Friday, September 25, 2009 8:45:56 PM
Is this IWS SBR half full, or half empty?
MISSOULA BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PUBLIC MEETING/PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION – JUNE 10, 2009, VERBATIM TRANSCRIPTION OF ITEM #6, HEARING: PEAK FITNESS TENNIS FACILITY USE VARIANCE REQUEST WITHIN CIZD #43
Chair Bill Carey: Okay, next we have a hearing with the Planning and Zoning Commission on the Peak Fitness Tennis Facility; this is a use variance request within the CIZD #43-R. I’ll open the hearing and, you are…who’s…
Jamie Erbacher: Jamie.
Chair Bill Carey: Jamie?
Jamie Erbacher: Okay, Territorial Landworks is here today representing the Peak Fitness Center; Andy Short, mainly, but there are a couple other representatives here as well. And this is for a use variance to allow a recreational facility with ZD 43 Residential subdistrict, which currently does not permit commercial uses. The property does not have an address, but is legally described as Tract B of Packwest Addition Lot 2A and Tracts B, C, and D. The parcel is currently vacant. In the past, the site has received material excavated from a nearby development with some subsequent gravel extraction. The parcel and Peak’s existent parcel, Tract 1 COS 3267 have been approved for a boundary relocation; however, at this point, the boundary line relocation has not been filed. This request for the Peak is for the 4.64 parcel that is proposed and approved for the boundary line relocation. The remaining 13.28 acres of the original parcel is proposed to be developed by Watson’s Children Center at a later date.
Section 8 of ZD#43 allows the variance to be granted after a public hearing before the Missoula County Planning and Zoning Commission; the Board of County Commissioners may authorize variances, which will not be contrary to the public interest where, owing to special conditions, literal enforcement would result in an unnecessary hardship. The applicant and their representatives have not fully designed the proposed building, but have provided a conceptual plan, building elevation, and floor plan. The plan for the new facility includes five, not seven, like my staff report says, indoor tennis courts, three outdoor tennis courts (my staff report says two), six racquetball courts, showers, and parking facilities. This plan will also allow for a future expansion of two indoor tennis facilities.
The Peak Fitness Center has been working jointly with Watson Children’s Center to obtain this site. During project review of this site, it was discovered that the aquifer beneath this 17.92-acre parcel, which is the full parcel, and the surrounding area was found to have elevated nitrite and chloride levels to the point where Montana Department of Environmental Control Air Quality would define the aquifer as contaminated. It is believed that the aquifer has been impacted by continued subsurface sanitary sewer disposal practices. Montana DEQ regulations prohibits future introduction of sanitary sewer effluent into the ground on this parcel. In order to correct the problem, Peak and Watson Children’s Center will modify the existing effluent treatment facility to include a sequencing batch reactor system. This will treat the existing effluent and the anticipated effluent volumes. Given the expense factor of the necessary system Watson Children’s Center, a local non-profit, who provides emergency care to youth 14 and under, they are considered a large stakeholder in the granting of this variance request.
Without the approval of this request, the Peak’s Tennis Facility will not be able to locate on the proposed parcel and Watson’s Children Center will not be able to afford the necessary effluent system alone and therefore will not be able to locate on the desired location as well. Without this approval, the neighborhood and community will also be continued to be impacted by the degraded aquifer.
The Office of Planning and Grants is recommending approval of this variance.
I’m now going to go through some of my Findings of Facts and Conclusions of Law.
The first is going to be based on the authorization of this variance and the fact that it will not be contrary to the public interest. A voluntary neighborhood meeting was held on April 7, 2009 with 64 neighboring property owners were invited to attend. Of those invited, 12 property owners attended. Of the questions asked at this meeting, only one question was directly related to the Tennis Facility being located at this proposed site and that was dealing with the increased traffic. Sixteen neighbors within a 300-foot radius of the 17.92-acre parcel were notified of the variance request. None of these neighbors responded negatively to the proposal. As of this date, the Office of Planning and Grants has not received any other concern from the public regarding this use being
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located on the parcel. No negative feedback has been received from Public Works, Missoula Rural Fire, the Health Department, the Sheriff’s Office, or the County Attorney’s Office. County Public Works has commented, though, that they would like sidewalks along Buckhouse Lane and this is going to provide for public safety and possibly future connectivity. The Territorial Landworks has also been working with Brent Christopherson of Missoula Rural Fire and providing access for fire and fire protection, they are currently looking at doing an access road off Blue Mountain Road and working with Public Works on that to get that approval. The Peak Tennis Facility will be the only facility in Missoula that provides an indoor tennis facility and the only indoor racquetball facility other than the University of Montana. Watson Children’s Center has to turn away children at this moment. By allowing the Peak Tennis Facility to locate on this parcel, Watson Children’s Center will be able to obtain the neighboring property and provide shelter for several more children within Missoula County. By allowing the use variance, an opportunity arises to improve the water quality of the aquifer in this area. The Office of Planning and Grants does have the authority given by Zoning District 43, Section 4, for general provisions in the subdistrict to review for parking, landscaping, and signage restrictions.
So based on these Findings of Facts, we’ve come to the following conclusions:
• The fact that none of the neighboring properties or agencies responded negatively to this proposal, it is found that this variance will not be contrary to the public interest.
• The new facility will increase the recreational opportunity of Missoula residents.
• The new facility will in turn help Watson Children’s Center locate nearby and ultimately provide more needed housing for children.
• The aquifer for the neighboring residents, especially those downstream, will benefit from a cleaner aquifer if the use variance is approved.
• And the last one for here is public health and safety have been and will continue to be review if this use is granted.
And the next set of Findings of Fact that I would like to go through is based on the Literal Enforcement of the Zoning District that would result in a clearly established and unnecessary hardship where special conditions do exist for this parcel.
As permitted by Zoning District #43, Residential, eight single-family dwelling residences could be developed on this 17.92 acre parcel; however, the aquifer beneath is property and the surrounding area has been found to have elevated nitrite and chloride levels to the point where DEQ has to find the aquifer is contaminated. Because of this, DEQ will not allow any further introduction of sanitary sewer effluent into the ground on this parcel. The Peak and Watson Children’s Center have proposed to install a Sequencing Batch Reactor system that would treat the existing effluent and anticipate the effluent volumes to drinking water standards for nitrate. A residential development would require a Sequencing Batch Reactor system that is not traditional for this type of development and would be costly and unreasonable for homeowners to maintain and have monitored. By continuing to prohibit commercial uses at this site, the property will continue to be burdened with the degraded aquifer and the property owner will likely have an undeveloped parcel for an unknown amount of time. This property is not within the Missoula wastewater treatment plant service area and because of this diminishes the possibility of connecting to city sewer. Watson’s Children Center is a large stakeholder in the approval of this variance and if this variance is not granted, Watson’s will not be able to local on the remainder of the parcel due to their inability to pay for the required effluent treatment system.
Based on those findings, we’ve come to the following Conclusions of Law:
• Due to the substandard quality of the aquifer on this parcel, and additional requirements to approve and develop this site, it is found that an unnecessary hardship exists for the property owner.
• Allowing this variance request will provide a remediation to the degraded aquifer.
• By allowing the variance request, two developments will benefit, along with the entire community of Missoula.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you, Jamie.
James McCubbin: Commissioners, I’d just like to ask Jamie a couple of questions to clarify the record on the scope of this use variance. We have some information in the record that was provided by Territorial, that I think was just kind of a description and may be inaccurate. It’s a color photo, an aerial photo, and it says, “Proposed non-residential Watson Children’s Center” but in fact, this is going to be a residential facility for Watson’s, is that correct?
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Jamie Erbacher: Correct. Correct, under state law, we can review as a residential facility, and therefore it is a permitted and allowed use with this zoning district.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: So it’s marked incorrectly on that map?
Jamie Erbacher: Yes.
James McCubbin: And so the only use variance that’s needed is for the Tennis Facility, not for Watson’s.
Jamie Erbacher: Correct.
James McCubbin: Thank you.
Jamie Erbacher: And the only reason that they’ve shown the two together is because of the fact that there are going to be using the same Batch Reactor system.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you. James, as a technical matter, I think I goofed a little bit. She made a presentation to the Board of County Commissioners when in fact we’re looking at the Planning and Zoning Commission.
James McCubbin: You know, you opened this as the hearing that is noticed on the agenda.
Chair Bill Carey: Okay.
James McCubbin: I think that was a little ambiguous, so it’s worth noting for the record that we’re acting as the Planning and Zoning Commission in this case.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: So we recess the one?
Chair Bill Carey: So we’ll recess as the Board of County Commissioners and become with three additional folks the Planning and Zoning Commission: They are Sylvia Weisenburger, Vickie Zeier, and Greg Robertson, along with the three County Commissioners, so we are now the Planning and Zoning Commission, and we’ve all heard your presentation. And…do we have any question from any of the other commission members right now, are you okay? All right, is there a presentation in support of this proposal?
Andy Short: A request. Andy Short, Territorial Landworks.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: You can just pull a chair up, Andy, if you’d like.
Andy Short: Thank you very much. First off, I just want to thank Jamie Erbacher for all her help on this project, it was one of the pleasant experiences I’ve had with OPG, so thank you very much.
Here’s an aerial view of the parcel in question (where’s my cursor?). Here’s Montana Homefitters, Highway 93, the existing Peak Fitness Center, Norco Products, here’s Blue Mountain Road, and this is the property in question right here. And this is about where it will be located, and Watson’s will be located right here. So this is the site layout that you have had to review and that OPG has reviewed. This was the initial site layout that we came up with; since then an architect’s been hired, we’ve met with, you know, OPG’s review this, County Public Works has reviewed this and the Fire Department has review this and so it’s changed slightly and this is the revised the site layout and you’ll notice that there’s now a fire access road at the top. And the building itself is almost exactly the same except for a few modifications, so I just wanted to…the drawing has been cleaned up somewhat. These are the five indoor tennis courts, the two that are proposed in the future, the three outdoor tennis courts. Here’s the six racquetball courts, lobby, locker rooms, additional parking and the Watson Children’s Center right here with their additional parking.
This is a conceptual drawing of the building from Blue Mountain Road. So, if you’re standing on Blue Mountain Road, you’re looking at the side of the building. This dashed line represents the fill material that’s out there, that exists, so this is existing grade. So the building is supposed to be set inside the hill somewhat. This…this proposed grade doesn’t really represent what we’re planning to do, this is going to change somewhat in the future, but it is going to sit into the hillside and we’re dealing with a requirement of not having greater than 30 feet
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from proposed grade to the top of this building, so we’re going to have to work with that on the side of this building.
This is the boundary line relocation exhibit that was approved, existing Peak Fitness Center, the property in question and then this is the new boundary line was approved. It has not been filed yet, this is in process. This is the zoning exhibit, ZD18, which is where the Peak currently exists and commercial is allowed in ZD18 a certain distance from Highway 93. ZD43 is commercial and this is the residential and this is the area that we’re asking for the variance from use.
We had a neighborhood meeting on April 7 at the Emmanuel Baptist Church. Jamie had said we invited 64 property owners, I think 12 property owners showed up and we discussed a variety of topics, traffic concerns, law enforcement, why this location for the Watson’s, the number of children at the shelter, the involvement with the University of Montana Tennis Team, why we weren’t connecting to city sewer, proposed septics…people were wondering about the proposed septic system that we were proposing and the aquifer information that we discovered beneath the parcel and we just answered these questions. Jim Carlson from the County Health Department was there, and he answered a lot of questions that were asked.
As Jamie said, ZD43 allows the Board of County Commissioners to grant variances if they ‘re not contrary to public interest owing to special conditions literal enforcement would result in an unnecessary hardship. So I want to go into the decision criteria.
So Number one, commercial use fits this area and that’s my exhibit that I’ve gotten more grief about than anything I’ve ever created, I think. And I’ve changed it somewhat but the line is hypothetical boundary of commercial use that exists out there and like James was discussing about Watson’s, you know, it’s not considered commercial, but it is a place where people come to work and it’s not your family of four home, so that’ll be different than just your regular residential use. There’s the church, Norco, Fitness Center and then the commercial retail sale: Montana Homefitter right there. So it fits the area. It’s not we’re bringing a Tennis Facility into the University Area.
The existing grades are not conducive to residential use. As Jamie was saying, it’s a fill site and gravel has been taken from the site. Buckhouse Lane is sized for commercial use; it’s an 80-foot right-of-way. I believe its 46 feet from back-of-curb to back-of-curb. And there’s a picture of Buckhouse, you can kind of get an idea of Buckhouse Lane there. And the other picture is of where the gravel has been extracted, you can see that putting residential homes in there doesn’t quite fit as much as putting a large commercial building that would bit into the hillside there.
Currently the size of parcel we’re talking about, you would be allowed nine single-family residential homes. But, of course, you would be saying you’re going to put nine single-family residential homes on a degraded aquifer, so they would have to find a place to put their sewer and they would have to find a place to put their…or get their water from and as we discussed before, this is a degraded aquifer and Jason Rice, from Territorial Landworks is going to go into this further. So those nine residential…single-family residential homes would have to somehow come up with an idea of how they’re going to treat their sewage and it would just be unfeasible, the cost would just be prohibitive. The property is not within the Missoula wastewater treatment service area, so it’s never planned that it would receive city sewer. It’s a unique situation where we have three entities who are working together to remediate this aquifer. If the variance is not granted, the aquifer has no immediate hopes of being remediated. And with that, I’m going to turn this over to Jason Rice, Territorial Landworks.
Jason Rice: Jason Rice, Territorial Landworks. And Andy, maybe you can kind of use the mouse, you know kind of what I’m talking about. You can see in the green, all the septics in the area and what I want to do is just quickly talk about why the aquifer issue is such a key component to this. Because one of the first people…the first people we talked to were DEQ and the Missoula County Health Department. So you can see all the green areas that you kind of pointed out a couple of those, Andy. Those are all drain fields. And what we did was we took at look at where the water was flowing and all those fine lines on there are contours. It’s actually very difficult to develop an accurate groundwater contour map in this area, due to the characteristics of the soil below there, but this is the best we could do with the resources we had. The water probably flows in many different var…directions, but in general, this is the way it goes. There’s a couple wells, there’s a well actually immediately downgraded that’s actually on where the outdoor tennis courts are going to go and that actually 15 parts per million nitrites; over a 5-year period it’s been measure several times and it’s always been the same…pretty similarly, pretty same. The state drinking water quality standard is 10 parts per million, just for people to understand where that sits. Normally at the end of a drain field mixing zone, they only allow 7½ parts per million for the kind of system we’re putting in here. So it’s well over that standard. But what we found is that further out, there’s even other wells that are worse then the well that’s close to the drain field at Peak. So going out near the corner where the Blue Mountain makes the sweep, there’s a well there that had, I think 17 or maybe very similar, 15, 16, 17, we’ve measure it a couple times. And right across the street, we had up to 19 parts per million. Normally as you get further from the drain field that should go down. So what we’re finding is in addition to natural nitrates in the water, all the other drain fields in the area, we’re seeing some higher elevated nitrates, so what we were faced with is how do we put more water somewhere out there from drain fields and effluent for not further degrade that situation. So we looked into a lot of ideas and you…this is…I guess I won't kid anybody it’s an expensive situation…or solution. But IWS, International Wastewater Systems, is supplementing or offering their system at a reduced rate just sort of for the publicity and the goodwill and good grace of what their doing, so I think they’re pretty much at cost for what they’re doing for the sewer treatment plant. As it turns out, the way the property is, I guess, being offered to Watson’s, there’s some availability of budget to help sewer budget side of things, I guess you’d say, there’s more money available for that side of the budget. And then with the additional development of the…it’s beneficial to the Peak; they can also increase their capacity for treatment, so. By adding this system, you actually get to reduce the drain field area in half. And so I want to move on and kind of keep things moving fast, I’m sure there will be some questions. Let’s go to the next slide real quick.
Because DEQ allows you to reduce your drain field in half, so this is kind of partly where some of the savings come in, we don’t have to build a new drain field, we have to rehabilitate it a little bit. The existing system was approved for 6800 gallons per day and we’re going to be putting out estimated 12,136 gallons per day with the development, so common sense would tell you we’re actually going to be, you know, increasing the nutrient load. But what it turns out is with treatment…so we had to get DEQ kind of onboard with the idea that its nutrient loading that’s the important part, not flows. So, currently, on a yearly basis, they’d be putting out 146 pounds of phosphorus, roughly, and that’s based on some real numbers; and then 693 pounds per years of nitrites. And so that’s with the flows that were approved by DEQ. The proposed system will only be putting out 112 pounds per year of phosphorus, the system treats some phosphorus but not…it’s not, I guess, reportedly the best, but that’s not really the issue we have here. But the big one is the nitrates. We’re actually going to be able to reduce our nitrates by a pretty significant amount, you know, on the two-thirds or so removal. So that’s a pretty big number. So what that means is that we’re going to…that number I said earlier, 7 ½ parts per million at the end of a mixing zone…we’re going to meet that number at the trench, at the pipe. So the water coming out of the pipe will meet what they normally allow you to do 500 feet away from your drainfield. So that’s a pretty big thing. That actually will help, because the 7 ½ is actually lower than the 15, you’re actually going to be diluting the groundwater to a certain degree depending upon the amount of flux or flow that you got passing on to the side. So next slide.
So, I guess with that, I’m going to open it for questions. Later, I think that a lot of this is intriguing or interesting, but probably not the most important part. But I think Watson’s is here to talk about their role that they are playing in this and why this is an important site. I think that question has been asked is why here and also what they do. I think there’s been some concerns of well, if this is the enabler of Watson’s, what does that do to our neighborhood, even though, they could come in if the sewer wasn’t an issue. So we really felt that it was important for the neighbors along the way so we think it’s just as important for this Board to understand why it’s an important piece to the community. So I have…Fran is here to talk about that a little bit. Thank you.
Fran Albrecht: Hi, I’m Fran Albrecht, Executive Director of Watson’s Children Shelter and we’re very excited about this opportunity that has presented itself to us. We have been looking for over…it’s coming up on four years for a second site as we’ve continued to turn away children in need of emergency shelter due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment. And we are now turning away as many of, on average, 3-4 children a week because of this need when some of the sites that we looked at were not in the Missoula County Public School District. Missoula County Public School District provides excellent services that will continue to serve our children and provide exactly what they need; and so that was our primary concern was finding a location in the Missoula County Public School District. The other sites that we looked at were outside of that, some of the ones that were in that, within the school district, were exorbitant amounts that were cost-prohibitive. When we…Jim Mostad has been a long time supporter of Watson Children’s Center, well beyond when I started 12 years ago and when he let us know about this site that might be available and we explored that and the site is wonderful. One thing is that we’re not…we’re not a facility that needs were neighbors. What I mean is that we’ve got our own happy neighborhood right there, within our house, and so we don’t necessarily interact with our neighborhood. Our kids are kind of coming and going to school, they’re having visits at the shelter—structured visits with parents when the courts allow it, they’re doing activities and such. So that site, we prefer not to be in a neighborhood, quite frankly, because we don’t have a need for neighbors. I don’t know how to better put that. The fact that this
location and this land was affordable for us at a very discounted price made it possible for us to proceed with our current campaign plans and it fit within our business plan. We are thrilled by the fact that Jim Mostad and especially Territorial Landworks has worked so diligently to develop this site so that there could be a possibility for us, because quite frankly, I don’t have any other options. The other land availability are just simply cost-prohibitive or won't work for what our plans are. I just want to thank everybody that’s here today and we’re excited that Peak has partnered up because obviously this is a win-win for the neighborhood and certainly an opportunity for us to present a solution to Missoula and western Montana children who are in need of our care. Thank you.
James McCubbin: Commissioners, if you don’t mind, I would just like to add on behalf of the County Attorney’s office. I’m not actively doing this work anymore, but for about the first year and half that I was with the Missoula County Attorney’s office I was doing primarily child abuse and neglect cases and observed a number of the kids who have had the benefit of staying at Watson’s and there’s a definite need for that a definite benefit from it. And I’m not aware of any negative impacts on, you know, neighbors that kids that Watson’s have had. So what that’s worth.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you, James. Anybody else wish to speak to this? It’s a public hearing. Please step forward, sir.
Robin Peters: Hi, my name is Robin Peters, P E T E R S, and the views I’m expressing are my own views and views of the Missoula handball association and Missoula handball family. Presently, there are no permanent courts in Missoula, except for the university, which not everybody has access to and so we are really excited not only that the University of Montana Tennis Team will have a place to practice. The Children’s Center, obviously, is a wonderful thing for Missoula and also that the handball family will now have a place to play and it sure looks like a wonderful facility and we’re really excited about it, so. It’s a win-win-win for everybody; I can’t see any downside to it. So I just wanted to express myself. Thank you.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you.
Margo Belden: Hi, I’m Margo Belden, B E L D E N, and I’m here to represent…I’m president of the Garden City Tennis Association here in Missoula and the surrounding areas of Missoula and in that capacity we represent between we estimate 350 to 500 tennis players in this community and needless to say, we’ve lost our indoor facility at the Mack we were all not only deeply saddened and had no place to play, some of us were driving as far as Hamilton and Kalispell every morning to play tennis, us diehards, some of us diehards. But our mission statement in GCTA is to promote tennis for all levels, all ages, in the Missoula area. That is a difficult thing to do if you don’t have an indoor facility to play in winter, it really…especially for our juniors…we see a lot of junior kids who can only play in the warm seasons, the outdoor seasons, and if they want to compete for college scholarships or such, they’re really at a disadvantage and we’ve seen that with some of our top junior players. So we are very excited about the possibility of having indoor tennis again. Not just for us older players but for our youth and the university as well. So I really encourage you, urge you, please to support this. Thank you.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you.
Paul Polzim: My name is Paul Polzim, P O L Z I M, and I’d like to make two points: the current management of the Peak also owns athletic clubs here in Montana and Great Falls and elsewhere in the northwest. They are well known for being well managed, a very, very good facilities. So their management has been sound and their planning ahs been sound. And in the conceptual stage of this building, they reached out to us, to potential users, we had several meetings, we offered some input, they listened to us, and so I’m very confident that if this facility is approved, it will be well runned and the members and the community will be well-served by this kind of facility. Thank you very much.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you.
Miles Whipple: My name is Miles Whipple, the past president of Garden City Tennis; you spell Whipple, W H I P P L E. I want to second everything that Margo said. It was eight or nine years ago, it took a joint effort of Missoula City Schools, Missoula City, Missoula County, and lots of dedicated tennis players to rebuild 20 tennis courts in Missoula. Prior to that, we had almost no tennis in Missoula, other than the indoor facility. Now we have no indoor facility; however, we have impacted outside tennis. We have juniors…you can’t get a court in Missoula during the high school season. These are kids who are, you know, playing a sport that’s rely…you know, we are
gaining scholarships to places like University of Texas, this is something you can’t have without tennis and we really applaud Peak for trying to bring tennis to us indoors for the winter. Thanks.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you. Any additional comment?
Chris Nord: My name is Chris Nord, N O R D, I’m the tennis coach for the University of Montana, coach the men and women for 24 years, now the last three years just the men’s. So I’m also speaking on behalf of Steve Asher, who’s the women’s tennis coach at the University. From our viewpoint, having Peak come in with an indoor tennis facility allows us to have programs that can thrive at the University for the kids, a place to practice. We just completed a year where we played all of our matches on the road. To have an indoor facility would allow our student athletes to host some home matches, stay in class longer, have a place to train. It’s really…it will allow us to continue the programs at the University of Montana. We are scratching to stay afloat right now. And I don’t want to just speak on behalf of the University of Montana; I coached tennis and taught tennis in Missoula since 1974. I’ve worked with the juniors, the adult programs, I have two boys who play tennis, and not having a place to play indoors really cuts off all the programs. You don’t have any continuity, you get the kids excited in the summer, we’ve run camps on campus the last few summers and there’s a waiting…there’s people on the bleachers waiting for courts which is, that’s a change from ten years ago. The tennis boom is back in Missoula. Our high school participation numbers are through the roof. I go to the high school practices, I went to the high school state tournament, and Missoula’s participation is phenomenal, especially when you figure that we do not have an indoor in places like Hamilton, Kalispell, Helena, Bozeman, Great Falls and Billings do. It’s a green business that I hope we can support and I know that it will impact everyone, not just the University, but the junior and adult segments, also. So thank you.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you. Who else would like to speak?
Mary Stranahan: My name is Mary Stranahan and I’m just a self-interested tennis junkie. And I just want to emphasize that is an economic development. I’m saying we have tennis tournaments here; people come from all over the state and sometimes outside of the state to play tennis tournaments, so it adds benefit to the entire community, whether you’re a tennis player or not.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you. Anybody else like to speak to this?
Doug Mahlum: My name is Doug Mahlum, M A H L U M, and I’m one of the owners of the Peak and I just wanted to say that all of us: Jack Tawny, Charlie and Mary Lynn Eismann and myself, we’re all Missoula people, raised in Missoula and we’ve gone various different ways but have gravitated back towards here to open the Peak. Because we do care about Missoula and we care about what happens in Missoula and a tennis center a lot of times isn’t the most financial lucrative thing to build but part of what we’re trying to do is make sure that the youth and the families in Missoula have a place to play tennis, have a place to meet and have a place to recreate. So if you would approve this that would be a wonderful thing for Missoula and would be great for the Watson Home and I just want to thank you for your consideration.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you. Anyone else? Anybody else wish to speak to this. Doesn’t look like it. Members of the Planning and Zoning Commission, any questions or comments? Commissioner Curtiss.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: I think that the one has been addressed, the…the system has been approved by the Department of Environmental Quality, is that right, Jason?
Jason Rice: The system requires a discharge permit and that permit has been written in a draft format and issued for public comment, which means the DEQ has accepted the system short of any negative public comment. To my knowledge, I think that is just running out right about now; there hasn’t been any that I have heard of. As far as the plan review goes, that’s still in progress, but it’s looking good. Last we heard everything looked good from DEQ. So, things are moving forward and hoping to have approvals in hand by no later than August 1.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: So then I have a follow up to that. Because the rest of ZD43 is zoned for residential, will future residents be able to connect to this system, if that’s developed residentially.
Jason Rice: The…it’s kind of a long…I’ll try to keep it short. The system flows are based on estimates, meter data, monthly-metered data. And when we use metered monthly data, we have to use 150% of that data as our design flow. So the Watson’s is on Mountain Water and we use their monthly meter and then they had a tennis facility exactly like this up in Seattle, I think had the same interior, you know, the childcare stuff and everything, so we used one and half times that. But then we’re using the existing Peak and we actually have some daily data for that, so we were actually able to use 110% of that data. We’re going to meter this water very carefully and we hope to have extra capacity when it’s all said and done, some of that because of the adjoining landowner, Gene Mostad’s involvement, he has a vested interest in it. So some of that might be available to him but then there’s also going to be the possibility that we’re discussing right now of upsizing because the system kind of has some core elements that are same, we’re going to look at upsizing some of those elements now to build in capacity. And then we have drain field problems, we have to find a place for the drain field. But at least we’d have the treatment capacity and then we might be able to put water down in infiltration pods in the shallower groundwater area since it’s treated to such high quality or land supply it someplace. Yeah, there will be some, but I can’t say for sure how much until there’s other water conservation methods that we can do inside for fixtures and stuff like that that would suit them to put in because it’s only going to give them somebody to spread the cost to someday, hopefully, so…
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you. Any other questions? Comments? Is the Planning and Zoning Commission prepared to make a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners?
Greg Robertson: Yes, I would make a recommendation. And I completely support the project (I never thought I’d hear myself say something like that) but one of the best projects I’ve ever worked on in my 25 years of construction was a Youth Home in Rock Springs, Wyoming. We had 40 different funding sources and a real motley crew of Board of Directors that I worked with for two years to put a project very similar like this together in very similar circumstances. It was…we received a land grant from the Bureau of Land Management and we located the facility out in the middle of nowhere—this is somewhere, at least. But right next to a recreational facility. So the parallels are kind of interesting. So this is a perfect location for it and I think with all the fishing I do on the Bitterroot River and driving by this site weekly, I’d love to see something like this here rather than that pile of muck that has accumulated and I’ve received complaints of for some time that’s somewhere in the lexicon of things, people thought it was ours. So, my recommendation, and I’d like to make a motion to that effect is that we approve the variance as presented.
Chair Bill Carey: Is there a second to that?
Vickie Zeier: I’ll second that, and I also want to say that I support this; it sounds like a great opportunity for Missoula.
Chair Bill Carey: Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion please say “aye.” Aye.
Greg Robertson: Aye.
Vickie Zeier: Aye.
Sylvia Weisenburger: Aye.
Chair Bill Carey: Any opposed? Thank you. The Planning and Zoning Commission will now dissolve, I guess.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: Recess.
Chair Bill Carey: Recess to some further date. Thank you very much. And we will again now be the Board of County Commissioners and we have a motion from the Planning and Zoning Commission to approve this use variance.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: I would move that we accept the recommendation from the Planning and Zoning Commission and grant the variance.
Commissioner Michele Landquist: I will second.
Chair Bill Carey: All those in favor. Aye.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: Aye.
Commissioner Michele Landquist: Aye.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you. It’s been a pleasure, thank you.
END OF TRANSCRIPT
http://www.co.missoula.mt.us/mcbcc/importmins/2009/Jun10_09/VerbatimTranscript_PeakFitnessTennisFacilityVarianceRequest.pdf
http://www.co.missoula.mt.us/mcbcc/importmins/2009/Jun10_09/PeakFitnessTennisFacility_StaffRpt.pdf
MISSOULA BOARD OF COUNTY COMMISSIONERS PUBLIC MEETING/PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION – JUNE 10, 2009, VERBATIM TRANSCRIPTION OF ITEM #6, HEARING: PEAK FITNESS TENNIS FACILITY USE VARIANCE REQUEST WITHIN CIZD #43
Chair Bill Carey: Okay, next we have a hearing with the Planning and Zoning Commission on the Peak Fitness Tennis Facility; this is a use variance request within the CIZD #43-R. I’ll open the hearing and, you are…who’s…
Jamie Erbacher: Jamie.
Chair Bill Carey: Jamie?
Jamie Erbacher: Okay, Territorial Landworks is here today representing the Peak Fitness Center; Andy Short, mainly, but there are a couple other representatives here as well. And this is for a use variance to allow a recreational facility with ZD 43 Residential subdistrict, which currently does not permit commercial uses. The property does not have an address, but is legally described as Tract B of Packwest Addition Lot 2A and Tracts B, C, and D. The parcel is currently vacant. In the past, the site has received material excavated from a nearby development with some subsequent gravel extraction. The parcel and Peak’s existent parcel, Tract 1 COS 3267 have been approved for a boundary relocation; however, at this point, the boundary line relocation has not been filed. This request for the Peak is for the 4.64 parcel that is proposed and approved for the boundary line relocation. The remaining 13.28 acres of the original parcel is proposed to be developed by Watson’s Children Center at a later date.
Section 8 of ZD#43 allows the variance to be granted after a public hearing before the Missoula County Planning and Zoning Commission; the Board of County Commissioners may authorize variances, which will not be contrary to the public interest where, owing to special conditions, literal enforcement would result in an unnecessary hardship. The applicant and their representatives have not fully designed the proposed building, but have provided a conceptual plan, building elevation, and floor plan. The plan for the new facility includes five, not seven, like my staff report says, indoor tennis courts, three outdoor tennis courts (my staff report says two), six racquetball courts, showers, and parking facilities. This plan will also allow for a future expansion of two indoor tennis facilities.
The Peak Fitness Center has been working jointly with Watson Children’s Center to obtain this site. During project review of this site, it was discovered that the aquifer beneath this 17.92-acre parcel, which is the full parcel, and the surrounding area was found to have elevated nitrite and chloride levels to the point where Montana Department of Environmental Control Air Quality would define the aquifer as contaminated. It is believed that the aquifer has been impacted by continued subsurface sanitary sewer disposal practices. Montana DEQ regulations prohibits future introduction of sanitary sewer effluent into the ground on this parcel. In order to correct the problem, Peak and Watson Children’s Center will modify the existing effluent treatment facility to include a sequencing batch reactor system. This will treat the existing effluent and the anticipated effluent volumes. Given the expense factor of the necessary system Watson Children’s Center, a local non-profit, who provides emergency care to youth 14 and under, they are considered a large stakeholder in the granting of this variance request.
Without the approval of this request, the Peak’s Tennis Facility will not be able to locate on the proposed parcel and Watson’s Children Center will not be able to afford the necessary effluent system alone and therefore will not be able to locate on the desired location as well. Without this approval, the neighborhood and community will also be continued to be impacted by the degraded aquifer.
The Office of Planning and Grants is recommending approval of this variance.
I’m now going to go through some of my Findings of Facts and Conclusions of Law.
The first is going to be based on the authorization of this variance and the fact that it will not be contrary to the public interest. A voluntary neighborhood meeting was held on April 7, 2009 with 64 neighboring property owners were invited to attend. Of those invited, 12 property owners attended. Of the questions asked at this meeting, only one question was directly related to the Tennis Facility being located at this proposed site and that was dealing with the increased traffic. Sixteen neighbors within a 300-foot radius of the 17.92-acre parcel were notified of the variance request. None of these neighbors responded negatively to the proposal. As of this date, the Office of Planning and Grants has not received any other concern from the public regarding this use being
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located on the parcel. No negative feedback has been received from Public Works, Missoula Rural Fire, the Health Department, the Sheriff’s Office, or the County Attorney’s Office. County Public Works has commented, though, that they would like sidewalks along Buckhouse Lane and this is going to provide for public safety and possibly future connectivity. The Territorial Landworks has also been working with Brent Christopherson of Missoula Rural Fire and providing access for fire and fire protection, they are currently looking at doing an access road off Blue Mountain Road and working with Public Works on that to get that approval. The Peak Tennis Facility will be the only facility in Missoula that provides an indoor tennis facility and the only indoor racquetball facility other than the University of Montana. Watson Children’s Center has to turn away children at this moment. By allowing the Peak Tennis Facility to locate on this parcel, Watson Children’s Center will be able to obtain the neighboring property and provide shelter for several more children within Missoula County. By allowing the use variance, an opportunity arises to improve the water quality of the aquifer in this area. The Office of Planning and Grants does have the authority given by Zoning District 43, Section 4, for general provisions in the subdistrict to review for parking, landscaping, and signage restrictions.
So based on these Findings of Facts, we’ve come to the following conclusions:
• The fact that none of the neighboring properties or agencies responded negatively to this proposal, it is found that this variance will not be contrary to the public interest.
• The new facility will increase the recreational opportunity of Missoula residents.
• The new facility will in turn help Watson Children’s Center locate nearby and ultimately provide more needed housing for children.
• The aquifer for the neighboring residents, especially those downstream, will benefit from a cleaner aquifer if the use variance is approved.
• And the last one for here is public health and safety have been and will continue to be review if this use is granted.
And the next set of Findings of Fact that I would like to go through is based on the Literal Enforcement of the Zoning District that would result in a clearly established and unnecessary hardship where special conditions do exist for this parcel.
As permitted by Zoning District #43, Residential, eight single-family dwelling residences could be developed on this 17.92 acre parcel; however, the aquifer beneath is property and the surrounding area has been found to have elevated nitrite and chloride levels to the point where DEQ has to find the aquifer is contaminated. Because of this, DEQ will not allow any further introduction of sanitary sewer effluent into the ground on this parcel. The Peak and Watson Children’s Center have proposed to install a Sequencing Batch Reactor system that would treat the existing effluent and anticipate the effluent volumes to drinking water standards for nitrate. A residential development would require a Sequencing Batch Reactor system that is not traditional for this type of development and would be costly and unreasonable for homeowners to maintain and have monitored. By continuing to prohibit commercial uses at this site, the property will continue to be burdened with the degraded aquifer and the property owner will likely have an undeveloped parcel for an unknown amount of time. This property is not within the Missoula wastewater treatment plant service area and because of this diminishes the possibility of connecting to city sewer. Watson’s Children Center is a large stakeholder in the approval of this variance and if this variance is not granted, Watson’s will not be able to local on the remainder of the parcel due to their inability to pay for the required effluent treatment system.
Based on those findings, we’ve come to the following Conclusions of Law:
• Due to the substandard quality of the aquifer on this parcel, and additional requirements to approve and develop this site, it is found that an unnecessary hardship exists for the property owner.
• Allowing this variance request will provide a remediation to the degraded aquifer.
• By allowing the variance request, two developments will benefit, along with the entire community of Missoula.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you, Jamie.
James McCubbin: Commissioners, I’d just like to ask Jamie a couple of questions to clarify the record on the scope of this use variance. We have some information in the record that was provided by Territorial, that I think was just kind of a description and may be inaccurate. It’s a color photo, an aerial photo, and it says, “Proposed non-residential Watson Children’s Center” but in fact, this is going to be a residential facility for Watson’s, is that correct?
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Jamie Erbacher: Correct. Correct, under state law, we can review as a residential facility, and therefore it is a permitted and allowed use with this zoning district.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: So it’s marked incorrectly on that map?
Jamie Erbacher: Yes.
James McCubbin: And so the only use variance that’s needed is for the Tennis Facility, not for Watson’s.
Jamie Erbacher: Correct.
James McCubbin: Thank you.
Jamie Erbacher: And the only reason that they’ve shown the two together is because of the fact that there are going to be using the same Batch Reactor system.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you. James, as a technical matter, I think I goofed a little bit. She made a presentation to the Board of County Commissioners when in fact we’re looking at the Planning and Zoning Commission.
James McCubbin: You know, you opened this as the hearing that is noticed on the agenda.
Chair Bill Carey: Okay.
James McCubbin: I think that was a little ambiguous, so it’s worth noting for the record that we’re acting as the Planning and Zoning Commission in this case.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: So we recess the one?
Chair Bill Carey: So we’ll recess as the Board of County Commissioners and become with three additional folks the Planning and Zoning Commission: They are Sylvia Weisenburger, Vickie Zeier, and Greg Robertson, along with the three County Commissioners, so we are now the Planning and Zoning Commission, and we’ve all heard your presentation. And…do we have any question from any of the other commission members right now, are you okay? All right, is there a presentation in support of this proposal?
Andy Short: A request. Andy Short, Territorial Landworks.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: You can just pull a chair up, Andy, if you’d like.
Andy Short: Thank you very much. First off, I just want to thank Jamie Erbacher for all her help on this project, it was one of the pleasant experiences I’ve had with OPG, so thank you very much.
Here’s an aerial view of the parcel in question (where’s my cursor?). Here’s Montana Homefitters, Highway 93, the existing Peak Fitness Center, Norco Products, here’s Blue Mountain Road, and this is the property in question right here. And this is about where it will be located, and Watson’s will be located right here. So this is the site layout that you have had to review and that OPG has reviewed. This was the initial site layout that we came up with; since then an architect’s been hired, we’ve met with, you know, OPG’s review this, County Public Works has reviewed this and the Fire Department has review this and so it’s changed slightly and this is the revised the site layout and you’ll notice that there’s now a fire access road at the top. And the building itself is almost exactly the same except for a few modifications, so I just wanted to…the drawing has been cleaned up somewhat. These are the five indoor tennis courts, the two that are proposed in the future, the three outdoor tennis courts. Here’s the six racquetball courts, lobby, locker rooms, additional parking and the Watson Children’s Center right here with their additional parking.
This is a conceptual drawing of the building from Blue Mountain Road. So, if you’re standing on Blue Mountain Road, you’re looking at the side of the building. This dashed line represents the fill material that’s out there, that exists, so this is existing grade. So the building is supposed to be set inside the hill somewhat. This…this proposed grade doesn’t really represent what we’re planning to do, this is going to change somewhat in the future, but it is going to sit into the hillside and we’re dealing with a requirement of not having greater than 30 feet
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from proposed grade to the top of this building, so we’re going to have to work with that on the side of this building.
This is the boundary line relocation exhibit that was approved, existing Peak Fitness Center, the property in question and then this is the new boundary line was approved. It has not been filed yet, this is in process. This is the zoning exhibit, ZD18, which is where the Peak currently exists and commercial is allowed in ZD18 a certain distance from Highway 93. ZD43 is commercial and this is the residential and this is the area that we’re asking for the variance from use.
We had a neighborhood meeting on April 7 at the Emmanuel Baptist Church. Jamie had said we invited 64 property owners, I think 12 property owners showed up and we discussed a variety of topics, traffic concerns, law enforcement, why this location for the Watson’s, the number of children at the shelter, the involvement with the University of Montana Tennis Team, why we weren’t connecting to city sewer, proposed septics…people were wondering about the proposed septic system that we were proposing and the aquifer information that we discovered beneath the parcel and we just answered these questions. Jim Carlson from the County Health Department was there, and he answered a lot of questions that were asked.
As Jamie said, ZD43 allows the Board of County Commissioners to grant variances if they ‘re not contrary to public interest owing to special conditions literal enforcement would result in an unnecessary hardship. So I want to go into the decision criteria.
So Number one, commercial use fits this area and that’s my exhibit that I’ve gotten more grief about than anything I’ve ever created, I think. And I’ve changed it somewhat but the line is hypothetical boundary of commercial use that exists out there and like James was discussing about Watson’s, you know, it’s not considered commercial, but it is a place where people come to work and it’s not your family of four home, so that’ll be different than just your regular residential use. There’s the church, Norco, Fitness Center and then the commercial retail sale: Montana Homefitter right there. So it fits the area. It’s not we’re bringing a Tennis Facility into the University Area.
The existing grades are not conducive to residential use. As Jamie was saying, it’s a fill site and gravel has been taken from the site. Buckhouse Lane is sized for commercial use; it’s an 80-foot right-of-way. I believe its 46 feet from back-of-curb to back-of-curb. And there’s a picture of Buckhouse, you can kind of get an idea of Buckhouse Lane there. And the other picture is of where the gravel has been extracted, you can see that putting residential homes in there doesn’t quite fit as much as putting a large commercial building that would bit into the hillside there.
Currently the size of parcel we’re talking about, you would be allowed nine single-family residential homes. But, of course, you would be saying you’re going to put nine single-family residential homes on a degraded aquifer, so they would have to find a place to put their sewer and they would have to find a place to put their…or get their water from and as we discussed before, this is a degraded aquifer and Jason Rice, from Territorial Landworks is going to go into this further. So those nine residential…single-family residential homes would have to somehow come up with an idea of how they’re going to treat their sewage and it would just be unfeasible, the cost would just be prohibitive. The property is not within the Missoula wastewater treatment service area, so it’s never planned that it would receive city sewer. It’s a unique situation where we have three entities who are working together to remediate this aquifer. If the variance is not granted, the aquifer has no immediate hopes of being remediated. And with that, I’m going to turn this over to Jason Rice, Territorial Landworks.
Jason Rice: Jason Rice, Territorial Landworks. And Andy, maybe you can kind of use the mouse, you know kind of what I’m talking about. You can see in the green, all the septics in the area and what I want to do is just quickly talk about why the aquifer issue is such a key component to this. Because one of the first people…the first people we talked to were DEQ and the Missoula County Health Department. So you can see all the green areas that you kind of pointed out a couple of those, Andy. Those are all drain fields. And what we did was we took at look at where the water was flowing and all those fine lines on there are contours. It’s actually very difficult to develop an accurate groundwater contour map in this area, due to the characteristics of the soil below there, but this is the best we could do with the resources we had. The water probably flows in many different var…directions, but in general, this is the way it goes. There’s a couple wells, there’s a well actually immediately downgraded that’s actually on where the outdoor tennis courts are going to go and that actually 15 parts per million nitrites; over a 5-year period it’s been measure several times and it’s always been the same…pretty similarly, pretty same. The state drinking water quality standard is 10 parts per million, just for people to understand where that sits. Normally at the end of a drain field mixing zone, they only allow 7½ parts per million for the kind of system we’re putting in here. So it’s well over that standard. But what we found is that further out, there’s even other wells that are worse then the well that’s close to the drain field at Peak. So going out near the corner where the Blue Mountain makes the sweep, there’s a well there that had, I think 17 or maybe very similar, 15, 16, 17, we’ve measure it a couple times. And right across the street, we had up to 19 parts per million. Normally as you get further from the drain field that should go down. So what we’re finding is in addition to natural nitrates in the water, all the other drain fields in the area, we’re seeing some higher elevated nitrates, so what we were faced with is how do we put more water somewhere out there from drain fields and effluent for not further degrade that situation. So we looked into a lot of ideas and you…this is…I guess I won't kid anybody it’s an expensive situation…or solution. But IWS, International Wastewater Systems, is supplementing or offering their system at a reduced rate just sort of for the publicity and the goodwill and good grace of what their doing, so I think they’re pretty much at cost for what they’re doing for the sewer treatment plant. As it turns out, the way the property is, I guess, being offered to Watson’s, there’s some availability of budget to help sewer budget side of things, I guess you’d say, there’s more money available for that side of the budget. And then with the additional development of the…it’s beneficial to the Peak; they can also increase their capacity for treatment, so. By adding this system, you actually get to reduce the drain field area in half. And so I want to move on and kind of keep things moving fast, I’m sure there will be some questions. Let’s go to the next slide real quick.
Because DEQ allows you to reduce your drain field in half, so this is kind of partly where some of the savings come in, we don’t have to build a new drain field, we have to rehabilitate it a little bit. The existing system was approved for 6800 gallons per day and we’re going to be putting out estimated 12,136 gallons per day with the development, so common sense would tell you we’re actually going to be, you know, increasing the nutrient load. But what it turns out is with treatment…so we had to get DEQ kind of onboard with the idea that its nutrient loading that’s the important part, not flows. So, currently, on a yearly basis, they’d be putting out 146 pounds of phosphorus, roughly, and that’s based on some real numbers; and then 693 pounds per years of nitrites. And so that’s with the flows that were approved by DEQ. The proposed system will only be putting out 112 pounds per year of phosphorus, the system treats some phosphorus but not…it’s not, I guess, reportedly the best, but that’s not really the issue we have here. But the big one is the nitrates. We’re actually going to be able to reduce our nitrates by a pretty significant amount, you know, on the two-thirds or so removal. So that’s a pretty big number. So what that means is that we’re going to…that number I said earlier, 7 ½ parts per million at the end of a mixing zone…we’re going to meet that number at the trench, at the pipe. So the water coming out of the pipe will meet what they normally allow you to do 500 feet away from your drainfield. So that’s a pretty big thing. That actually will help, because the 7 ½ is actually lower than the 15, you’re actually going to be diluting the groundwater to a certain degree depending upon the amount of flux or flow that you got passing on to the side. So next slide.
So, I guess with that, I’m going to open it for questions. Later, I think that a lot of this is intriguing or interesting, but probably not the most important part. But I think Watson’s is here to talk about their role that they are playing in this and why this is an important site. I think that question has been asked is why here and also what they do. I think there’s been some concerns of well, if this is the enabler of Watson’s, what does that do to our neighborhood, even though, they could come in if the sewer wasn’t an issue. So we really felt that it was important for the neighbors along the way so we think it’s just as important for this Board to understand why it’s an important piece to the community. So I have…Fran is here to talk about that a little bit. Thank you.
Fran Albrecht: Hi, I’m Fran Albrecht, Executive Director of Watson’s Children Shelter and we’re very excited about this opportunity that has presented itself to us. We have been looking for over…it’s coming up on four years for a second site as we’ve continued to turn away children in need of emergency shelter due to abuse, neglect, or abandonment. And we are now turning away as many of, on average, 3-4 children a week because of this need when some of the sites that we looked at were not in the Missoula County Public School District. Missoula County Public School District provides excellent services that will continue to serve our children and provide exactly what they need; and so that was our primary concern was finding a location in the Missoula County Public School District. The other sites that we looked at were outside of that, some of the ones that were in that, within the school district, were exorbitant amounts that were cost-prohibitive. When we…Jim Mostad has been a long time supporter of Watson Children’s Center, well beyond when I started 12 years ago and when he let us know about this site that might be available and we explored that and the site is wonderful. One thing is that we’re not…we’re not a facility that needs were neighbors. What I mean is that we’ve got our own happy neighborhood right there, within our house, and so we don’t necessarily interact with our neighborhood. Our kids are kind of coming and going to school, they’re having visits at the shelter—structured visits with parents when the courts allow it, they’re doing activities and such. So that site, we prefer not to be in a neighborhood, quite frankly, because we don’t have a need for neighbors. I don’t know how to better put that. The fact that this
location and this land was affordable for us at a very discounted price made it possible for us to proceed with our current campaign plans and it fit within our business plan. We are thrilled by the fact that Jim Mostad and especially Territorial Landworks has worked so diligently to develop this site so that there could be a possibility for us, because quite frankly, I don’t have any other options. The other land availability are just simply cost-prohibitive or won't work for what our plans are. I just want to thank everybody that’s here today and we’re excited that Peak has partnered up because obviously this is a win-win for the neighborhood and certainly an opportunity for us to present a solution to Missoula and western Montana children who are in need of our care. Thank you.
James McCubbin: Commissioners, if you don’t mind, I would just like to add on behalf of the County Attorney’s office. I’m not actively doing this work anymore, but for about the first year and half that I was with the Missoula County Attorney’s office I was doing primarily child abuse and neglect cases and observed a number of the kids who have had the benefit of staying at Watson’s and there’s a definite need for that a definite benefit from it. And I’m not aware of any negative impacts on, you know, neighbors that kids that Watson’s have had. So what that’s worth.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you, James. Anybody else wish to speak to this? It’s a public hearing. Please step forward, sir.
Robin Peters: Hi, my name is Robin Peters, P E T E R S, and the views I’m expressing are my own views and views of the Missoula handball association and Missoula handball family. Presently, there are no permanent courts in Missoula, except for the university, which not everybody has access to and so we are really excited not only that the University of Montana Tennis Team will have a place to practice. The Children’s Center, obviously, is a wonderful thing for Missoula and also that the handball family will now have a place to play and it sure looks like a wonderful facility and we’re really excited about it, so. It’s a win-win-win for everybody; I can’t see any downside to it. So I just wanted to express myself. Thank you.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you.
Margo Belden: Hi, I’m Margo Belden, B E L D E N, and I’m here to represent…I’m president of the Garden City Tennis Association here in Missoula and the surrounding areas of Missoula and in that capacity we represent between we estimate 350 to 500 tennis players in this community and needless to say, we’ve lost our indoor facility at the Mack we were all not only deeply saddened and had no place to play, some of us were driving as far as Hamilton and Kalispell every morning to play tennis, us diehards, some of us diehards. But our mission statement in GCTA is to promote tennis for all levels, all ages, in the Missoula area. That is a difficult thing to do if you don’t have an indoor facility to play in winter, it really…especially for our juniors…we see a lot of junior kids who can only play in the warm seasons, the outdoor seasons, and if they want to compete for college scholarships or such, they’re really at a disadvantage and we’ve seen that with some of our top junior players. So we are very excited about the possibility of having indoor tennis again. Not just for us older players but for our youth and the university as well. So I really encourage you, urge you, please to support this. Thank you.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you.
Paul Polzim: My name is Paul Polzim, P O L Z I M, and I’d like to make two points: the current management of the Peak also owns athletic clubs here in Montana and Great Falls and elsewhere in the northwest. They are well known for being well managed, a very, very good facilities. So their management has been sound and their planning ahs been sound. And in the conceptual stage of this building, they reached out to us, to potential users, we had several meetings, we offered some input, they listened to us, and so I’m very confident that if this facility is approved, it will be well runned and the members and the community will be well-served by this kind of facility. Thank you very much.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you.
Miles Whipple: My name is Miles Whipple, the past president of Garden City Tennis; you spell Whipple, W H I P P L E. I want to second everything that Margo said. It was eight or nine years ago, it took a joint effort of Missoula City Schools, Missoula City, Missoula County, and lots of dedicated tennis players to rebuild 20 tennis courts in Missoula. Prior to that, we had almost no tennis in Missoula, other than the indoor facility. Now we have no indoor facility; however, we have impacted outside tennis. We have juniors…you can’t get a court in Missoula during the high school season. These are kids who are, you know, playing a sport that’s rely…you know, we are
gaining scholarships to places like University of Texas, this is something you can’t have without tennis and we really applaud Peak for trying to bring tennis to us indoors for the winter. Thanks.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you. Any additional comment?
Chris Nord: My name is Chris Nord, N O R D, I’m the tennis coach for the University of Montana, coach the men and women for 24 years, now the last three years just the men’s. So I’m also speaking on behalf of Steve Asher, who’s the women’s tennis coach at the University. From our viewpoint, having Peak come in with an indoor tennis facility allows us to have programs that can thrive at the University for the kids, a place to practice. We just completed a year where we played all of our matches on the road. To have an indoor facility would allow our student athletes to host some home matches, stay in class longer, have a place to train. It’s really…it will allow us to continue the programs at the University of Montana. We are scratching to stay afloat right now. And I don’t want to just speak on behalf of the University of Montana; I coached tennis and taught tennis in Missoula since 1974. I’ve worked with the juniors, the adult programs, I have two boys who play tennis, and not having a place to play indoors really cuts off all the programs. You don’t have any continuity, you get the kids excited in the summer, we’ve run camps on campus the last few summers and there’s a waiting…there’s people on the bleachers waiting for courts which is, that’s a change from ten years ago. The tennis boom is back in Missoula. Our high school participation numbers are through the roof. I go to the high school practices, I went to the high school state tournament, and Missoula’s participation is phenomenal, especially when you figure that we do not have an indoor in places like Hamilton, Kalispell, Helena, Bozeman, Great Falls and Billings do. It’s a green business that I hope we can support and I know that it will impact everyone, not just the University, but the junior and adult segments, also. So thank you.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you. Who else would like to speak?
Mary Stranahan: My name is Mary Stranahan and I’m just a self-interested tennis junkie. And I just want to emphasize that is an economic development. I’m saying we have tennis tournaments here; people come from all over the state and sometimes outside of the state to play tennis tournaments, so it adds benefit to the entire community, whether you’re a tennis player or not.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you. Anybody else like to speak to this?
Doug Mahlum: My name is Doug Mahlum, M A H L U M, and I’m one of the owners of the Peak and I just wanted to say that all of us: Jack Tawny, Charlie and Mary Lynn Eismann and myself, we’re all Missoula people, raised in Missoula and we’ve gone various different ways but have gravitated back towards here to open the Peak. Because we do care about Missoula and we care about what happens in Missoula and a tennis center a lot of times isn’t the most financial lucrative thing to build but part of what we’re trying to do is make sure that the youth and the families in Missoula have a place to play tennis, have a place to meet and have a place to recreate. So if you would approve this that would be a wonderful thing for Missoula and would be great for the Watson Home and I just want to thank you for your consideration.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you. Anyone else? Anybody else wish to speak to this. Doesn’t look like it. Members of the Planning and Zoning Commission, any questions or comments? Commissioner Curtiss.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: I think that the one has been addressed, the…the system has been approved by the Department of Environmental Quality, is that right, Jason?
Jason Rice: The system requires a discharge permit and that permit has been written in a draft format and issued for public comment, which means the DEQ has accepted the system short of any negative public comment. To my knowledge, I think that is just running out right about now; there hasn’t been any that I have heard of. As far as the plan review goes, that’s still in progress, but it’s looking good. Last we heard everything looked good from DEQ. So, things are moving forward and hoping to have approvals in hand by no later than August 1.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: So then I have a follow up to that. Because the rest of ZD43 is zoned for residential, will future residents be able to connect to this system, if that’s developed residentially.
Jason Rice: The…it’s kind of a long…I’ll try to keep it short. The system flows are based on estimates, meter data, monthly-metered data. And when we use metered monthly data, we have to use 150% of that data as our design flow. So the Watson’s is on Mountain Water and we use their monthly meter and then they had a tennis facility exactly like this up in Seattle, I think had the same interior, you know, the childcare stuff and everything, so we used one and half times that. But then we’re using the existing Peak and we actually have some daily data for that, so we were actually able to use 110% of that data. We’re going to meter this water very carefully and we hope to have extra capacity when it’s all said and done, some of that because of the adjoining landowner, Gene Mostad’s involvement, he has a vested interest in it. So some of that might be available to him but then there’s also going to be the possibility that we’re discussing right now of upsizing because the system kind of has some core elements that are same, we’re going to look at upsizing some of those elements now to build in capacity. And then we have drain field problems, we have to find a place for the drain field. But at least we’d have the treatment capacity and then we might be able to put water down in infiltration pods in the shallower groundwater area since it’s treated to such high quality or land supply it someplace. Yeah, there will be some, but I can’t say for sure how much until there’s other water conservation methods that we can do inside for fixtures and stuff like that that would suit them to put in because it’s only going to give them somebody to spread the cost to someday, hopefully, so…
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you. Any other questions? Comments? Is the Planning and Zoning Commission prepared to make a recommendation to the Board of County Commissioners?
Greg Robertson: Yes, I would make a recommendation. And I completely support the project (I never thought I’d hear myself say something like that) but one of the best projects I’ve ever worked on in my 25 years of construction was a Youth Home in Rock Springs, Wyoming. We had 40 different funding sources and a real motley crew of Board of Directors that I worked with for two years to put a project very similar like this together in very similar circumstances. It was…we received a land grant from the Bureau of Land Management and we located the facility out in the middle of nowhere—this is somewhere, at least. But right next to a recreational facility. So the parallels are kind of interesting. So this is a perfect location for it and I think with all the fishing I do on the Bitterroot River and driving by this site weekly, I’d love to see something like this here rather than that pile of muck that has accumulated and I’ve received complaints of for some time that’s somewhere in the lexicon of things, people thought it was ours. So, my recommendation, and I’d like to make a motion to that effect is that we approve the variance as presented.
Chair Bill Carey: Is there a second to that?
Vickie Zeier: I’ll second that, and I also want to say that I support this; it sounds like a great opportunity for Missoula.
Chair Bill Carey: Any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion please say “aye.” Aye.
Greg Robertson: Aye.
Vickie Zeier: Aye.
Sylvia Weisenburger: Aye.
Chair Bill Carey: Any opposed? Thank you. The Planning and Zoning Commission will now dissolve, I guess.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: Recess.
Chair Bill Carey: Recess to some further date. Thank you very much. And we will again now be the Board of County Commissioners and we have a motion from the Planning and Zoning Commission to approve this use variance.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: I would move that we accept the recommendation from the Planning and Zoning Commission and grant the variance.
Commissioner Michele Landquist: I will second.
Chair Bill Carey: All those in favor. Aye.
Commissioner Jean Curtiss: Aye.
Commissioner Michele Landquist: Aye.
Chair Bill Carey: Thank you. It’s been a pleasure, thank you.
END OF TRANSCRIPT
http://www.co.missoula.mt.us/mcbcc/importmins/2009/Jun10_09/VerbatimTranscript_PeakFitnessTennisFacilityVarianceRequest.pdf
http://www.co.missoula.mt.us/mcbcc/importmins/2009/Jun10_09/PeakFitnessTennisFacility_StaffRpt.pdf
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