Billings council annexes seven Yellowstone Country Club lots despite neighbors' concerns over trail access

Mayor Mike Nelson convened the meeting and the City Council voted Tuesday to annex three small parcels and rezone them from parks/open space to suburban residential, clearing the way for seven single‑family lots the Yellowstone Country Club plans to sell.

The council’s decision follows more than two hours of staff presentations and public testimony in which neighbors pressed the club and city for firm commitments that longstanding informal trail access and key trailheads would remain available to the public.

Hunter Kelly of the planning division explained the technical case for annexation and rezoning, telling the council the parcels are adjacent to residential streets already served by water and sewer and that the change to N3 zoning would align the lots with surrounding development patterns. Taylor Kasperic, the applicant’s agent, said the club is proposing seven infill lots and that the sites would generate only modest traffic: “Seven single family lots would generate around 66 total vehicle trips per day, which is far below the threshold considered nominal,” he told the council.

Many neighbors disputed the need for the change. Bill Cole, who lives within a few hundred feet of the lots, urged council to require the club to reserve a stretch of the middle Area 2 parcel “for public access to and from the rims and for viewshed protection,” arguing that the existing informal access near the rim is the community’s primary trailhead. Several other residents warned that past access to trails has been lost over time and asked for a legally binding agreement that would preserve current access points.

Jeff Maracek, president of Yellowstone Country Club, said the club has not restricted access historically and that the club does not plan to cut off trail use: “We have not restricted access to the trails despite our lawful right to do so,” he said, adding the club’s current practice is not to close the informal paths.

Councilmember Eric O’Donnell moved to condition the annexation on a written guarantee that the club maintain “reasonable and accessible access” to the trail system; O’Donnell’s substitute motion failed for lack of a second. Legal staff advised that council can attach conditions to annexations but that proposed language would need precise drafting. Ultimately the council voted to approve the annexation resolution and adopt the zoning change as recommended by staff. Council then approved, on first reading, an ordinance to expand Ward 4 to encompass the newly annexed area.

The votes concluded a contentious public process. Neighbors said they will press for formal agreements during later subdivision and annexation‑agreement steps; the club said it will proceed with subdivision and plans to market the lots. The annexation agreement and specific subdivision plans are expected to return to council for separate approvals.