Rolling Glen subdivision hearing set
 | Author:
Nancy Marks and Hugh Van Swearingen
Nancy Marks: MT43 News Secretary and News Editor |
Rolling Glen Subdivision Hearing Set
Nancy Marks and Hugh Van Swearingen
Developer Steve Cavanaugh is attempting to kick start his long-stalled Rolling Glen Ranch plan for a series of land subdivisions that would ultimately create a retirement town of several thousand homes in southern Broadwater County near Three Forks.
He faces a skeptical county commission which has set a public hearing on the matter for August 1 at the nearby Headwaters Auction building. The commission took the action at its July 5 regular weekly meeting at the urging of County Attorney Cory Swanson.
The hearing will focus on Cavanaugh’s application for preliminary plat approval for a minor subdivision consisting of three lots of about 20 acres each. The application was on the agenda for possible approval at the July 5 meeting, but instead the commissioners decided to hold a public hearing.
The original master plan for the Rolling Glen Ranch Planned Unit Development (PUD) was submitted to the county in 2006. It called for the development of 2,599 lots in 34 phases spread over about 30 years. The financial engine was based on selling lots from phase to phase. Lots sold in early phases would raise money to finance development of succeeding phases.
The county commission approved the master plan in February 2007 under a set of 38 conditions governing all manner of things from road standards, to water and sewage systems. Each phase of the master plan was to be submitted to the county as the developments progressed. A public hearing was held on January 18, 2007. In its order of approval, the commission deemed that the hearing was “adequate for the Master Plan and subsequent phases” and that, “Therefore, public hearings will not be required for subsequent phases of the Master Plan unless a phase presents a material change to the Master Plan.”
Swanson summed up the situation as to Cavanaugh’s request for approval of his proposed three-lot minor subdivision. “You want to wear the coat of a minor subdivision, but it is really a part of the PUD,” Swanson said. “Therefore, we must have a public hearing to sort out whether there are material changes in conditions for the PUD, thus putting Broadwater County at risk for litigation.”
Material changes pointed to by Swanson were that the minor subdivision proposal did not meet the master plan’s criteria for water and sewer systems.
Cavanaugh responded that the minor subdivision preliminary plan had been approved by the county planning board based on what he said was a $250,000 water study done in compliance with the State Department of Environmental Quality. He urged the commissioners to consider the minor subdivision separately from the PUD.
Cavanaugh stressed the importance to him of getting the small subdivision “off the ground” without meeting conditions of the PUD. “The restrictions of the PUD are very difficult to meet, especially the very complicated water rights in the Jefferson and Gallatin drainages which we are working on,” he said.
The entire venture began falling apart in February of 2008 when the county commission suspended its plat approval of two Rolling Glen subdivisions and halted sales of lots without the commission’s approval. The county claimed that Cavanaugh had failed to meet deadlines for making required improvements to Rolling Glen and Wheatland Roads and that Cavanaugh owed the county $258,399 for maintenance costs incurred by the county. Cavanaugh countered that he did not owe the county money, but instead the county should pay him $176,969 due to overpayments and changes of road standards. He followed up in March by filing a lawsuit against the county in Broadwater district court. In May the county sued Cavanaugh. He filed a countersuit in June.
Then in September of the same year, 2008, Cavanaugh and his wife Susie filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. Cavanaugh was quoted in the Helena Independent Record at the time: “Things the county has done and statements they’ve made have made it virtually impossible to sell lots. It has taken away our ability to operate as a business.”
It all ended up with a mediated settlement whereby the developer is to pay the county a portion of the disputed Rolling Glen Ranch PUD road debt as lots are sold.
As originally proposed, the Rolling Glen Ranch PUD with all 34 phases complete would be Montana’s largest subdivision development. It would include two golf courses, a town center, parks and trails, community water and sewer systems. The master plan listed 2,497 residential single-family lots, three condominium lots, 72 commercial lots, 10 civic lots, and two lots for lodges. Golf courses would cover 15 lots.
