A zone change request for Cherry Creek Estates in the Heights was tabled by commissioners on Tuesday, until the next meeting of the Board of County Commissioners on October 6. (The County Commissioners will not hold a meeting next Tuesday because they will be attending a meeting of the Montana Association of Counties in Helena.)
With a strong contingency of opposition from Heights residents, including the Heights Task Force, County Commissioner Don Jones asked for the delay to allow time to study the application.
The property is owned by Cherry Island, LLC and managed by the Jock Clause family who developed and managed the adjacent development of Cherry Creek Manufactured Home Park in 2001, which is today a source of much public criticism regarding how it is maintained and managed, and because it is seen as a cradle of much crime in the area. It is the history of that development that elicited most of the negative comments presented to county commissioners.
The County Zoning Board has issued a recommendation of approval of the application based upon a recommendation of approval from the Planning Department.
Nichole Cromwell of the city-county planning department stated that the owners are requesting a change in zoning from “Public” to “R-80”, which will allow one and two-family dwellings on lots of 8,000 square feet for a one-family home and 10,000 square feet for a two-family dwelling. The subject property was originally a set aside of the earlier development with the stated intention of providing open space.
Cromwell said, the developer intends to build primarily two-family dwellings and they presented a concept site plan at the pre-application neighborhood meeting. The townhomes would be sold to individual owners. The concept plan shows an internal road connecting the northern and southern legs of Cherry Creek Loop with 33 two-family dwellings (66 dwelling units total).
The total lot area in the proposed development is about 12 acres. The proposed 66 dwelling units would have about 7,900 square feet of lot area per unit or 5.5 dwelling units per acre.
Most of the citizen comments urged the rejection of the zone change, citing a history of poor management of the manufactured home park and the concern the new townhomes would be primarily rentals despite the owners claims to the contrary, and they would be similarly mismanaged.
Other concerns voiced were about increased traffic, school-age populations exceeding school capacity and general concerns with the aesthetics of the new development.
