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Foundation of 3-level house next to another 3-level house built in 2005—how much fill will produce the “finished grade”? F arviews, the oldest neighborhood in our hillside Neighborhood Council, was annexed in 1956 and zoned in 1958. This meant structures could be built up to 40-feet tall in front of other existing homes, but early covenants honored the view-value of the land and established a long-standing neighborhood character. In recent years, several circumstances have led to larger, view-blocking structures being built in the Farviews area and on hillsides throughout the commu- nity, causing more heartache and upset than joy. For Farviews, of course, the antiquated zoning designation was the most obvious cause. In April, 2005, our neighborhood council approved a resolution to be brought forward to Community Forum and recommended to City Council, requesting a city-initiated zoning change for Farviews from to “R-I” in order to begin a process intended to preserve the integrity and beauty of this now historic (more than fifty years old) Missoula hillside neighborhood. On March 27, 2006, City Council approved the zoning change, thus giving 10 feet of protection to the intrinsic value of “view” property, and greater peace of mind to property owners, who enjoy the sense of space and view that is paramount to the meaning of Farviews. Ward 4 — City Council Representatives Jerry Ballas 549-1678..... Jon Wilkins 543-7952 H illside Design Standards, Missoula City Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 19.67, is an even greater challenge than zoning height to the preservation of existing views on hillside properties. (For the record, a required lesser- sloped driveway than in days gone by is another cause for concern.) While the zoning office says objectives in 19.67.020 are not enforceable, the following stated objectives would lead one to believe one’s viewshed is protected by HDS: “The protection of hillside land and resources within the legitimate expectations of property owners”; “The preservation of natural features, wildlife habitat, and open space”; “Promote design sensitive to existing vistas”; and “The preservation and enhancement of visual and environmental quality.” In April, 2005, our neighborhood council approved a resolution seeking review/revision of the methods used to determine building height in HDS areas, to support rather than work against the objectives stated in HDS. On May 17, 2005, the Planning Board heard a Zoning Officer report on HDS (video available at MCAT). On March 27, 2006, the following item was referred to PAZ: “Correct the con- flict in the height calculation regulations, between written language (a building envelope shall be established by showing the maximum vertical height allowed by zoning from finished grade) and the drawing on page 151 of the zoning ordinance.” The language in HDS allows up to 8’ (eight feet) of fill above existing grade as the “finished grade” starting point of measurement for height of hill- side structures, showing a significantly lesser figure than the height if measured from original, existing grade. Hillside Design Standards profess lofty goals that are not matched by clear rules and specifications. If you are concerned about preservation of intrinsic property values and views of our beautiful valley, please participate in public hearings that will take place in the near future at City Hall and/or talk to your City Council representatives. 2006-2007 LEADERSHIP TEAM Ray Aten 721-0531 Community Forum Representative Nan Barber Mary Barnett (‘06-‘08) Secretary Marcia Bishop (‘06-‘08) 542-1035 Dean Hendrix 542-4130 Tim Lovely Celeste River 721-7528 Community Forum Alternate BOUNDARY MAP NORTH EAST SOUTH NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL AND LEADERSHIP TEAM COMPOSITION BYLAWS – ARTICLE 3, SECTIONS 1& 2 (paraphrased) The Farviews-Pattee Canyon Neighborhood Council includes all residents of the area and one voting representative from every business, church, neighborhood association, or other organization located within the designated geographical dis- trict of the Farviews/Pattee Canyon area, as described above. BYLAWS – ARTICLE 4, SECTION 1 (paraphrased) The Leadership Team shall consist of between five and seven persons. Any Neighborhood Council member may serve. It shall reflect diversity in both age and gender; represent both residential and commercial interests; and attempt to include, at least, a homeowner, a renter, a landlord, and a business owner from within the geographic area. To view complete Neighborhood Council Map www.missoula-neighborhoods.org FARVIEWS / PAT TEE CANYON NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS 2006 JUNE www.missoula-neighborhoods.org photo–Celeste River Leadership Team elections are held each spring. For information call the Neighborhood Office 552-6081. photo – Celeste River Newsletter layout. editing, & design by Celeste River SOME HISTORY & FACTS ABOUT ALLOWABLE BUILDING HEIGHT ON HILLSIDES — by Celeste River HILLSIDE HEIGHT MEASUREMENTS AMBIGUOUS OLD BUSINESS • Update on Hillside Design Standards • Neighborhood Project - Bridge over Pattee Creek • Update on public access to High Park parkland • Update on new subdivision above Landon’s Way • Pattee Canyon Drive Traffic Calming Project Farviews/Pattee Canyon Neighborhood Council STD US POSTAGE PAID TM What do you want our hillside neighborhoods to look like in the future? Will you help protect your beautiful views and parks ? — IMPORTANT NEIGHBORHOOD NEWS INSIDE — Come to your Neighborhood Council meeting to socialize, meet neighbors, and learn more. Instead of trees, utility “pods” line Norman’s Lane Community Forum bus tour visits High Park at Landon’s Way Visit the Farviews/Pattee Canyon Neighborhood Council Web Page w w w.missoula-neighborhoods.org Missoula, MT 59803 June 7 Wednesday 7:00 p.m. UM’s Lewis & Clark Village Community Center 3000 So. Higgins AGENDA NEW BUSINESS • Ice Cream Social - set summer date and organize • Form a Park Committee to help get things done • to help neighbors improve Ninkpata Park • to help neighbors gain access to High Park • to rezone our parks from R-I (residential) to P-I Keep the character and views of our hillside neighborhoods. Informed and involved citizens and caring neighbors can do it! FARVIEWS REZONED FROM A TO R-I photo–Celeste River photo–Celeste River BOUNDARY – The Farviews-Pattee Canyon Neighborhood Council includes the area on both sides of Pattee Canyon Drive to Higgins Avenue, west along the south side of SW Higgins to Hillview Way, up the east side of Hillview Way to Woodbine, east including development above Landon’s Way, all of High Park east to Whitaker Drive, up to southern boundary of Mansion Heights, then down hill to city limits on Pattee Canyon Drive. ---PAGE BREAK--- Restoration of the Little White House continues. The house, located in Whitaker Park, at the cor- ner of 39th and Whitaker, was built in 1936 as a radio relay station for the U.S. Forest Service. Last summer the outside of the building was scraped, to remove the lead paint, and was painted by Missoula Parks & Recreation. This summer replacement shutters are going up. They have pine tree cut-outs just like the historic originals. The shutters were made by Larry Wade and a local Girl Scout troop has primed them. Now itʼs time for a painting party. Help paint the shutters green on Saturday, June 9 from 4:00-6:00 p.m. All ages welcome, bring your little ones. For more info call Kathy Gillispie at 549-8747. — RAY ATEN Pattee Canyon Traffic Calming Update LAST YEAR, residents of Pattee Canyon Drive met with city engineer, STEVE KING, and bicycle and pedestrian coordina- tor, PHIL SMITH, to voice their concerns about high speed traffic, pedestrian safety, bicycle safety, and noise on their street, that comes down from the county’s Pattee Canyon Road and the hillside streets in Farviews. Steve and Phil explained Missoula’s traffic calming pro- gram that combines engineering, enforcement, and edu- cation techniques. The first step in the program, a traffic study, has now been completed. Next, Phil will meet with residents to present options, which could include lane nar- rowing, additional parking, and bike lanes. Pattee Canyon Drive resident, JEREMY KEENE (phone: 240-6721), is coor- dinating the meeting that is tentatively scheduled for mid- June in UM’s Lewis and Clark Village community room. Details will be available at the neighborhood council gen- eral meeting June 7 and published on the Farviews-Pattee Canyon Neighborhood Council website. — RAY ATEN — www.missoula-neighborhoods.org/farviews Bulletin Board — News & Announcements www.missoula-neighborhoods.org June 2006 Page 2 THE LITTLE WHITE HOUSE NEIGHBORHOOD PROJECT FUND GRANTS The City of Missoula offers NPF grants of up to $3000 for capital projects including physical improvements, studies or workshops to plan improvements, research, and significant neighborhood events. The goal is to substantially complete projects within one year. A citizen committee reviews all proposals received and makes recom- mendations to the Community Forum and City Council. The Farviews-Pattee Canyon Neighborhood Council is consid- ering a long-term project to set a footbridge across Pattee Creek near the run-off pond, and beautify the pond and corner knoll at the Higgins Street/Pattee Canyon Drive cornerstone of our neighborhood. When the city finished the storm-drain project and made the pond, which the neighborhood council had been told would be a lovely site, we were left, instead, with a chain link fence around the pond, and bare dirt and weeds at the corner. NPF grants can help neighborhoods improve areas of our community that otherwise are left untouched. The city also offers small project grants of up to $200 that can be used for an ice cream social, expenses for neighborhood meet- ings, for benches or plantings, or to initiate larger projects. UPDATE Street Cleaning for Farviews-Pattee Canyon Neighborhood Council Area July 25, 26, 27, 28 — Sept. 26, 27, 28, 29 — leaf pick-up November THE CITY OF MISSOULA’S MISSION & VISION MISSION “Our mission is to facilitate the health, safety and well-being of the Missoula community.” VISION “We are a professional, proactive and responsive local government, working cooperatively in mutual respect and trust with dedicated, well-informed and responsive citizens, to seek the highest quality of life for our community.” — www.ci.missoula.mt.us NUMBERS TO CALL FOR WEED CONCERNS Weeds in parks • Rob Thames 552-6268 Weeds on private property • Peggy Diamond 552-6351 IF YOU WANT TO KNOW what’s happening in your neighbor- hood regarding construction, variances, zoning, signage, parks, etc., come to your neighborhood council meetings. The Office of Planning and Grants is required to give public notice to each neighborhood council for city and county activities such as: variance and special exception requests; appeals of adminis- trative decisions; signage packages; adoption/amendment of Growth Policy plans; zoning/subdivision regulation revisions; creating and amending zoning designations; and other items as well. See the “public notice matrix” on the OPG website at: — www.co.missoula.mt.us/opgweb photo–Celeste River To report speeding traffic on hillside neighborhood streets call: Police (24-hour Sgt. Shawn Paul for traffic complaints & 552-6333 Corner of Higgins & Pattee Canyon Drive Last year in July our neighborhood council had a very successful Ice Cream Social and general meeting. More than 80 people attended. The trees near the Little White House in Whitaker Park provided shade and Pattee Creek Market provided the ice cream and sherbet. New and old neighbors social- ized, talked about zoning changes, hillside design standards, and pocket parks, and signed a thank you letter to Missoula Parks and Recreation for their work on the Little White House. The date for this summer’s Ice Cream Social will be set at the June 7th neighborhood council meeting. Watch for signs in July. If you would like to help organize the event, con- tact a member of the leadership team. — RAY ATEN photo–Celeste River Little White House in 2003 THE FARVIEWS/PATTEE CANYON NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL includes a number of neighborhoods identified as subdivisions. The first was Farviews Homesites, platted in 1945. Other are Pat- tee Canyon Addition; Mosby’s Leisure Highlands Addition; Missoula’s Highland Estates; Fairway Estates; Crestmoor Estates; Crestview Heights; Mountain Shadows; Mansion Heights; Landon’s Way; and the High Park subdivisions. Presently we see the most build- ing and development in the Mansion Heights and Landon’s Way areas, but it is the High Park parkland that neighbors are only now becoming aware of, with its hidden history and landlocked situation to be resolved. We all know change is coming rapidly to Dean Stone Mountain, the great sloping mountainside from which our neighborhoods look out upon the beautiful Missoula Valley. When the subdivisions that give our neigh- borhoods their names were platted, parklands were set aside for the enjoyment, health, and well-being of all people. Now, as more and more large tracts of land are divided up and the land becomes ever more “valuable” and coveted, we begin to realize that most of these parks are not zoned as parkland, but instead are zoned, like the lands around them, residential. How did this happen and what does it mean for the future of our parklands and open space? HIGH PARK was built in phases, beginning with phase 1 in 1964. Phase 1 included Parkview Way, Rimrock Way, Impe- rial Way, and Terrace Way. This is when the 10-acre “High Park” was set aside as public parkland, across the steep gully from the new development with the 20’ wide public access easement crossing the gully. At that time the High Park area was zoned like Farviews, to the south and east. In 2000 High Park was re-zoned “R-I” through a citzen-initiated zoning change. In January of 2006 a request was made to Missoula Parks & Rec Dept that they sell a portion of High Park to the new owners of the property that borders the southern, upper end of the park. Earlier owners had encroached scaped their front yard, circular driveway, and rail fencing, and the new owners want to correct the problem. A public hearing took place at City Council on March 6, and on March 8 the Conservation Committee directed Park staff to work for a solution that would create better public access and that would not involve selling any of the parkland. Jackie Courday, Parks & Rec’s Open Space Program Manager, will be at the Neighborhood Council meeting June 7 to present the latest developments and answer questions. Please come to express your opinions and learn more. www.missoula-neighborhoods.org Page 3 June 2006 THE NEIGHBORHOODS — OUR PARKLANDS AND REMAINING OPEN SPACE NAME ORIGINAL NAME / YEAR ZONE CLASSIFICATION ACRES DEV COMMENTS Hemayagan ......Hemayagan (1945)....R-I Conservation Land..... 13.49.... no none High (1964)....R-I Neighborhood 10.39.... no none Highland Conservation Land..... 19.26.... no none Ninpata (1945)....R-I no none Northview Neighborhood no none Oziya (1945)....R-I no none Penland .............Wastemaga (1945)....R-I yes ..........basketball court Takima-Kokaski ..Kokaski (1945)....R-I Conservation no ........biological corridor Tiortis (1945)....R-I Conservation no access, interior Whitaker & yes basketball, picnic tables Woodbine Conservation no gully NOTE: Ninkpata and Tioratis have been misspelled on the Parks Inventory List as Ninpata and Tiortis. High Park–public parkland–view southeast from Landon’s Way photo–Celeste River PROTECT & NURTURE YOUR NEARBY NEIGHBORHOOD PARK — Join the Neighborhood Council’s Park Committee — Come to our meeting June 7 • Call the Leadership Team • or, Office of Neighborhoods 7-9 p.m. Lewis & Clark Village (see front of newsletter) Ruth Anderson 552-6081 upon the park when they land- — RAY ATEN, CELESTE RIVER Parks and Open Space in the Farviews-Pattee Canyon Neighborhood Council Area — compiled from 1945 Farviews Homesites Plat Map, Office of Planning & Grants Zoning Map, and Parks & Recreation Master Plan: Parklands Inventory ICE CREAM SOCIAL — SUMMERTIME FUN