The Flathead County Planning Board will consider recommending preliminary plat approval for two large subdivisions at its meeting on Wednesday, July 8, at 6 p.m. in the second floor conference room of the Flathead County South Campus Building.

The board will discuss a 50-acre subdivision along Montana 35, just west of the intersection with Montana 206. Applicants and owners Robert and Donna Fink, with technical representation from Sand Surveying, are looking to create 38 residential lots and two commercial lots on the subject property.

The subdivision, named Countryside Estates Phase 2, would be adjacent to Country Estates Phase 1, a 28-lot subdivision directly to the east. The new subdivision would connect to the public water supply and septic systems established in Phase 1.

The property is currently an operating nursery and is covered in trees.

Primary access to the subdivision would be via an internal road off Montana 35. In its statement in the Planning Office staff report, the Creston Rural Fire Department commented that this “will only make this a more dangerous stretch of roadway to the traveling public.”

The fire department states “it would seem reasonable” that there be a requirement for a new left turn lane, as there was for Phase 1. But just to the west of the subject property, there is no left-turn lane into a series of other properties and “many close calls and several crashes have occurred.”

However, the planning office’s staff report found the road system “appears to be acceptable.”

The board also will consider a 16-lot subdivision next to Prairie View Road between Whitefish and Kalispell. The property totals 80 acres and is divided into four tracts of land.

A plan submitted with the application indicates the lots would be developed in four phases, with the final phase expected to be completed by 2036. The developers would build a new road – Baker Heights Drive – to provide access to the lots.

If the board forwards recommendations of approval for the proposals, the proposals will be considered for final approval by the Flathead County commissioners.