The Lake County Planning Board gave the Milhous Group a mixed response to revised development plans for the historic Kootenai Lodge property on Swan Lake.

A revised road plan for the development is fine, but an off-site sewage disposal system and lower housing density for the project were recommended for denial on a 4-3 vote last week in Polson.

The board's recommendations will be considered by Lake County commissioners at 10 a.m. April 4.

The Milhous Group, a development firm based in Boca Raton, Fla., and headed by part-time Swan Lake resident Paul Milhous is considering how to proceed with the mixed messages from the Planning Board, according to planning consultant Dave DeGrandpre.

On the one hand, the Milhous Group has preliminary plat approval to proceed with a 57-unit development, provided it meets conditions that include an adequate sewage disposal system.

On the other hand, the planning board voted against a revised plan for a 42-unit development that was designed to address neighbors' concerns about project density and to have less impact on the Kootenai Lodge property.

"My feeling is that all of these changes make the project a better one," DeGrandpre said. "Is there a logical reason not to go to 42? I can't think of one. If you're reducing the impacts, why wouldn't they support it?"

Peter Leander, president of the Swan Lakers community group, said the reduced density was bundled with a proposed sewage system for the Planning Board's vote, which likely affected the outcome. The Swan Lakers and Planning Board members, he said, have concerns about the proposed sewage system and that the development's density is still too high.

"The Kootenai plan needs to be consistent with the surrounding community, which is one unit per acre and a half, which translates into 27 units," he said.

The Milhous Group also did not downsize its plans for a marina with 24 boat slips.

"We believe there should at a maximum 12 boat slips," Leander said. "That's a huge, huge public safety issue."

The Kootenai Lodge is at the northern end of Swan Lake, where waters are shallow and the shorelines narrow into the Swan River. The picturesque lodge was a famous destination for the likes of Charles Lindbergh and Charlie Russell during the early part of the past century.

Milhous's residential development proposal for the property stirred up instant controversy among neighboring landowners who went on to form the Swan Lakers.

Preliminary plat approval was granted by the county commissioners last spring, with the major obstacle of producing an adequate sewage disposal plan. The Milhous Group originally had proposed piping waste down the Swan Lake shoreline to a plant in the Ridge subdivision.

But homeowners in that subdivision amended their covenants to prohibit sewage treatment facilities.

That prompted the Milhous Group to find an alternative site, a 35-acre property east of Montana 83 just off Broken Leg Road. Located about 1,100 feet from the Kootenai Lodge property, the site is farther from the lake and other surface water, DeGrandpre noted.

But Leander says a consultant hired by the Swan Lakers has found that plans for the facility lack detail. There is concern that the facility could have impacts on a shallow aquifer that may feed springs that emerge along the Swan River, he added.

DeGrandpre said the Milhous Group is considering the best way to present the project, in light of the board's recommendations, at the April 4 commission meeting.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com