Updated Feb. 12 with GFPD crime data

During their Feb. 13 meeting, the city planning board will consider a rezone request for about 4.46 acres at 805 2nd St. S.W.

The property is currently vacant and zoned R-1 single-family suburban. It was most recently a mobile home court that had up to 14 mobile homes at one time, according to city staff.

The property owners, Craig and Robert Stainsby, are requesting the zone change to M-2 mixed use facilitate a property sale to develop a 92-unit multifamily residential project, dubbed Bay View Apartments, next to Garden Home Park, off Bay Drive.

Staff is recommending approval of the rezone.

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The request does not include the single-family residents at the southeast corner of Bay Drive and 2nd Street. Southwest, according to the staff report.

The first phase of the proposed project would be a three-story 36-unit building along the western side of the subject property; the second phase would be a three-story 42-unit building in the center of the property; and the third phase would be seven two-unit townhomes on the eastern portion of the site, near the Missouri River, according to the staff report.

The infill project would use existing city infrastructure and services, rather than further stretching those resources by expanding the city limits, according to multiple city officials and many in the development community.

All of the units would be market rate, meaning no government subsidies to create low-income housing, according to the developer.

The second and third phases of the proposed project are in the Special Flood Hazard Area, or 100-year floodplain so the applicant will have to meet requirements of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency and city floodplain development regulations, according to staff.

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The rezone was initially scheduled to before the planning board in December, but was pushed to gather more data in response to some neighborhood concerns.

Woith Engineering, a local company, is part of the development team and has worked on multiple other housing developments and projects in the community and statewide.

The developer’s team presented at the Nov. 8 Neighborhood Council 2 meeting but those in attendance said that not enough of the neighborhood was aware of the project so the council voted to discuss the project at a special meeting on Dec. 6. Area residents attended that meeting and expressed concerns about traffic and safety, but the council did not take action and is scheduled to discuss the item again during their Feb. 13 meeting.

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Several area residents submitted written comments to staff in opposition to the project over concerns about traffic, the effect of too many people living on the river, drainage, stormwater and that apartments will decrease their property values.

The Great Falls Development Alliance submitted comments in support of the project and data indicating that apartments don’t generally reduce neighboring property values.

Several area residents suggested that apartments drive up crime in an area.

According to Great Falls Police Department data, that is not true.

Capt. John Schaffer provided data to the GFDA in December.

He pulled crime data around three of the most recent large apartment complexes completed in the city, ARC Apartments on Division Road, Talus Apartments, south of Benefis and Rockcress Commons, at 23rd Street South and 22nd Avenue.

Talus and ARC are market rate apartments running $1,000 to $1,800 per month for one to two bedrooms.

Rockcress Commons is a NeighborWorks Great Falls development with income restrictions to ensure affordable housing, with rents from $875 to $1,204.

“Bottom line is there is minimal activity in and around these three apartment complexes compared to others that are subsidized. These apartments do not attract a criminal element,” Schaffer said in his email.

ARC Apartments weren’t operational on Division Road in 2022 and there were three calls for service at Smelter and Division that year, all three crashes.

In 2023, there were 16 calls for services around ARC Apartments, with four of them being crashes at Smelter and Division, according to GFPD data.

That averages one call for service per month at ARC, Schaffer said, and one call every 121 days at Talus with three calls for the year and one call every 23 days at Rockcress with a total of 14 calls at that complex for 2023.

“The Great Falls Police Department uses crime data such as this to deploy our resources. Based on this data, we would not be asking our officers to patrol these apartment complexes in order to prevent crime,” Schaffer said.

Area residents filed a formal protest against the rezone, meaning under state law, the zone change would need a favorable vote of two-thirds of the present and voting City Commissioners.

Staff from multiple city departments have been involved in the rezone application and will also review building permit applications if the rezone is approved and the project moves forward.

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The cost of utility connections, all site improvements and the off-site trail connection will be paid by the applicant.

The developer is proposing two access points onto Bay Drive near the location of an existing access for the mobile home court that will cross a strip of city parkland property that is between the proposed housing property and the right-of-way of Bay Drive. Staff is supportive of the continued use but before a building permit is issued, the property owner must enter into an agreement with the city for the installation and maintenance of proposed improvements to the city’s property that will be used for access, according to the city staff report.

The developers have also indicated they will create a voluntary development agreement for commitments that go beyond the requirements of the M-2 zoning district to include a bicycle and pedestrian connection to the existing path in Garden Home Park, stormwater management improvements and a lower density project than allowable in the district.

Such agreements aren’t typical with rezoning requests but it will be finalized and signed by the applicant before City Commission action, according to staff.

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The applicant is also asking for a boundary line adjustment to reconfigure the property to create a 1.27 acre lot for the first phase and a 3.19 acre lot for the second and third phases. The boundary line adjustment is administratively reviewed by city staff and the rezone request applies to the entire property.

Staff wrote in their agenda report that the city’s 2013 growth policy update supports the rezone to facilitate development of apartments and townhomes.

“Specifically, the growth policy lists multiple social policies regarding housing, such as encouraging a variety of housing types and densities so that residents can chose by price or rent, location and place of work. Further, the environmental and physical sections of the growth policy prioritize infill development,” according to the staff report.

Existing infrastructure surrounds the property and the city maintains Bay Drive and 2nd Street Southwest.

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The property is located within the primary impact area of the Missouri River Corridor Plan. The area includes lands  with “strong relationships to the river that are most central to the corridor plan. The plan identifies appropriate riverfront uses that reinforce the vision for the Missouri River corridor. The listed uses within the plan include two to four story rental apartments and town houses,” according to the staff report.

One goal of the plan is to remove barriers, one of which was identified is the lack of mixed-use/multi-use zoning districts or options in local regulations appropriate for riverfront redevelopment, according to the city.

In response to that plan, the city adopted mixed-use transitional zoning along Bay Drive in 2005.

City code doesn’t require a formal traffic impact analysis for this development, but staff conducted an analysis based on the public interest in the project.

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A traffic analysis typically looks at existing traffic conditions, projected impact of the proposed development and recommendations related to those potential impacts.

Existing traffic volumes are generally low in the area. Huffman Avenue and Bay Drive are wider roads built to urban road standards that direct traffic to higher-capacity roads. Tenth Avenue Southwest and 2nd Street Southwest are local roadways that generally carry 200 to 1,200 trips around Great Falls, depending on the neighborhood, according to the staff traffic analysis.

Staff placed traffic counters in the area that record vehicle, bicycle and pedestrian traffic and are equipped with cameras that record the activity at the counter.

The proposed development is projected to have a peak-hour trip increase of 9-14 per hour, or less than one trip every four minutes during rush hour, and “should have little noticeable impact on area traffic, as the roads have sufficient capacity to allow for the increase and remain uncongested,” according to the staff report.

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Huffman Avenue and Bay Drive are wide enough to accommodate parking and two-way travel, according to staff. Second Street Southwest and 10th Avenue Southwest have typical travel lane widths with wider boulevards that are usually free of parked vehicles, further contributing to the safe use of the roads, according to the staff report.

According to the staff traffic analysis, the current and projected conditions are below:

The staff traffic analysis also looked at travel speeds on the impacted roads and found that 85 percent of the drivers traveled 26 miles per hour or slower on 10th Avenue Southwest and 23 miles per hour on 2nd Street Southwest, with a lower average speed. The projected increase in trips isn’t expected to increase speeds, according to the staff report.

Staff also does not anticipate a negative impact on bicycle traffic in the area, but a 10-foot shared bicycle-pedestrian path is recommended between the proposed development and the end of the River’s Edge Trail in Garden Home Park. Because of utility conflicts and concerns about stormwater conveyance, the city traffic analysis recommends that the city should defer construction of a sidewalk along the property’s 2nd Street Southwest frontage until the street itself is brought to full city standards.