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Residents urge deeper geotechnical review of Steamboat Landing, file complaint over planning-board conduct
Summary
Speakers at the Flathead County Board of Commissioners meeting raised safety and contamination concerns about the Steamboat Landing Phase 2 environmental assessment and asked the board to pause decisions until first-responder comments are received. A resident also filed a formal complaint over a planning-board member's conduct.
Several residents asked the Flathead County Board of Commissioners to pause consideration of approvals related to the proposed Steamboat Landing subdivision, saying the developer’s Phase 2 environmental assessment (EA) omits soils information and understates contamination risks.
Jennifer Tipton, a Kalispell resident, told commissioners she submitted a formal complaint against Greg Stevens over his treatment of members of the public during a recent planning-board meeting and asked the board to review the meeting video. Tipton said the EA’s geology and soils section is incorrect and “that's a lie,” and she urged commissioners to require a more comprehensive geotechnical study before approving a preliminary plat.
“I was trying to speak during the public comment portion to introduce some new information that I feel... is a gaping hole on the environmental assessment for Steamboat Landing,” Tipton said. She said Summers Bridal School and the Summers Fire Hall previously required “major ground improvements to stabilize” against seismic hazards and warned the proposed plat includes many condominiums.
Jim Matthew of Summers expanded the environmental concerns and asked the board to wait for comments from the Summers Rural Fire District before moving forward. Matthew said the developer’s assessment was a “solid waste assessment” rather than a soils investigation, and said his review identified methylene chloride on the property. He said he found no record that the property fell under RCRA (the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act) but that methylene chloride is used in industrial solvents rather than agricultural pesticides; he questioned the developer’s characterization of the chemical.
“As stated in the movie Apollo 13 Houston, we have a problem,” Matthew said, arguing that no well samples or borings were taken and that, he said, water to irrigate the property may have been pumped from an adjacent slough tied to the nearby BNSF Railroad Summers Superfund site. Matthew asked the board to “table the forthcoming meeting decisions and place it on hold” until county planners and first responders have provided input.
Daniel Tipton, who said he had filed a written complaint as well, told commissioners the planning meeting’s video shows “the combative attitude” of one planning-board member and asked the board to review it.
What was not established in the meeting record: county staff did not present independent geotechnical results during the session, and no county determination about methylene chloride testing or slough irrigation was made at the meeting. Speakers asked the board to seek agency comments and clarified that Summers Rural Fire District had not yet submitted its formal comments to county planners.
The commissioners did not take formal action on Steamboat Landing during this meeting. Speakers asked for additional technical review and for the board to consider the conduct complaint against a planning-board member.
