Saying they want a firm plan for a road access to Church Drive, the Flathead County commissioners on Thursday voted 2-1 to deny the preliminary plat for a proposed subdivision on the Montana Raceway Park site north of Kalispell.

Commissioners Gary Krueger and Phil Mitchell voted against the subdivision, while Commissioner Pam Holmquist felt a primary access to U.S. 93 across from Schrade Lane would be adequate.

Thornton Motorsports LLC wants to build a 57-lot subdivision on the 40-acre property that includes the acreage where the race track currently is located. The company also has asked for a zone change from agricultural to residential zoning and wants a planned-unit development overlay on the entire property that would allow density of one dwelling unit per half-acre.

The commissioners tabled the zone-change and planned-unit development requests.

Denial of the preliminary plat will send the project back through the planning review process if the developer intends to continue.

Marc Liechti of APEC Engineering, representing Thornton Motorsports, told the commissioners his client is amenable to either the Church Drive or Schrade Road extension for the primary access. After negotiations with the affected property owners, however, there is a verbal commitment for an easement to Church Drive, but not a signed agreement.

Mitchell, who has pushed for a connection to Church Drive all along, said he is concerned about the number of accesses being developed along U.S. 93 because it’s a safety issue.

“Not using Church Drive is poor planning,” Mitchell said. “They (Thornton Motorsports) have a solution to make this better, not just for this property, but for the whole quarter-mile area … Someone spent a lot of money doing Church Drive and I expect it to be used as that area develops.”

The developer initially proposed McDermott Road as the primary access, but after concerns surfaced about whether adequate improvements could be made to that road, the Planning Board recommended that Thornton Motorsports be required to build a new road directly across from Schrade Road on the east side of U.S. 93, and use McDermott Road as an emergency secondary access.

Krueger agreed with Mitchell about the safety concern and favored the Church Drive connection.

Holmquist pointed to the thorough vetting of the application by the Planning Board and wondered if the commissioners are “almost unreasonable in our expectation to get to Church Drive.”

There was discussion about whether changing the primary access to Church Drive would constitute a material change that would force the developer to redesign the subdivision and therefore prompt a restart of the subdivision review.

Deputy County Attorney Tara Fugina said her concern is that if the access points are changed, neighboring property owners who were notified about the initial plan “may have different positions based on the access changes.”

Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or lhintze@dailyinterlake.com.