Planning board delays decision on subdivision over groundwater concerns

Amid concerns over high groundwater levels, the Whitefish Planning Board on Thursday voted to delay a decision on a proposal for a new subdivision near Stumptown Ice Den.

The planning board wants further city review of Cottonwood Estates to ensure that its stormwater drainage plans for the property are adequate.

Board member and City Councilor Richard Hildner said ensuring that the stormwater and groundwater plans for the development protect current homeowners on Colorado Avenue is a big priority.

“This area is one of those areas that was identified early on with high groundwater that precipitated the critical areas ordinance,“ he said. “To fully study and understand and have a stormwater management plan in place or to a high degree of development prior to approving this subdivision I think is a legitimate concern.”

Cottonwood Estates has requested a preliminary plat for a 23-lot subdivision on 4.7 acres east of Colorado Avenue and north of Denver Street. The property is zoned WR-2, which is used for two-family residential homes. Nine of the lots could accommodate duplex or single family homes and the remaining lots are sized for only detached single family homes.

“When this property came up for sale, we instantly started looking at the potential of what it could be, and how it could be added to the town. Not as a subdivision off by itself but as part of the town,” said Charles Lapp of Cottonwood Estates. “What can we do that will add to what’s already there?”

Stormwater drainage would flow through swales on the property that run along the backside of the private lots into a stormwater facility in the center of the subdivision’s cul-de-sac, and overflow will be pumped up to Colorado Avenue. However, the staff report shows worry for the maintenance of the swales, as there have been instances where residents have filled, landscaped or blocked these drainage paths and caused flooding. And while monitoring has shown varying levels of groundwater at different ends of the property, it was designated as having the potential to be a high groundwater area, the staff report notes.

The planning board asked the city’s public works department to review the stormwater plans.

Tom DeAngelo, who owns property nearby on Colorado Avenue, said he’s worried about the density of the project having an effect on the groundwater levels in the area.

“I don’t understand the groundwater concept and this magical solution that’s going to happen,” he said. “It seems to me that it’s a major part of the development. I’m curious how the final solution for the groundwater, the impact it might have on the density of the overall project.”

Hildner said the subdivision has to be developed correctly.

“I want to be sure that when we approve, assuming we do, that there is adequate provisions to get rid of stormwater and deal with it appropriately so that people who buy homes don’t deal with mold, don’t deal with a water issue, and does not degrade that issue in the long run,” he said.

Cottonwood has not proposed any open space areas in the neighborhood and requested to pay the cash-in-lieu of parkland fee.

Lapp referred to the 2.5 acres of undeveloped land north of Crestwood Resort off of Wisconsin Avenue as a better place to use the funds to develop a park.

“The Ice Den has actually a really, really good playground in it right now,” he said. “There’s already all kinds of park right there. We just felt that with what there is available, it might be better to have cash-in-lieu.”

The board unanimously passed a motion to revisit the proposal during its Nov. 17 meeting.