City Commissioners voted unanimously to approve a rezone for a 92-unit multifamily housing development off Bay Drive.

The rezone discussion took about two and a half hours during the commission’s April 2 meeting with multiple neighbors in opposition and the development community in support.

Brock Cherry, city planning director, reminded commissioners of the criteria for land use decisions and in a previous meeting had recommended that commissioners read the comprehensive staff report on the proposal that staff have spent months on.

The city’s planning board/zoning commission voted 5-1 in February to recommend approval of the request to rezone about 4.46 acres at 805 2nd St. S.W. from 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, but is currently vacant.

Bay Drive apartment project up for city board review

The lone opposition vote on the planning board, Julie Essex, spoke in opposition to the project during the April 2 commission meeting.

“No one wants a project like this in their backyard,” Essex said, adding that she thought it was infill development incompatible with the neighborhood, which has a residential zoning district of R-1, the only one in the city that allows chickens.

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.

Other properties across the street from the planned apartments are zoned M-2 and industrial, as well as a city park adjacent to the property.

City sets public hearing for proposed housing project off Bay Drive

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.

City Commission to set public hearing for proposed Bay Drive multifamily housing project

Cherry, city planning director, told commissioners that if the proposal was for the property across the street, it would be allowed by use in that zoning district.

He said the city is aware of some site work on the property, which is allowable without a building permit.

The plan includes an easement across city parkland for access to the property, which requires and access and maintenance agreement with the city. The developers are also planning to add a connection to the River’s Edge Trail, which staff said they support.

Lonnie Hill, deputy planning director and floodplain administrator, said the first phase of the project is wholly outside the floodplain. The second phase is within the floodplain and will require additional federal, state and local approvals.

Cherry said that city staff reviewed the proposal against the city’s growth policy that is on the older side, having been completed in 2013, which he discussed with the city attorney’s office to ensure it’s still applicable and staff determined that it is and he said staff believes the project complies with the existing growth policy.

Bay Drive apartment project up for city board review

The city is currently starting its growth policy update process.

Mark Juras of city public works said that they reviewed the water, sewer and stormwater impact of the project.

He said the project is estimated to have usage that could cause a pressure drop of 0.24 PSI, which is not a significant impact on the existing potable water system, nor will it have a significant impact on the sewer system in the area.

Juras said the storm water is regulated by the city’s design manual, which commissioners approved an updated version during the same meeting. He said the storm water would be routed to the existing storm sewer main in Bay Drive that has the capacity to take the additional flow.

Andrew Finch, the city’s transportation planner, said that the city wasn’t required to do a traffic impact analysis for this project, but did a minor version due to neighborhood concern. Typically, the city hires outside consultants to conduct those studies for large projects, but Finch has experience conducting analysis for smaller projects.

He said it’s a multistep process that looks at trip generation and uses a professional model based on studies and observations from across the U.S. that is statistically accurate.

City board to consider 92-unit housing project off Bay Drive

“We know traffic will increase, growth does bring growth in traffic, but projected traffic volumes won’t exceed the road network capacity,” Finch said.

Cherry said the developer submitted a voluntary development agreement that limits the number of dwelling units on the property, increased setbacks, limited by right uses and added screening between residential uses.

He said that agreement will be recorded with the county clerk’s office and will run with the property, meaning it’s binding on the property if ownership were to change.

The neighborhood council voted to recommend denial of the project and Cherry said they’d received substantial public comment on the project, primarily concerns about traffic, crime, parking and property values.

Area residents filed a formal protest of the project, which under state law, required a two-thirds affirmative vote from commissioners to be approved, rather than a simple majority.

Spencer Woith, the engineer on the project for the local development group, said the apartments would be market rate and the townhomes would be high end units for sale.

He said they’ve submitted their application to FEMA regarding the floodplain on the parcel for the second phase. He said their application is currently under review.

City Commissioners approve rezone for 12-unit apartment building [2023]

Woith said that for years they’ve come to meetings on proposed developers and had many conversations about over-tasking infrastructure and public safety.

He said the development community had been pushed to do infill and was before the city now with an infill development.

Woith said that the current annual property tax for the property is $6,800.

He said that with just the apartments added, the annual property taxes would increase to about $117,000.

Woith said there’s old housing stock in the city and that as new housing comes online, it forces property owners to lower prices to make them more affordable or improve their rental properties, or allows people to move into different types of housing.

Commissioner Susan Wolff moved to approve the rezone and Commissioner Joe McKenney seconded.

Wolff said that she’s understands the emotions and that “change is hard.”

She said she has many friends who want to downsize and would likely be interested in townhouses like what’s planned for the development, and would then free up larger family homes for others.

Commissioners to consider creating new public safety advisory group

Commissioner Rick Tryon had initially proposed pushing the public hearing on the project beyond April 2.

He said it had been awhile since the city had rezoned anything in the R-1 zoning districts and “if I lived there, I wouldn’t want anything to change. People do not want to see their neighborhoods change. I wouldn’t want it if I lived there. I wouldn’t want it where I live now.”

Tryon said he was conflicted since the neighborhood council had voted against the project, but that the commission couldn’t produce findings of facts to legally sustain a denial of the rezone request.

“We are in an almost crisis in Great Falls,” he said, and that anecdotes about calling apartments to find out if some were available or why they didn’t think there was a need for housing didn’t hold weight against professional studies.

“We can’t dither” and have to do something about housing, Tryon said.

Commissioner Shannon Wilson said she felt angst over the decision as she has friends living in the neighborhood and read the public comments.

She said that though the current growth policy is old, it’s valid and there’s “no other way around it legally,” than to approve, she said.

City OKs code change for multifamily housing [2023]

McKenney said that many of the questions had been asked more than once and “we’re at the decision making point.”

He said there’s a “fear of change” and that most times during his experience on the commission, when they were asked to make decisions on housing, the neighborhood came out in protest.

“If the city commission let fear rule the day, really our city would end up in decline,” McKenney said. “We created change when we moved into our neighborhoods, but once we get there, we don’t want anymore change.”

As McKenney was speaking, shortly before the vote, many of the neighborhood residents who opposed the project walked out, some saying, “this is a joke,” as they left.

Zac Griffin, head of the Great Falls Association of Realtors, said the community needs housing and collaboration is needed to increase the housing supply.

“I ask the commissioners to be bold, take a leading approach to address this housing crisis in Great Falls,” he said in support of the rezone.

Demand for new housing high in Great Falls area; costs slow development [2022]

Sherrie Arey, director of NeighborWorks Great Falls, said that the development community had been working with the city over the last few years about planning and development to ensure a robust process and due diligence.

She said to bring needed housing, “infill is desperately needed” to not stretch public safety and infrastructured.

The only way to combat housing affordability, she said, is to add new housing stock that will create mobility, freeing up different levels of housing and also attract more workforce.

“Infill is a key to helping our community,” she said.

Sandor Hopkins, a local resident running for the Montana House of Representatives, said when he and his wife moved back to Great Falls from Bozeman in 2016, they had a hard time finding housing and were paying more than they did in Bozeman.

He’s a certified planner and floodplain manager and previously worked for the Cascade County planning office.

Hopkins said, “we have a housing problem,” and that communities create plans, codes and rules so developers can submit plans that meet those requirements and expect to move a project forward in a reasonable and timely manner.

Katie Hanning, director of the Home Builders Association of Great Falls, said that developers need certainty in the rules and process and without it, no one watching the meeting or thinking about coming to Great Falls won’t develop here.

City reviewing development process [2023]

Krista Smith, manager of the Great Falls Builders Exchange, said her family has property in the affected neighborhood on 10th Avenue Southwest and that her family supports the project.

She said there’s blight in the neighborhood and while they don’t want to see people force out, she said they’re happy to see some investment in the area.

Michael Yegerlehner, a Great Falls resident who’s been working with the unhoused, said he thinks there’s fear associated with the project.

He said he lives near apartments now and when he first moved to town, couldn’t buy an house.

“When I moved into the apartments, I didn’t become a crime wielding maniac,” Yegerlehner said.

He said it’s easy for those who purchased houses 30 or 40 years ago to say there’s no housing crisis, but it exists.

Brad Weast, the chief operating office for Great Falls Hospital, said the housing is limiting their ability to recruit medical providers.

Jolene Schalper of the Great Falls Development Authority, said that the project meets community needs and complies with the existing rules.

She said if commissioners wanted to change those rules, they could, but not midway through the process and encouraged them to approve the rezone.

Schalper said that GFDA had commissioned two recent studies that showed the need for housing is increasing and that both Malmstrom Air Force Base and Touro Medical College officials have said housing is impacting their workforce development efforts.

Downtown church, businesses, city at odds over handling of homeless population [2022]

Kirby Berlin, who lives two parcels south of the project, said that about 100 area residents had signed a petition in opposition to the project.

“We have done everything in our power to oppose this project,” he said.

His lawyer, Kim Wilson of Helena, told commissioners that the project was incompatible with the neighborhood.

Kathy Steffenson lives across the street from the proposed developments and said headlights would shine into her house.

She said she had previously tried to build a garage on her property and was told that would have too much roof space.

Pam Wagner serves on the neighborhood council in the area and said “I want growth but not at the expense of my neighbors.”

Maurice Cameron lives on 10th Avenue Southwest and said his neighbors are opposed to what will be a significant impact from the project.

Dave Broquist, a neighborhood resident, said that he believes the neighborhood feels like they’re being sacrificed to create housing.

“It won’t fit in the neighborhood, it’s a definite character change to the neighborhood,” he said.

George Hilpert lives on 9th Avenue Southwest and said that “we don’t want anything like that on the river.”

He said he bought his house there in 1967 and doesn’t want to see the neighborhood ruined.