MISSOULA — The City of Missoula hosted a walk with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) around the Old Sawmill District on Wednesday to highlight what they say is a success story for the Missoula Brownfields Program.
The program provides grants to the city to give former industrial and commercial properties new life. Some of these properties include the ones that became the Poverello Center, Missoula Food Bank and the River Road Neighborhood Farm.
The EPA's Brownfields Program — which was developed to provide funds to assess and clean up brownfields in 1995 — provides grants to the city to give former industrial and commercial properties new life.
The City of Missoula used a $1.7 million loan in 2006 for a cleanup project in the Old Sawmill District that was completed in 2014. The area is now home to a 14-acre riverfront park. Additionally, Wyoming Street — which now boasts everything from apartments to restaurants — was extended.
Missoula Brownfields Program Specialist Tyler Walls says the city is still looking into the future regarding the project.
"So what we see now in 2023 is the result of the cleanup being complete in 2014 there’s still a lot of parcels of property in development phases so there’s still five, 10, 20 years of plans that will fill the entirety of this property."
The Old Sawmill District has seen over $100 million in private investment since the revitalization project began.
- information from the Missoula Current included in this report.
