A mobile home park in Happy Valley is looking to expand by adding 30 home spaces.  

The request for expansion goes before the Flathead County Board of Adjustment on Tuesday, Feb. 4. The board meets at 6 p.m. in the second-floor conference room of the South Campus Building at 40 11th St. W. in Kalispell. 

The Forest Acres Mobile Home Park, which contains 100 spaces for manufactured homes, is seeking a conditional use permit to allow for the expansion of the park located off U.S. 93 South. The new home sites would consume an additional 4 acres of the 85-acre parcel. Almost half of the new proposed spaces would be infill, dispersed within the existing park and the others would be placed along a new road within the park.  

The new road would allow access to 16 new spaces and be located on the western edge of the property below a natural bench.  

The mobile home park is within the Blanchard Lake Zoning District and is zoned AG-20 but predates the district’s implementation and is therefore considered a legal, nonconforming use. The park received preliminary plat approval in 1974 and then a second preliminary plat was approved in 1992 for adding 14 spaces, but that was never realized.  

Since the mid-1990s no other attempts to expand have been made, according to the county planning report.  

ALSO ON the agenda, the Board of Adjustment will consider a conditional use permit request to allow for a 150-foot-tall cellular tower at 425 Echo Creek Road near Bigfork. Rocky Mountain Towers is requesting the permit on behalf of property owner Nancy Crans.  

The roughly 10-acre property includes a single-family home, garage and outbuilding. Surrounding properties are primarily residential or undeveloped. The tower would be painted a forest green and located inside a 50-foot by 50-foot area enclosed by an 8-foot-high fence on the northeastern portion of the parcel. 

The request was initially submitted as an administrative conditional use permit, but based on public comment concerns was moved to the Board of Adjustment. Comments included concerns regarding the health risks of electromagnetic and radio frequency waves, the unsightliness of the tower and obstruction of views, concern about lighting and the location of the tower within a rural area.  

Questions also arose regarding the legality of access to Echo Creek Road, which commenters says has no existing easements to the property and commercial use would violate easement terms as the section is owned by the Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation.  

In addition, concerns were raised that Echo Creek Road is inadequate to accommodate commercial use because its travel surface is about 10 to 15 feet wide, has sharp turns and drivers must use pull-offs in certain areas to allow other cars to pass.  

Deputy Editor Heidi Desch may be reached at 758-4421 or [email protected].