Eighty-two unit RV park proposed

SEELEY LAKE - Developers of a proposed 82-unit RV park held a public meeting Oct. 1 to present their preliminary plans and gather public comment. The proposed park owner Brandon Grosvenor was accompanied by Paul Forsting of Territorial Landworks, the surveying and engineering company hired to design the project.

The RV Park is proposed on the east side of Highway 83 on a 10-acre parcel directly south of the Seeley Lake 1-Stop Convenience Store.

Grosvenor is a long time resident of Missoula and his family has spent a lot of time camping in the Seeley Lake area over the years. He said that about 10 years ago they decided to get a state cabin lease site to park a camper because it was getting hard to find a site on the weekends.

In addition to camping locally, the Grosvenor family also takes a week or two each summer for an extended trip in the northwestern states. On these trips they stay at a wide range of campsites from no service to upscale full service RV parks and meet a lot of great people along the way.

This passion for camping is the driver for Grosvenor wanting to develop the RV Park in Seeley Lake. Grosvenor doesn’t want to just do it though, he wants to be part of the community and he encouraged people to make comments so he could look at adjusting the plan to fit better.

Initially the RV park would only offer electrical hookups but Grosvenor would like to eventually offer water and sewer when it becomes available. He said he has talked to both the sewer and water districts and knows there are some issues including pre-treating RV waste but he feels those obstacles can be overcome. Grosvenor said he would not offer water hookups without a place to dump wastewater.

The park will have an office that may also be a store and the plans show a playground, park area, horseshoe pits and miniature golf course. Each unit spot is 15 feet wide by 70 feet long and there is 25 feet of open space with vegetation between each unit.

Forsting explained that the public meeting was one of the first steps in the subdivision review process required by Missoula County. He encouraged the public to participate throughout the process by submitting comments to either Territorial Landworks or to the county. There will be a hearing before the Missoula County Planning Board and another with the county commissioners before the project will be given a green light.

Most of the concerns raised at the meeting came from residents of Phase II of the Double Arrow Ranch subdivision.

Will this increase use on the ATV trail currently located between this parcel and residents to the east? Some visitors will undoubtedly bring ATVs but the park’s access point will be off Highway 83 and there are currently no plans to connect an ATV trail or vehicle access out the east side. Forsting said the ATV trail is actually a 60-foot road easement for Tamarack Drive and utilities.

Will loose dogs from visitors create problems in the neighborhood? Grosvenor said generally RV parks have leash rules.

Cutting down all the trees will cause wind problems for neighboring properties. Grosvenor said he plans to leave as many trees as possible because he doesn’t like camping in clear cuts either. The property was logged about 25 to 30 years ago so most of the trees are fairly young.

Have you calculated out the positive economic impact to the area? Grosvenor said he has not. However, when asked about the occupancy he said that during their feasibility study they figured 50 percent vacancy during the weekdays and 20 percent during the weekends between Memorial Day and Labor Day.

Are you going to allow long-term occupancy? This might allow for some seasonal worker housing. Grosvenor said he isn’t planning on having long-term occupancy. His goal is to have a nice RV park and he knows he isn’t going to get rich doing it. The RV park has to meet certain conditions for permitting as an RV park and one of the requirements might be that there are limits on how many days someone can stay in a unit. Grosvenor said he would consider the seasonal worker housing issue if permitting would allow it.

When would this project be completed? Forsting said the first part of the subdivision process is expected to take six to nine months before infrastructure could be started and another nine months before it could be completed.

Is there going to be a lot of concrete/paving? No, most of the roadways and units will be gravel.

Would there be “quiet hours” and who would enforce it? There would be rules with quite hours. Grosvenor said most parks he has stayed in police themselves fairly well. The type of clientele Grosvenor envisions isn’t the type prone to staying up all night being noisy. They have considered having security but nothing is set yet. Like anywhere else, law enforcement could be called for people that need to be removed from the site.

Would there be a sewer dump station? Initially there would not be but if sewer becomes available they would build a dump station. The site is in Phase 2 of the proposed Seeley Lake Sewer.

Are they willing to put up a fence between residents and the park? Yes, some sort of buffer being a fence or vegetation will be considered.

How will traffic be dealt with? The access point is already located on the northern edge of the property. They will be working with the Montana Department of Transportation to solve any issues with traffic on the highway.

How will this impact the volunteer medical and fire responders? Tax base for the property will certainly go up and that would provide more funding for the department.

Who will pay for infrastructure system upgrades to serve the property? Grosvenor will be paying for any upgrades to electrical, water and sewer required to serve the land. Generally those costs are built into the utilities hookup policies.

Is there an RV park in the Missoula area that is comparable? Grosvenor said not really but said it would be somewhere between Jelleystone RV Park and Jim & Mary’s RV Park near the Wye west of Missoula. Grosvenor wants more trees than Jelleystone and he doesn’t have the green thumb that Mary has. He also recognizes that Seeley’s environment will limit the kinds of vegetation that will survive.

Will the park bring in bears? They will have bear resistant dumpsters available to customers and will have rules about keeping food and trash locked up.

Have you considered any other locations in the Seeley Lake area? Grosvenor said he did look at some other sites and seriously considered a location north of Seeley on a state owned parcel that didn’t pencil out. This location offers the possibility of more services including water and highway frontage.

Is the land zoned? How is it designated in the land use plan? This was not available during the meeting but according to the Seeley Lake Regional Plan, adopted by the county commissioners in 2010, the parcel is designated as General Commercial - one dwelling unit per acre. The neighboring land to the south shares the same designation while the parcel to the north is split between General Commercial along the highway and Town Residential II - four dwelling units per acre. The Phase II of the Double Arrow Ranch adjacent to the parcel is designated as Residential- one dwelling unit per acre. The area is not zoned.

Grosvenor was scheduled to attend the Seeley Lake Community Council meeting Oct. 8 but was unable to attend due to an emergency. The Council has it on the agenda to invite Grosvenor to the Nov. 12 council meeting.

To make comments on the project, email Forsting at PaulF@TerritorialLandworks.com; call 406-721-0142 or mail to Territorial Landworks, Box 3851, Missoula, MT59806.

Comments can also be directed to Casey Drayton 406-258-3799, cdrayton@missoulacounty.us or mail Attn: Casey Drayton, Missoula Community and Planning Services 200 West Broadway, Missoula, MT 59802.