MISSOULA — The phasing plan for a subdivision approved in East Missoula could be delayed several years until legal issues filed by area residents play out in court.
The City Council in 2024 approved and annexed the Aspire Subdivision, planned on 35 acres north of Interstate 90 in East Missoula. The project includes 172 lots earmarked for single-family homes and 10 lots for multi-dwelling units, all accessed by Summers Street, which connects to Highway 200.
The first phase of the project is due by the end of this year, and while the review criteria remain largely unchanged, other issues remain in flux, according to city planner Dave DeGrandpre.
Shortly after the city approved the subdivision, some area residents opposed to the project filed a lawsuit in Missoula District Court. That has resulted in a series of motions and briefs, most of which have resulted in the city's favor.
District Court has dismissed all the complaints but one, that regarding the project's neighborhood character overlay, something that's often used in development to provide more flexibility, DeGrandpre said. However, he added that the hangup over the overlay may be mute in the end.
“The city recently filed a motion to stay the proceedings as it works to adopt a new Unified Development Code,” he told City Council members on Wednesday. “When new zoning is applied, the neighborhood character overlay will essentially go away. We feel it would make the lawsuit moot.”
But the tangle in District Court has also slowed the developer's plans to move forward, given the uncertainty. The City Council will decide on Monday whether to push the Phase 1 filing deadline back to 2028.
The potential delay in phasing also requires the city to determine if the conditions that originally favored the project have changed. Since the project was first approved last year, the city has adopted its 2045 Land Use Plan, which lists most of East Missoula — including the Aspire property – as urban residential high.
That includes complete streets, walkable neighborhoods and a range of building types, including single-family and multi-family development. In nearly all criteria, DeGrandpre said little has changed.
“In terms of other changed impacts to the primary review criteria, there really aren't a whole lot, in staff's opinion,” he said. “We don't see a lot of change since last year.”
Still, one issue has changed for East Missoula as a whole. When the Aspire project was approved last year, the city and county had secured a $24 million transportation grant to make vast improvements to the Highway 200 corridor.
But the Trump administration has since rescinded the grant, leaving no funding for the anticipated improvements to Highway 200.
“I don't think it impacts the subdivision all that much,” DeGrandpre said. “The developer is required by condition to improve Summers Street to the intersection of Highway 200. But the loss of grant funding isn't going to impact this (subdivision) that much.”
