MISSOULA — The City of Missoula has been looking to sell the property that it owns behind Bob Wards for years, and on Monday night, the Missoula City Council approved the sale of one of its properties in the name of affordable housing.
The Missoula City Council decided to sell two properties, most commonly known as the Midtown Commons, to Miramonte Companies, LLC, a Montana-based developer, for $7.2 million.
The properties sat as vacant land for decades, being used as an impromptu green space for residents in the area, although the land was private property.
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The sale comes alongside a development agreement, with the developer aiming to develop for-sale units, like condominiums, and multi-family rental units alongside a 1.6-acre park that will later be donated to the city.
For the city, the sale represents a major step in its goal of developing city-owned land for affordable housing.
“The thing that I want to emphasize here is that we talk quite a bit about the need to invest in what's called capital A affordable housing. That's the deed restricted to affordable housing in Franklin Crossing or opportunity placed. It takes significant public subsidy to do that. And so we have to figure out how do we meet all of these different housing needs. And one way we're able to do that is projects like Midtown Commons,” Mayor Andrea Davis said.
But members of the public came out to voice their opposition to the sale, largely speaking about the loss of a green space and many trees.
“These old friends deserve not only our respect and our reverence but our kindness and our compassion as well and it boggles the mind that the city honestly intends to destroy every precious tree in an area otherwise lacking critical established shade habitat, especially with climate change,” one member of the public said.
The city hopes that the new housing that will be built on the land will be affordable housing, with certain incentives given by the city encouraging it.
Although with the current price of construction, the affordability of the potential new development remains in the air.
