BLUAC fills vacant seat, approves Sr. housing

By ALEX STRICKLAND / Bigfork Eagle

The Bigfork Land Use Advisory Committee filled the vacancy on the six member board at last week's meeting before unanimously passing the two applications on the agenda.

BLUAC appointed Chuck Gough to the seat vacated by Mary Jo Naive's resignation in December. Gough will serve until BLUAC elections in May when that seat will go up for election to fill the remaining two years of the three year term. Gough said it is his intention to run for that seat. Currently the treasurer of the Bigfork Steering Committee, Gough will resign the position at the next BSC meeting to come into compliance with by-laws that prohibit anyone from serving on the board of both committees simultaneously.

With the vacancy filled, BLUAC heard an application from the Crestview Housing Limited Partnership for a conditional use permit to operate two new senior housing buildings. The buildings will house eight additional units that will provide affordable housing for senior citizens.

The application, however, comes after the buildings are already nearly complete. Narda Wilson, a planner who represented the project, said the application was coming at this late stage in construction because of an oversight on the part of the architect and that since federal funding is involved with the low-cost housing, they wanted to make sure all of the regulations were met.

BLUAC vice chair Shelley Gonzales expressed her support for the project, noting that the most commonly mentioned topic in community surveys was a lack of affordable housing.

Wilson said they expected to have the buildings occupied by March, but Julie Wilson of Bigfork Water and Sewer said the buildings still need to be hooked up to a sewer main that has yet to be built.

BLUAC also supported preliminary plat approval for Saddlehorn phase one containing 44 residences on 22 acres.

In other business at the meeting, it was reported that funding was allocated for compression brake signage at five locations around Bigfork. The signs, like those in Woods Bay and Somers, will discourage truckers from using compression brakes, though they are non-regulatory, meaning a trucker using "jake-brakes" would not be in violation of any laws.

The locations, decided on at the December BLUAC meeting, are Hwy. 35, south of the Flathead Lake Lodge equestrian crossing; north of the intersection of Hwy. 35 and Hwy. 82; east of the intersection of Hwy. 35 and Hwy. 83; west of the intersection of Hwy. 83 and Echo Lake Road; and east of the intersection of Hwy. 83 and Echo Lake Road.

The next BLAUC meeting will take place as a joint workshop with the BSC at noon on Feb. 14 at Bethany Lutheran Church to review comments and make any changes to the Bigfork Neighborhood Plan. A Feb. 7 meeting of the BSC at 7 p.m. in the same location is a final opportunity for public comment and discussion on the plan, which has been in the works for three years. The public is also welcome at the workshop on Feb. 14.