The St. Ignatius Town Council granted preliminary approval for phases one and two of the McCready subdivision off Airport Road, with two amendments, during its most recent meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 17.  

The St. Ignatius Planning and Zoning Board recommended approval to council with the conditions that it is within the city limits, meets the minimum lot requirements, connects to city water and that the roads are maintained by the owner.  

The council’s amendments included not requiring phases one and two to be connected to city water and sewer, and no expectation of road maintenance until further review by the planning board. Councilman Steve McCollum noted that this will allow future residents to choose whether to construct their own well and septic system or connect to the town's system. However, Clay McCready, the developer, said he plans to connect these phases to the city’s water and sewer systems.    

The property was annexed into the city limits last year and meets the minimum lot requirements. Scott Morton, the town’s public works director and chair of the Planning and Zoning Board, explained that connecting to city water and road maintenance was previously discussed with the owner. 

Clay and his mother, Claudia McCready, purchased the 30-acre property before the COVID pandemic and have been working on the subdivision since then. The current subdivision plat has 18 lots, with lot sizes ranging from 0.75 to three acres.  

Clay explained that they have “been through the absolute ringer” with Lake County on this project. He added that the previous town council was not interested in adding it to the city limits, but the current council sought annexation. 

He said that being annexed into the city limits hasn’t changed much, other than requiring them to reengineer or resubmit some paperwork.  

Clay said the next step is to send the preliminary approval to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality. He explained that as long as there are no hiccups with DEQ, they will bring it back to the council for final plat approval. Once they receive final approval, Clay said they should be able to start selling phases one and two.  

For additional lots outside of phases one and two, approximate well location and septic systems will be engineered. He added that this is a general plan, but a larger house would change the septic requirements.