Storage project continues to fuel zoning discussion

Discussion about future zoning along Deer Creek Road, as well as in the scenic corridor of U.S. Highway 93 in the Lakeside neighborhood planning area, continued into last week with several community groups providing a forum for local residents to express their frustration over changes that have taken the community by surprise.

One such change, the parcel recently cleared in preparation for boat and RV storage, a quarter mile north of mile marker 100, remained a hot topic and a passionate one for many area residents.

Beginning on Monday night at a meeting of the Lakeside Neighborhood Plan Committee, residents attended one meeting after another to voice their concerns. During the LNPC meeting, Deer Creek resident Bruce Veerkamp agreed to speak on behalf of concerned Deer Creek landowners.

"We want to voice our objection to the installation of storage units of any kind on Highway 93," Veerkamp said, last Monday night. "First of all, we are concerned about a number of safety issues related to accessing the property. Secondly, we object also on the standpoint of the aesthetics of it. Thirdly, it will tend to lower property values in the area. No one wants to own property overlooking a storage area. The general consensus is that all of the residents on Deer Creek object strongly to what's being done there.

"We are diligently working on our zoning project to prevent other structures and building project from going in there. We are going forward with it, and we are getting reading to do another survey of the residents in that area."

LNPC member Bruce Young said he understood the frustration of Deer Creek residents, but did not see how simply voicing an objection to projects in an unzoned would accomplish anything.

"Unless these people decide to zone it, it really doesn't mean anything," Young said.

The group, who refer to themselves as the Deer Creek Road Land Use Committee (DCRLUC) formed last June 10, for the purpose of helping to preserve the beauty of the neighborhood and "work toward putting into place appropriate guidelines that will help protect the Deer Creek Road area as 'low density residential.'" The DCRLUC surveyed landowners within the boundaries of the proposed Deer Creek Zoning District in early February, from which approximately 60 percent of the landowners with a majority of property in the proposed district said they were in favor of zoning.

However, several who were surveyed say they felt they had only been given the option of zoning R-1 and may prefer a less restrictive zoning designation such as R2 or R5. Consequently, the groups is preparing a second mailing to see if more people would support zoning with a higher density.

"A number of people on Deer Creek road are opposed to zoning, for various reasons," DCRLUC spokesperson Sue Handy said, last week. "I have noticed that the people who are most in opposition to zoning are the loudest, and they sometimes prevent the average person from stepping forward and giving their opinion. I think we're getting people's attention to at least the necessity of land-use planning."

Handy said that, despite a meeting of Deer Creek residents with Flathead County Planner Andrew Hagemeier in regard to zoning on Thursday, discussion of the storage units tapered off for the latter half of last week.

"I think the community is up in arms over it, but they don't know what to do or say," Handy said. "I hope that it's not going to be as bad as everyone is anticipating. I do think the owners are bending over backward to help this blend in aesthetically, but I'm still not sold on the safety issues related to it."

Handy and other Deer Creek residents met with the owner, Charlie Koeller, on Wednesday but were unsatisfied with the outcome - namely that Koeller would go forward with plans for the storage units rather than a residential use.

Other Deer Creek residents spoke during last Tuesday's meeting of the Lakeside Community Council, but council chairperson Greg Schoh stated that, in the absence of zoning, the council had no say in the matter.

"I don't like the look of it any better than anybody," Schoh said. "But the fact is there is no application to be reviewed by the committee because it's unzoned. Unfortunately, I don't think there's anything that we can do about it."