MISSOULA — This edition of Current Events with Missoula Current editor Martin Kidston examines how Missoula County is laying the groundwork for future growth at the Wye.
“So they're trying to get their crystal ball and they're trying to look out 50 years. What will Missoula need in growth?” Kidston said. “Employment, housing and education, all kinds of things. They're expecting growth to continue as it is now. Missoula County has almost doubled in size in the last 50 years. So, if it doubles again, where are you going to put all those extra people? All the new residents, the new children. Where are you going to educate them? How will transportation work? A lot of issues at stake?”
Missoula County officials are trying to look to the future at how the Wye area might look like in 50 years.
“They're trying to do it in small increments, do five years, 10 years, 20 years, 30 years. They're going to pick these projects off in small doses,” Kidston explained. “When they look at the Wye, [they] are planning it -- infrastructure, sewer, water road, road grids, intersections, things like that. They think that's a capacity out there to accommodate between 10 and 15,000 houses. So, if you figure two people per house, you're talking about 30,000 people. It becomes a small city -- bigger than a lot of cities in Montana.”
A lot of work would be involved to accommodate so many people in the area.
“A lot of problems are that it hasn't been planned [by] the county. This was an area target for growth as far back as 50 years ago — the Wye was. But nobody's been managing it, they haven't been on top of it,” Kidston said. “They're trying to get on top of that now. So, they're laying out how would the traffic grid work. How would the sewer system work? Where would the water come from? Things like that. And of course, where is the funding going to come from? You're talking hundreds of millions of dollars. It sounds outrageous, but they do say if picked up in small pieces a couple years at a time, it's doable. They've already created a targeted economic development district out there. They created two for the Wye that captures tax increments so that instrument generates revenue for infrastructure, so these projects will begin to pay for themselves.”
“There's already industrial development out there. You've seen the new Amazon building, Loves Travel Stop. There's a couple of subdivisions that are planned out there,” Kidston continued. “Planned neighborhoods. Those things might start breaking ground in the coming years. They're going to see a lot of activity probably pick up here soon.”
There has been a big tug of war with housing because some people don't want Missoula to grow that much that quickly. There is a need for housing, but one question is how to balance that as part of the plan for the Wye.
“Well, planning is the, is the key. You know, if you don't plan it, you have a mess. They planned the Mullan area and they did a pretty good job of that. You know, they got the federal grant to build the infrastructure, the road grid...the sewer and water, the road grid,” Kidston said. “The developments tie into that system, and you have organized planned development What you've seen on the Wye in the last 50 years [is] not much the plan. It's kind of a crap shoot out there. It’s ugly, it's a mess. They want to improve upon that.”
Visit https://missoulacurrent.com/ to learn more about the 50 year plan that Missoula County is working on for development at the Wye.
