Columbia Falls City Council last month approved a general direction for future growth in the city, but stopped short of calling any restrictions a moratorium.

Mayor Don Barnhart said he would like the city to focus on making homes as affordable as possible.

“People can’t afford a house. Can’t afford a townhome. Can’t afford rent,” he said.

He wanted the city to prioritize subsidized housing. The city has several already, including Section 8 housing, which uses federal subsidies, and projects done by Habitat for Humanity, which lowers housing cost through efficient construction, volunteer labor and low interest rates.

“Those proposals should carry a higher priority,” he said.

He also spoke to a “moratorium.”

“I think a moratorium is not required,” he said. “I hate that word.”

Later in the meeting, the city OK’d an affordable housing project, by approving the  transfer of city ownership of the former ballfield on Railroad Street to the Northwest Montana Land Trust. The trust will hold title to the land while Habitat for Humanity builds six affordable homes on the 3-acre lot.

That work is expected to start later this year.

The idea is to provide housing for working class residents, the people that have made this community what it has been for more than 130 years.

The Planning Commission, in a report to Council, acknowledged state-law limitations prohibiting mandatory affordability requirements. 

However, the commission supports exploring incentive-based tools (e.g., density bonuses, reduced parking, dimensional flexibility), and the inclusion of affordability goals and incentives in future growth policy and development regulations.

“Affordable housing remains a core value, even where implementation tools are limited,” it noted.

Still, the city does have some real limits to growth. Its sewage treatment plant can support a projected service population of 8,174.

The current estimated wastewater service population is 6,280, which includes Meadow Lake Water and Sewer District. The city has already allocated an additional 720 people, with projects that have been approved and some of which are already in the works.

Meanwhile, developers are proposing projects soon that would amount to about 1,380 people, or more than the treatment plant would have treatment capacity for if they all came online at once.

The city is looking to have a reserve of about 400 people for infill and housing projects in the city limits.

But developments typically take years to come to fruition, which gives the city some time to examine its future wastewater treatment plant needs.

It also expects to find at least a bit more capacity this fall, after the plant has been operating with just recently implemented upgrades.

But in the long term, the system likely needs transmission upgrades and the plant could also need further expansion, which would cost tens of millions of dollars.

Still, the state Department of Environmental Quality, which regulates the city’s treated sewage standards into the Flathead River, does have programs that allow for more piecemeal upgrades, so the city doesn’t necessarily have to do a large upgrade and then have the opposite issue of a plant that is too big for the community’s needs.