Kruckenberg to Kukulski/Zoning DensitySeptember 17, 2002
1116 Sunnvside Drive
Kalispell, Montana 59901
Chris Kukulski
PO Box 1997
Kalispell, Montana 59901
Dear Chris,
Thank you for your help and advice at Monday night's meeting.
RECEIVED
2GG2 SEP 19 AM 10; 41
KALISPELL CITY CLERK
I am a very concerned member of this community on Sunnyside Drive, in the Lone Pine Wildlife Preserve.
I along with 426 other home owners from the subdivisions to the South East of us and 74 from Valley View,
Ashley and Smmyside, are all using those 22 foot wide county roads called Surmyside Drive, Valley view Drive,
Foy's Lake Road, (about 34') and Meridian Road, (about 30') and 5U', 6`' , 7h' Avenues to 11t° street are all 24'
with only concrete gutters and no sidewalks. These streets, with no shoulders or sidewalks, are the arteries to town
for us almost 500 residents. (Not counting those on 5�', 6t`, and 7 h Avenues.)
Note: if we use the planners estimates that is about 5000 trips a day for these roads. At the meeting on the
16'' Lila reported her count of 8 per minute. 8x60=480x24hr =l 1,520. if we divide that in two for day
only usage, that =5760 car count and we are right in with the planners numbers. But we know people
travel at night too.
Also note. We have not counted all the foot and bike and baby stroller traffic that uses these same roads
for recreation and fresh air from the city. The numbers here will surprise you if you were to count them.
The road outlet for the 426 other home owners known as Denver Drive and was opened just recently after the
Stratford development was started. Because the Southmeadows Subdivision Developer never put the road to the
West from his development as the plat maps show. (See attached map) This additional traffic is creating a
dangerous and unsafe situation for every family whose homes are in the Lone Pine Estates, (33 ) and the Stratford
subdivision (16) with more homes being built.
On January 151h there was a meeting held by the Kalispell City Planning Board where they annexed a 10 acre
parcel to the city that was purchased in 2001 by Gaylen and Mark Owens doing business as Owl Corporation who
want to put 62 housing units on it! On February 4th, 2002, The city turned this rural 10 acres listed as R-1
(where housing can only be 1 house per acre or on 43,560 square feet of land) into R-4 (where it can be
turned into multifamily dwellings that can be placed on 6000 square foot areas for single homes, and 7500
square foot areas for townhouses or duplexes.) But when you take 2.577 acres of the proposed road out
(extension of Ashley Road) that only leaves a lot average of 5235 sq It per residence! This is a long way
from the required 6000 and 7500 per the code book! These 10 acres should never have been annexed to
the city or most of all zoned R-4 since there is no growth plan in place, all the roads are county, and
inadequate for anything more than R-1 housing!
Also, only one person in the immediate community was notified that this was to happen! (When Lila Kmckenberg
asked about zoning notices sent out, Narda Wilson stated on September 12"' 2002 that they only send out notices
on zoning as a courtesy.) Why the secret? Is not zoning something that affects the whole community? Whose
town is this anyway? I thought it belonged to the taxpayers? One news article the day a zoning meeting is to be,
is not enough publicity to let people who are affected know what is going on.
In cities where they have growth plans in place, signage is required to be posted at the property for 90 days prior
to the date of decision, announcing what is planned, and those affected can attend the meetings (listed)
pertaining to the prospective zoning to any particular piece of real-estate.
This is a rural community that has county roads through it which are inadequate for that kind of additional traffic!
It should remain RI. All the acreages to Lone Pine and to Foy's Lake and to Meridian road are all R-1. This
rural community and game preserve can saturate estate like parcels of 1 house per acre; however the county road
system cannot tolerate the type of density the subdivisions create. The development that Owl Corporation wants
to do is directly East of acreage that is zoned R-1. I sincerely believe that R4 is too severe a zone change to be
nest to the R-1 estate type residential housing that is here now and some having been here for over 40 years.
Smmyside Drive per Narda Wilson's reading of the plat map is 50 feet. And she is correct as far as the plat map
shows, but in real life the usable part on this county road is only 22 feet wide. That is as far as the asphalt goes,
and then it is ditches, over brush and hillside. This is an old county road that was built before I came to live in
this community. When I was 10 years old, my folks bought the homestead on Valley View Drive. (My brother's
family live there now). I am 70 now.
This kind of zoning changes being made in this community will bring down the values of estate type homes that
are here and some that have been here long before these subdivisions. This area could support more estate type
homes,(one per acre) but not crowded tenement type structures. The safety and quality of lives of those who live
here are being affected by the insane rapid growth from the subdivisions that began by the city airport and have
sprawled to Sunnyside Drive. This insane growth must stop until access arteries of safe streets, walks, curbs and
lighting are built to accommodate the locals in addition to the subdivision craze.
Those subdivisions West from the City airport has catered to smaller family homes, and only one small play
ground is therefor 426 family dwellings! This is absolutely ludicrous! What makes it so easy for the city to
allow the developers to pay them a pitiful 9 or 10 percent of the value of raw land in lieu of building a playground
for all those children! National average is 2.5 per family! Also, most of those subdivisions have no sidewalks,
no boulevards, no curbs and no drainage. This is the making of a Ghetto. Is that what we want for our town of
Kalispell? Where is the common sense of our planners and leaders? It seems the codes or regulations go askew as
far as the past developments that have been put in this area.
We must insist to build a community that will maintain the quality of life for our families and all the future
families in the Valley. We must insist on proper development of road arteries for the safety of our families going
to and from schools, town, work shopping and all the other places one has to go to. We must protect the
environment for our wildlife preserves, such as Lone Pine Preserve. (The subdivision west of City airport
covered the spring drainage ponds (which used to have hundreds of birds and wildlife) for more multi family
housing. My friend who lives there watched them, and has pictures of them doing it.))
That means we must control the zoning and development until a long term growth plan is in place! The west side
truck by pass, if it will ever come to pass would help that situation. But that has been just talk for about 20 years.
Mr. Kukulski, help us to make Kalispell the town we have always been proud of. Please don't allow estate type
residences to be given up for crowded cheap housing which create unrest, unhappiness, and temporary rental
housing units. Already there are for rent and sale signs up and down the subdivisions streets. The start of a
Ghetto begins when housing is crowded, with no sidewalks, boulevards, curbs or decent close play yards, and
most of all if the development is not maintained, or completed as promised, residents become disturbed and
unhappy as it becomes trashed, a haven for crime, and certainly reduces the value of the communities
around them.
Just take a drive down Bluestone, Darlington, Garden way, Belmar, Southmeadows and especially the newest
development this year, Great View Drive. It is brand new and not a sidewalk anywhere! (Yet the city says all new
developments must have sidewalks, curbs and boulevards). Narda tells me they "grandfathered in on the old
original subdivision" How can this happen when the city zoning regulations promise people that all city
developments will have wide streets, curbs, boulevards and sidewalks and play yards. Who is paying who off ?
The back yards may have 10 feet and 5 feet to your neighbors yard. Not much room for children, or private yard
space. See children playing in the streets. See the design of the driveways for the children to skate or bike down
and right into the traffic. Looks like an accidental death in the making.
Just take a tour and see these small crowded duplexes with 3 tiny bedrooms that are 8' by 8'9, tiny baths, no fire
taping in the furnace rooms for $115,000. Call me and I can tell you why the planning board is being fooled as
far as the demand for so much housing that is being sold.
It is time for the city to make good the promise of the old subdivision developers before annexing more property
for more of the same. Get a growth plan in place. Let the people of Kalispell have a voice. Not just a bill for
additional taxes that are caused by the overgrowth of housing projects caused by the developers!
Why not plan a development area, with the schools, fire and police stations, water and sewer and limited shopping
areas within the development of residences where they will have all these necessary facilities available to that
community. In growth minded towns, this is what the developers do to make a healthy growing town successful.
This is the developer's responsibility. The planning boards say we will be like Spokane in 20 years. If we don't
make better plans now, we will be like the Ghettos in the cities who had no growth plans and now are trying to get
rid of the bad growth and rebuild correctly.
And last but not least. We do not need the 62 home units that Owl Corporation wants to build,on that 10 acres
zoned R-4. It must be moved back to R-1. There already is too much R-4 for this area until growth plans are in
place. No way can people be happy or healthy in an environment where they are like sardines in a can.
Thank you.
Kruckenberg,
1116 Sunnyside Drive. My phone is 755-8041
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