Proposed storage facility ignites opposition

Deer Creek residents and those who travel U.S. Highway 93 between Somers and Lakeside were shocked on Tuesday morning to find heavy equipment busily clearing a 6.5 acre parcel just north of Deer Creek Road.

The property, which formerly belonged to local business partners Earl Bach and Michael Murphy, sold last Monday to STORE-IT, LLC, a company out of Huntington Beach, Calif. However, the new owner, Charlie Koeller, also own property in Lakeside and is a part-time resident of the community.

In an interview Monday morning, Koeller said the property will be home to a new RV and boat storage facility for those who want to put their boats and other recreational toys into building storage, where they will not be subject to the elements during winter months.

Koeller said the facility will feature doors with a 12' height for easy storage and removal and that the units will not cost much more than traditional storage. The first phase will include 159 units.

Because the area is unzoned, storage units can be built without going through the planning process to gain approval from the county. And, as long as the owner does not intend to subdivide and build multiple housing units, the project will not be required to undergo subdivision review.

According to Flathead County Planner Andrew Hagemeier, the planning office received notice on Friday, March 20, that Koeller had applied for an approach permit for an access onto Hwy 93.

Area residents said they began noticing activity on Sunday, March 21, when they observed utility workers looking the property over. Because the property is included within the proposed boundaries of a future zoning district currently being investigated by property owners in the Deer Creek area, residents attempted to contact the owner, only to learn that it was in the process of changing hands.

The planning office received a steady barrage of phone calls and e-mails last week, according to Hagemeier.

"I think the most interesting thing about this is that people have no idea that there's nothing that they can do about it," Hagemeier said. "The problem isn't necessarily that storage units are going in; it's that there isn't anything people can do about it. These things happen all the time, and people have no idea. They want it to be unzoned, until they find out what 'unzoned' means.

"Everyone is acting like there should be some kind of recourse, but there really isn't anything that they can do. This is what happens when you live in an unzoned area. I hear people say, 'Our area hasn't changed in 20 years.' Well, it changed this week.

"This area is part of the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan, but there isn't any zoning. If all this were zoned, people could still build storage units, but it would happen in a place that is deemed appropriate by the community."

Debbie Spaulding, chairperson for the committee responsible for updating Lakeside's neighborhood plan, said she too had received calls and e-mails from concerned residents.

"I know a lot of people are really upset about it," Spaulding said. "It's a huge area, and they're just cutting every tree down - every single tree. There's a lot of frustration and anger. People want to know, 'What can we do about it? What about the scenic corridor? They say, 'They can't just come in and do that.' People just don't understand. Yes, they can do that, and there's nothing that anyone can do about it."

Lakeside Community Council chairman Greg Schoh shared the community's frustration, but saw this as yet another example what can and does happen when an area is unzoned.

"Unfortunately, that's the nature of the beast with so much unzoned property in Flathead County," Schoh said. "People can pretty much do whatever they want. That's exactly why it's a good idea for people to get their area zoned to prevent something like this from happening. As much as I don't want to see something unattractive go in right there by the lake, I don't see where there's anything that anyone can do about it."

Some residents said they see it as a waste, adding that they would rather see the property subdivided, and a few Deer Creek residents say they would have purchased the property themselves if they had known that someone would use it for commercial storage.

"The one thing that we can count on is that this will wake people up to the fact that this kind of thing can happen and that there's nothing we can do when there's no zoning in place," Sue Handy, a proponent of zoning in the Deer Creek area, said. "There's nothing wrong with storage units. They're money-makers, and people use them. But that is an entirely inappropriate place for them."