Cedar Creek study OK'd
Columbia Falls wants to know whether a road can be built on 120-acre tract of rugged public land
Results of a study on how to carve a road into a rugged 120-acre tract of public land north of Columbia Falls will determine whether the city can sell the parcel.
The city's first and most-serious offer on the tract, one of several parcels defined in its 400-acre Cedar Creek Reservoir property sale that could fetch a total of about $3 million, depends on whether a city-approved road can be built across that land.
The wooded patch of ground on the west side of the North Fork Road is listed for $495,000.
Considerable work on the land, which is marked by rocky bluffs and steep terrain, might be needed to get a driveway to the home that the potential buyer wants to build there.
To help plot that path, Realtor Bill Dakin asked the council's permission to conduct a feasibility study.
A unanimous City Council vote Monday night cleared the way for that study.
One estimate put the cost of the study between $7,500 and $8,500. That likely will drop when included in a package of surveying and other Cedar Creek land services being carried out by surveyor Brian Sullivan of F and H Land Surveying of Whitefish.
If a road can be built and the buy-sell offer goes through, the prospective buyer has pledged to pay for the feasibility study. If it does not go through, any future offer almost certainly would depend on proof that the access road can be built.
In a Land Use Committee workshop after the council meeting, attended by the full council, Dakin updated members on other proposals for marketing the Cedar Creek Reservoir land.
He addressed three specific parcels to be sold: 180 acres of mostly low-lying land directly surrounding the dam and reservoir, 20 acres at the north end of the city property and nine acres on the southwest end. The first two are on the east side of the North Fork Road, and the third parcel is on the west side.
Estimates put the value of the 180-acre parcel at $1.1 million for the two potential home sites and surrounding land that is within the flood plain.
The 20-acre parcel, subdivided into five lots, is valued at $115,000. The city will need to work with the county to bring it into the city's planning jurisdiction if it wants to follow through on the subdivision.
Initially, the nine-acre tract had been surveyed at 12 acres and was targeted for subdivision into three lots, putting its value at about $90,000. But that will drop, Dakin said, because some will be lost to road building and the remainder will be subdivided into only two lots.
Access to the nine-acre subdivision will be through an agreement with the U.S. Forest Service to use its existing road along its north edge, and the 20-acre subdivision feeds directly onto the North Fork Road.
On the reservoir parcel, only two spots are on ground high enough above the flood plain to be considered safe for developing.
One to the north can be reached along the former Sedivy property bordering the north property line. Another site farther south near the top of the reservoir can be reached by the existing Forest Service road, which the city now uses to reach the dam.
To provide walking and bicycling access to Teakettle Mountain from the North Fork Road, Dakin suggested reserving a 20-foot right-of-way along the north property line.
Reporter Nancy Kimball may be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com .