A Jefferson County developer has withdrawn his proposal to rezone 418 acres of land between state Route 518 and Highway 282, directly west of The Kleffner event center, at the very north end of Jefferson County, following a county staff report and public comments concerned in part about the possibility of up to 212 residential lots being developed on the land. The developer, Mark Runkle, has maintained that he envisions far fewer lots—about 60 total—and that he plans to submit a new proposal for rezoning that would only allow for about that many.
The now-withdrawn proposal requested to rezone the land from a mixture of residential R-2 and basic resource zoning to residential/commercial mixed use, which would allow a variety of lot sizes from approximately 1.5 acres to 20 acres each. Basic resource zoning allows lots of 160 acres or larger; R-2 zoning allows 2–5-acre lots. The application for the proposal, submitted by Runkle through his Mountain View Meadows LLC, 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.” Runkle developed the nearby Mountain View Meadows subdivision on the east edge of Helena between downtown Helena and East Helena.
At a county Planning Board hearing on April 21, the board followed public comments and a staff report conclusion in recommending that the County Commission conditionally approve the rezone, contingent upon the applicant providing a build-out analysis and further examination of the impacts and feasibility of possible future development on the land. The commission was set to consider the proposal on May 3 but Runkle pulled the application April 27.
The Planning Board had recommended seven conditions for approval:
- A build-out analysis, including the number of lots and usages proposed for the property, to determine if the proposal would “facilitate the adequate provision of transportation, water, sewerage, schools, parks and other public requirements.”
- Evidence based on state standards to determine if the proposal would facilitate those provisions.
- A traffic impact analysis based on the build-out analysis.
- Determination of impact to “applicable county schools.”
- Sanitation analysis, particularly for providing septic or central sewer services.
- Analysis of impacts to nearby Prickly Pear Creek.
- Analysis of soil and water contamination from the former Asarco smelter, a federal Superfund cleanup site directly north of the property.
The conditions regarding septic/sewer sanitation, Prickly Pear Creek and possible contamination were added by the board on top of four conditions recommended in the staff report, largely in response to public comments at the hearing.
In a phone call on Monday, Runkle said that comments from the board and the public informed his decision to withdraw the proposal, which planning staff had estimated could allow for as many as 212 lots of about 1.5 acres each, once some acreage was set aside for roads and open space. He stressed that he didn’t want to see the land developed to that density.
“It was helpful. When the report came out that there could be 212 lots, we were probably about as excited as the neighbors,” he said. “We thought it was helpful to get feedback and make sure we knew what everybody thought about it.”
He said he plans to submit a new proposal to rezone the land residential R-3, which allows 5–10-acre lots.
Regarding possible contamination from Asarco, Runkle said, “I wish I could talk to the gentleman that brought that up, because I have never heard of any contamination. And we have tested extensively at Mountain View Meadows because it’s much closer.”
He said he hadn’t specifically tested the property in this proposal, but “it just doesn’t seem like, with the winds and what we know with the testing so far, that there would be an issue with that property. But again, we’ll deal with this as we need to.”
