By NANCY KIMBALL

The Daily Inter Lake

Aspen-Columbia Falls won split City Council approval for its Meadow Lake Northwest subdivision Monday night, clearing the way for 182 new homes at Meadow Lake Resort in the next decade or so.

After a series of concessions to answer neighborhood concerns such as housing density, traffic, open space, water and sewer impacts, the Arizona-based company won its final battle at midnight.

That's when, after a late-night public hearing before the council, Aspen won a promise from a hold-out landowner couple who granted a service-road easement across their property in exchange for guaranteed future water and sewer connections on their land.

Curt and Cindy Brown live on Oakmont Lane east of the proposed subdivision, accessing their property by two narrow dirt roads - one of them is the unimproved extension of Meadow Lake Drive. Meadow Lake Northwest would have obliterated that extension.

But with their easement, the service road will be built and provide an alternate traffic and pedestrian route to the rest of the resort.

It also will provide the emergency access route that finally could break a years-long delay in building a rural fire hall on land that Meadow Lake founder Peter Tracy donated for the purpose in the early 1980s. The fire hall would serve a much-larger rural neighborhood spreading beyond Meadow Lake, with costs shared among all homeowners in the areas served.

"It's not supported by the subdivision regulations," Aspen vice president Greg Stratton said of the service road from Meadow Lake Northwest to the east side of the resort that goes beyond what the city's subdivision regulations require, "but we fully intend to build that road.

"I think we're about 95 percent there, but we need signatures. I wish I could tell you we'll get it done, but all I can do is tell you we'll do our damnedest to get it done."

That wasn't quite good enough for council member Don Barnhart, who held out for the service road to get the fire hall.

After a bit more discussion and a five-minute break, Stratton came back with a promise to build the service road if the Browns got their promise of water and sewer connections.

It was a deal.

Several other issues had proved to be sticking points earlier in the subdivision approval process.

Traffic was a prime one. Meadow Lake Estates Homeowners Association argued that the steep, narrow Meadow Lake Drive could not handle the extra 1,500 to 1,700 vehicle trips a day expected from the 182 homes.

Earlier, city planners had demanded another ingress/egress route onto Tamarack Lane, so Aspen bought 15 acres to the west to provide a second subdivision access road onto Tamarack. It also gave room for more building lots.

Although the service road will be 20 feet wide - narrower than city standards - the subdivision's main interior roads would be 24 feet wide.

"Traffic calming" features will be included. "Slip lanes" could provide short turning lanes, circle islands could be installed at intersections, and three-way stop signs at the intersection with Golf Course Drive would slow traffic and possibly encourage motorists to use roads without stop signs.

But a 5-foot sidewalk proposed along Meadow Lake Drive will be delayed until the third and final phase, and will include a plan to mitigate homeowners' concerns about how it would interfere with steep driveways.

Aspen also developed a drainage plan that would collect runoff on-site and release it at predevelopment rates, agreed to upgrade the sewer and water utilities to handle the extra load, agreed to luminaries at fire hydrants and only downcast street lights in the future to promote the dark skies ethic, and redesigned the plat for significantly more open space through green buffer zones and gravel paths.

Ultimately, the council approved rezoning for increased density, the preliminary plat of Meadow Lake Northwest, and a pledge to grant the Browns sewer and water connections.

Mayor Jolie Fish was the lone dissent on all three counts, and council members Don Barnhart, Doug Karper, Charlie McCubbins and Harvey Reikofski favored the action. Council member Julie Plevel, a real-estate agent with Mountain View REMAX, recused herself from discussion because she has a business relationship with a neighboring property owner. Council member Mike Shepard was absent.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com.