The Flathead County Planning Board starts the new year with public hearings Jan. 10 on two proposed subdivisions in the Kalispell area.

Tyler Apgar and Tonia Gardner are asking for preliminary-plat approval of a 31-lot subdivision on 42.7 acres of farmland along Trumble Creek Road. The lots would range in size from 1 to 2 acres and would be served by on-site septic systems and water wells.

The property has been used for agricultural production of wheat and intermittently for canola.

A number of subdivisions have been developed in the Trumble Creek Road area over the years. The River Retreat subdivision was completed in 1994, and Whitefish River Ranch was finished in 2007. Sweetgrass No. 1 was completed in 2003; Trumble Creek Estates in 2006, Northern Lights Meadows in 2003 and two Glacier Ranch phases in 2007 and 2016.

In the West Valley area, Bruce Tutvedt is asking for preliminary-plat approval of a six-lot subdivision on 38 acres of pasture and agricultural land along Farm to Mark Road, north of Clark Drive. The development would be served by individual water wells and septic systems, with primary access from Farm to Market Road for two of the lots, and Canola Road for the four other lots.

The property is located within the jurisdiction of the West Valley Land Use Advisory Committee, but since the committee doesn’t have a quorum, no public hearing was scheduled at the committee level, according to the Planning Office staff report.

A third public hearing is a request from Monte Klindt for a zoning map amendment in the Evergreen Zoning District. The amendment would change the zoning on a tract of land at 2149 U.S. 2 E. from one-family limited residential and general business/Evergreen enterprise overlay, to residential apartment zoning.

The property is currently undeveloped and wooded, and lies within the 100-year floodplain. Klindt intends to get a floodplain development permit for structural fill on the property, according to the planning staff report. Multifamily dwellings are a conditional use in a residential apartment zoning district and require review through the conditional-use permit process.

The Planning Board makes recommendations to the county commissioners, who make the final decision on subdivision and zoning requests. The board meets at 6 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 10, in the second-floor conference room of the South Campus Building, 40 11th St. W. in Kalispell.

Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or [email protected].