plan includes a rural special improvement district paid by future residents, then it becomes the county's responsibility to physically fix and maintain the system.
Sehestedt recommended the residents form their own governing body to care for the sewer and water. It's not uncommon for individual neighborhoods in Missoula County to have their own sewer and water district, he said.
Also, the developer does not want to build a pedestrian walkway next to the old highway or bike paths along the main road running through the subdivision.
What county planners suggest as a maximum number of homes and what the Missoula County Planning Board suggested Feb. 5 on a
6-3 vote are two completely different recommendations.
Staffers say the property should have no more than 12 homes on the site. Even then, density on the property is one home per 9.5 acres.
According to the 2002 Regional Land Use Guide and 1990 Comprehensive Plan, both recommend one home per 40 acres at the location. Residents surrounding the property are living on 5- and 10-acre parcels. South of the property is land farmed by Saunders. The Missoula Trap and Skeet Club is located southeast of the subdivision and across the highway.
On the other hand, the planning board gave the developer's plan a green light as proposed with only minor changes.
So far, few have commented on the proposal.
Paul Hubbard of the Missoula County Community Food and Agriculture Coalition wrote a letter to the county expressing the organization's concern for the loss of agricultural soils and the precedent this may set.
According to the staff report, the entire development would be built within the next two years and not in phases.
There was some discussion regarding the location of small lots next to land that Saunders will continue to farm, but he sees no problem.
“If you buy property that is next to agricultural land, you learn to deal with the guy that's doing the agriculture,” he said.
On the agenda
Missoula Board of County Commissioners are scheduled to vote on the Bentgrass Meadows subdivision at their weekly public meeting at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Missoula County Courthouse Annex, Room 201.
Reporter Chelsi Moy can be reached at 523-5260 or at chelsi.moy@missoulian.com.
click here for more information
|
