MISSOULA — The City of Missoula is continuing its never-ending work of planning for the city’s future growth; now, it’s looking at its North Reserve to Scott Street Master Plan, as the initiative nears finalization.
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Over the past several months, the City of Missoula has been holding a series of open houses to hear from the community members in the area about its Reserve to Scott Master Plan.
On Tuesday, the city held its third open house to present its updated plan after receiving feedback from previous outreach efforts.
Annie Groski is the deputy director of the Missoula Redevelopment Agency. She says the updated plan provides more details on the proposed zoning, essentially how development will be shaped in the area.
“We're also showing more detail and have updated the connectivity through the plan to reflect the feedback with high importance from the community on bicycle and pedestrian connectivity and safety. So those are some of the updates we've made to the plan. We also heard a lot from the community about parks, trails, and open space. So we have more information about how parks could be initiated in the future,” said Groski.
Roughly 50 people showed up to the open house, including professionals with vested interests in the area, like Audrey Handelman, an Architect at Cushing Terrell. She says she appreciates how the city engaged with the community for the plan.
“There's a lot of great aspects to it. I think the key to success is attracting the developers and the developments that would sort of realize this vision, and I think part of doing that is bringing in the streets and infrastructure. And so I think it's headed in the right direction, absolutely,” said Handelman.
Residents in the area also had a positive impression of the plan, with aspects like increased connectivity, denser multi-unit housing and new infrastructure bringing excitement.
“The focus on connecting roads, I suppose, maybe stands out, adding a new road for residential use as opposed to just the existing truck route. And also the park on Scott Street, I didn't know that was happening, so that's cool,” said Ian Allaway, a resident on the Northside.
The plan will now go to the MRA board for approval, after which it goes before the City Council.
