Hungry Horse developers stress project's affordability

By WILLIAM L. SPENC

EThe Daily Inter Lake

The backers of a 1,000-unit subdivision proposed in Hungry Horse stressed the affordable housing and public sewer aspects of the project during a meeting Wednesday with community members.

About 80 people attended the meeting, which lasted a little more than two hours. There was an opportunity to review drawings for the proposal and meet the development team; there was also about a 90-minute question-and-answer period.

If approved, the South Fork Addition subdivision would be built on 90 acres of former U.S. Forest Service land on the southeast side of town. The area is unzoned.

The initial subdivision application indicates it would consist of 16 single-family home lots, 47 duplex townhouses, 53 triplexes and more than 600 apartment or condominium units. There also would be 60 commercial lots next to U.S. 2.

Based on a revised phasing plan submitted late last month, the entire subdivision would be platted by 2010, meaning all the roads, pedestrian paths and utility infrastructure would be installed by then.

However, developer Stephan Byrd said the townhomes and apartments would be built out over the next seven to 10 years.

"We've taken a hard look at what the valley needs, what Hungry Horse needs and what we could do from an ecological standpoint," Byrd told the crowd on Wednesday. "We want to offer some alternative [housing] choices to what's being offered in the Flathead right now."

Those choices could include affordable rental and for-sale units, assisted living units and vacation/second home rentals or sale units, according to Byrd and developer Dennis Konopatzke.

"A lot of this is a function of economics," Konopatzke said. "We're trying to look at different things in this marketplace."

Byrd estimated that 30 percent to 50 percent of the South Fork Addition housing units would be purchased or rented by local residents. He indicated that the price target for the rental units would be about $700 a month, while for-sale units would start at about $150,000.

Konopatzke said Hungry Horse Development Partners would focus on the "horizontal development," meaning they would design the subdivision, install the infrastructure and establish the covenants and architectural guidelines that builders would be required to follow. Other developers - possibly alone, or in joint ventures with Byrd and Konopatzke - would construct the apartments, townhouses and commercial buildings.

A central aspect of the subdivision is a proposed public wastewater-treatment facility, which would be built by Hungry Horse Development Partners.

Without the facility, Byrd said, the property could be split only into half-acre or larger home lots - lots that wouldn't be affordable for the average Flathead resident.

With a treatment plant, the subdivision could support the type of densities needed to create a more affordable product. The facility could also be expanded to accommodate the rest of Hungry Horse, most of which currently relies on septic systems.

The Hungry Horse Sewer District would have to pay for any expansion, Byrd said. However, tying into the South Fork Addition system would cost much less than building a plant from scratch.

The audience raised a variety of questions about the project. There clearly was concern about the proposed density and the type of changes that a thousand homes would create for a community the size of Hungry Horse, which had 346 housing units during the 2000 Census.

There were also concerns about the traffic implications, particularly regarding the increased number of vehicle trips through Bad Rock Canyon.

Byrd noted that South Fork Addition would be near a four-lane highway, so there's not much that could be done to mitigate traffic impacts. A consultant looked at that issue and concluded that no mitigation would be required.

He also indicated that the bridge over the South Fork of the Flathead and the section of highway through Bad Rock Canyon are both slated for improvement in about 2010 and 2011.

However, Gary Kalberg, the district construction engineer for the Montana Department of Transportation, said Thursday that neither project is anywhere on the construction horizon.

"There are no plans in the future that I know of," Kalberg said.

In fact, even the design work for the Bad Rock improvements was halted because of a lack of money, he said. Moreover, the initial four-lane bridge across the South Fork recently was scrapped in favor of a two-lane design, also because of a lack of money.

In a follow-up interview Thursday, Konopatzke said the information about the highway improvements came from their traffic consultant. He also said that South Fork Addition would be only an incremental increase over the existing traffic along U.S. 2, and suggested that building the subdivision would actually help raise the priority for expanding the bridge and highway.

"We just have to be the squeaky wheel and get these [Department of Transportation] guys to focus on it," he said.

Kalberg, however, said traffic counts on that section of U.S. 2 support making the improvements. This issue is that there isn't enough money to take care of the infrastructure that's in place, much less pay for all the expansions and new projects that are needed.

South Fork Addition currently is scheduled to go to the Flathead County Planning Board for a public hearing in November, although that could be pushed back depending on conversations between the developers and the county planning staff.

Reporter Bill Spence may be reached at 758-4459 or by e-mail at bspence@dailyinterlake.com.