Kalispell City Council heard from a handful of opponents of a proposed North Kalispell high-density subdivision during a public hearing Monday.

Named the Reserve at Johnson Ranch, the development would see 186 single-family lots and two multi-family lots — one containing 237 units and the other with up to 70. The nearly 92-acre area adjacent to the Owl View Landing condominiums sits at the northwest corner of the intersection of Stillwater Road and Old Reserve Drive. 

Community members expressed concern that the pair of two-lane roads are unable to support the increased traffic and warned that car and pedestrian crashes would follow.  

“How can you put it in that area with that small, narrow of a road?” asked George Waters, a Harvest View Lane resident. 

The developers plan to reconstruct Stillwater Road with a center two-way left turn lane, according to a traffic impact study conducted by Abelin Traffic Services. The approach on West Reserve Drive is planned as a right in/out only approach.  

Community members said students often speed out of nearby Glacier High School onto the roads while large gravel trucks regularly travel to and from an excavation site just north.  

“It just doesn’t make sense. It seems to me that it’d be very, very dangerous,” Waters said. 

Bob White, a resident on Farm to Market Road who grew up near the proposed development, said that many people, himself included, have had to get pulled from a ditch either after driving off the two 90-degree turns further north on Stillwater Road or getting run off the pavement by a gravel truck.  

“Slamming 500 units into an already desperately undeveloped infrastructure area is a recipe for disaster,” White said.  

Kyle Voigtlander, who is running for the Ward 3 Council seat in the upcoming election, opposed the subdivision, saying that Kalispell does not need more homes. He echoed sentiments that the streets are not fit for increased traffic.  

Developers Spartan Holdings LLC, a California-based company, and Whispering Trails LLC are requesting annexation, a growth policy amendment, initial zoning of residential, residential apartment and neighborhood business with a planned unit development overlay and preliminary plat approval.  

The subdivision would include a commercial space for a grocery store and small retail shops meant to serve the neighborhood and ease traffic from other business areas around the city. 

The project is projected to be built in multiple phases over the next 12 years, with the first phase starting in fall 2025. 

Council is expected to vote on the proposal during its Aug. 4 regular meeting.  

NORTH MERIDIAN Road resident Ron Albrecht during the general public comment period complained about unkept lawns, speeding and homeless people roaming up and down the thoroughfare.  

“Montana’s already California. We’ll never get Montana back, never the way it was back in 1990 when I moved here from Eastern Montana. It’s just gone,” he said.  

He also said he has been trying to get his sidewalk repaired the past several summers but to no avail.  

Reporter Jack Underhill may be reached at 758-4407 and [email protected].