MISSOULA — For residents in the Lower Miller Creek area, the expansion of developments has come with increased traffic headaches.
But now, the City of Missoula has rolled out its new plan for addressing traffic and safety issues along Lower Miller Creek Road.
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On Tuesday night, the City of Missoula Public Works Department held an open house at Jeanettee Rankin Elementary School to present the project to the community. Roughly 80 people turned out.
“We have one road out of here. And so, people are concerned about, okay, if you put in roundabouts and you improve the streets, does that make it easier to evacuate in case of wildfire?” said Medora O’Conner, president of the Miller Creek Neighborhood Leadership Team.
The project itself looks at improving the roundabout off of Miller Creek Road, mainly by adding larger shoulders along it.
There would also be road improvements, starting at the roundabout along Lower Miller Creek Road down to Jordan Court. The project proposes that there be sidewalks, bike lanes and larger shoulders along the road.
The project comes with a price tag of $7.7 million that taxpayers in the area will have to help with.
The costs will be paid for by three proposed means: impact fees from new developments in the area, the creation of a Special Improvement District, or SID, and funding from the city’s general fund.
The estimated costs for residents in the proposed SID vary based on what type of home they live in: for single-family residences, they can expect to see a one-time tax of $3,500 to $4,500. For a duplex or condo, it would come out to $2,500 to $3,500. And for an apartment, it would be from $2,000 to $3,000.
Those one-time taxes can either be paid upfront or be financed through the city over a span of 20 years, although the financing is not interest-free.
And for residents in the area, this project has been decades in the making.
O’Conner works with community members in the Miller Creek Neighborhood. She says that while the cost may be something that some may scoff at, it is ultimately worth it.
“I see that people are kind of stunned by the amount of money, and I just, you know, I'm sorry, because I think we all have to contribute to the good of the community, and making things work for everyone, not just ourselves,” said O’Conner.
The Missoula City Council has the final say on whether to adopt the plan.
Several council members were at the open house, including Stacy Anderson, saying that the project has the potential to better the neighborhood as a whole.
“I think it's a well-thought-out plan. I wanna give my constituents the opportunity to contact me, weigh in, have conversations, but it's definitely, I think, a project that is long in the making and I'm excited to see it getting to this point,” said Anderson.
The project still has several city council meetings to move through, although a final vote may come in October.
