Traffic and development

Margie Hendricks, Polson

Ridge Water, the largest subdivision proposal Polson has seen, will likely have to funnel the entire development generated traffic to one access road. But, weather that occurs or not, Hillcrest Drive, when opened up to faster more convenient access to highway 93 through Ridge Water, will become a major arterial into and out of the city. Citizens living on Hillcrest were told, during the 2004 and 2005 planning hearings for Ridge Water, (then Cougar Ridge,) they would have an opportunity to speak to the issue of the subdivision's impact to their road and neighborhood during Phase 3 of the planning process. Ridge Water now has final approval for Phase 1, and has been given an extension of the preliminary approval time frame for phase 2. Phase 3 has not yet come before the city council for review.

Several months after achieving preliminary approval for a five lot subdivision with access onto Hillcrest Drive the consultant for the small subdivision asked that the access road for the subdivision be re-aligned to allow Ridge Water an access.

At that time, the city planner required that a change of the plat and inclusion of a private easement agreement would require Dennis Duty, developer of Ridge Water, to go to the city council for approval before any realignment of the road can take place.

"Before I can approve this re-alignment for Kinyons, I must receive official applications, fees, plans and maps for Dennis duty's subdivision to the east. The documents must show: how, why, when (timetable) for said road and that it is not a proposed dead-end. The commitment for the shared road, sidewalks, and curb and gutters, etc. all to city standards, and with recorded easements. His subdivision must have CC Preliminary approval prior to your re-alignment approval."

How the provable easement agreement between the owners of the five-lot subdivision, and the owners of Ridge Water was inserted into the subdivision folder presented to the city council for final approval is not transparent. The planner's instructions, in response to the request to re-align the access onto Hillcrest, were not followed. Council members may not have realized a different document was being approved than the one that had originally accompanied the subdivision application. The City manager recommended they not approve it, but the council may not have understood why the manager made that recommendation. The City Council approval of the private easement agreement between the owners of the five lot subdivision and the owners of Ridge Water allows access onto what will be a major arterial into and out of the city. The flawed process, which allowed a legal document to be switched with no transparency, eliminated the opportunity for consideration of the Traffic Study intended for Phase 3 of Ridge Water's approval process and denied citizen the right to participate in decisions regarding their road and neighborhood.