Two separate housing developments offering a combined total of upward of 130 homesites have been proposed for areas near Montana City: One is along Holmes Gulch Road in the South Hills west of Montana City; the other is at the south end of South Smelter Road, south of East Helena and immediately west of The Kleffner event center on state Route 518.
The separate developers behind each of the proposals submitted applications to Jefferson County for zoning changes on the properties that would allow residential development—one of the earliest stages of a public process that could eventually allow for subdivision and construction in years to come.
The Jefferson County Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the proposed rezone of 280 acres along Holmes Gulch Road at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 14, at the Montana City Fire Hall. The County Commission will hold a hearing on the proposed rezone at 6 p.m. on April 26 at the fire hall.
The Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the proposed rezone of 418 acres at the south end of South Smelter Road and directly west of The Kleffner at 6 p.m. on April 21 at the fire hall. The County Commission will hold a hearing on the proposal at 6 p.m. on May 3 at the fire hall.
The separate proposed zoning changes, if approved, would not automatically subdivide the parcels or give the developers the green light to build—each of which would require subsequent public processes at the county and state levels.
Holmes Gulch
The proposal along Holmes Gulch Road, on 280 acres about 3 miles west of the Montana City interchange in Helena’s South Hills, but within Jefferson County, was proposed by Timothy Bompart of Rego Park, New York, according to the application to rezone the property, which stated that Tony Prothero of J-T Engineers (pronounced “J bar T”) is representing Bompart.
The application proposes to rezone the land from basic resource zoning, which allows lots of 160 acres or larger, to residential R-3 zoning, which allows lots of 5–10 acres each. The land is currently undeveloped, according to the application and satellite imagery of the parcel. The application states the intended purpose for the land is one housing unit per 5–10 acres. If fully developed as residential lots, the rezone would allow for 28–56 lots and homes total. The application points out that rezoning the property wouldn’t “guarantee” that development would occur at that density. The proposed development would serve the public interest, the application stated, by increasing available housing stock in an area where “demand is not expected to diminish in the near future.”
The property falls within the Montana City Volunteer Fire District and the nearest water source for firefighting is a hydrant served by 40,000 gallons of water along Martinez Gulch Road to the northeast of the land, according to the application, which stated that additional water availability should be created if development occurs. Bompart and Prothero wrote in the application that the development would mitigate its burden on public infrastructure, such as schools and roads, through increased tax revenue from higher property values once built out.
The application notes that the land is bordered by existing residential R-3 zoning to the north and east.
However, a county staff report recommended that the Planning Board reject the proposal because it “does not comply with a majority of the review criteria.” The report argued that the land—which currently accounts for 9% of the county’s basic resource zone and, if rezoned, would increase the adjoining residential R-3 zone by 17%—is unfit for the requested rezone in part because of fire risk, steep slopes, lack of secondary access, inadequate access via Holmes Gulch Road, impacts to surrounding landowners, increased traffic on nearby roads, stormwater runoff on mountainsides, and “critical” habitat for elk.
Prothero said in a phone call Tuesday that “I don’t think the plan here is to put up a huge subdivision, the land just does not lend itself to that,” and that although R-3 zoning would allow for 5-10-acre lots, not all of the property is suitable for homesites of that size. The concerns listed in the staff report, he said, would be addressed through the subdivision approval process if a subdivision is proposed in the future—but that could only happen, he stressed, if the zoning is changed first. If the county decides to keep the land zoned basic resource with 160-acre lots, he said, the county would “slam the door shut” on developing a subdivision proposal.
South Smelter Road
The proposal south of East Helena, on 418 acres about 2.25 miles northeast of the Montana City interchange and abutting the Lewis & Clark County line, but within Jefferson County, was proposed by Mark Runkle, of Montana City, according to the application to rezone the property, which stated that Greg Wirth of Stahly Engineering is representing Runkle.
The application proposes to rezone the land from basic resource zoning to residential/commercial mixed use, which Runkle said in a phone call Monday evening would allow for 5–20 acre lots. The application stated that the land is currently used for “agricultural grazing,” and that the proposed use is “development of single-family residential housing and potential, supportive commercial uses.”
“The reason it’s residential/mixed use was to help us with the lot sizes. We have kind of preliminary, more or less, ideas of layouts,” he said, noting that “probably 25-plus percent of the area would be an open space.”
Subdividing all of the land into lots of 5–20 acres each would create 20–83 lots. With 25% of the property—about 104 acres—withheld as open space, the remaining land could be divided into 15–62 lots.
A county staff report on the proposal was not available on the Planning Board’s webpage on Tuesday.
Runkle, who developed the nearby Mountain View Meadows subdivision on the east edge of Helena between downtown Helena and East Helena, said he imagined a mixture of “nice forested lots” and open lots that, “being this close to Helena, there really will be nothing like it.”
He said he’s owned the property since 2004, but “we think that it’s now—with the market and with people looking for these types of lots—we think this is the time to begin moving on it.”
Runkle said the proposed development falls within the Montana City School District and that, if developed, property taxes from homes there would help to fund the district.
Given the early stage of the development process, “it’s more than months, it’s probably at least three years out before anything would be available if everything goes well,” he said. And potential lot prices are yet undetermined because “we haven’t had a lot of time to study that, and think we’ll wait until we get closer and see what the market looks like for those.”
