Affordable housing in Missoula will require visionary planning, experts say

MISSOULA — A group of local policymakers, builders and housing advocates on Thursday agreed that addressing Montana's affordable housing crisis will require a large toolbox and good planning.

Missoula may be ahead of the game and with code reform underway, they also agreed that it marked a rare opportunity to usher in a new housing era – one that follows a strong community vision and results in the smoother review and approval of housing projects.

“As planners, one of the things we should be planning for is affordable housing,” said Angela Brooks, president of the American Planning Association. “If there are zones and the types of housing we want, we need to make it easier to get through the processes.”

Brooks joined planners from the city and county of Missoula, along with builders and a member of the City Council, to discuss land use in Montana and how planning and zoning can either help or hinder efforts to create affordable housing.

The issue has become a statewide crisis, drawing the attention of the governor and state Legislature, which adopted the new Land Use Planning Act during the last Legislative session. While it marked a promising start, local officials believe that code reform could help drive the nail home.

“It's incredibly important to spend the time and effort to craft a community vision that has broad public support,” said Andrew Hagemeier, who serves on the Montana Association of Planners and as director of Community and Economic Development at the county. “This is a wicked problem, the housing problem. It really is going to take a magnitude of different tools. We need to create a big-tent coalition.”

Such coalitions have emerged in other parts of the county and the roadmap to code reform and more affordable housing may already exist.

The American Planning Association and its partners recently adopted the national Housing Supply Accelerator, an effort to provide a diverse range of housing types by realigning local planning efforts. The group included a wide range of stakeholders including builders, bankers and realtors to create a playbook that local communities can follow as they tackle local issues around housing.

“Some of the conversations you're going to have, we already had. Those steps were already debated,” said Brooks. “It was a collaborative effort. It's something that can be duplicated in other communities.”

Code reform brings opportunities

Missoula's steps toward code reform could create a range of new opportunities while streamlining the development and review process. Experts on Thursday described it as a unique opportunity to reshape Missoula and meet its housing needs.

Justin Metcalf, a local builder who specializes in affordable housing, said the city's lack of affordable housing has far-reaching consequences. Fixing the process starts with code reform and visionary planning.

“Planning drives everything,” he said. “This opportunity to redo our zoning is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and I'm really excited about it. I think it's going to improve our quality of life over the long term in Missoula.”

It could also streamline the review process and eliminate the uncertainty that comes with requested zoning changes, conditional uses and other issues that go before City Council and the Board of County Commissioners.

Under new state law, a project that meets the goals and objectives detailed in a city's planning document should find a smoother path to approval.

“I'd like to give city planning staff more ability to get to yes without coming to City Council or the county to ask for permission for a variance. There are ways we can do that,” said council member Mike Nugent. “If a project has to go through a council hearing, you're adding months or a bunch of time, and a bunch of money, and there's a huge unknown because it's the mood of the moment. It's not a good way to do planning.”

Hagemeier agreed, saying that recent legislation – most notably the Land Use Planning Act – changed the paradigm of how planning and development in Montana occurs.

Prior to the act, planning was disconnected from a city's growth policy and driven instead by development review. That opened the gates to subjectivity and uncertainty, and it often left both developers and some members of the public frustrated.

“That created a subjective and difficult process for people to navigate,” said Hagemeier. “These growth policies are your vision of what you want your community to look like. But there was no connection between the vision you create in your growth policy and the implementation in our zoning and subdivision regulations.”

That has changed in state law and code reform in Missoula will help address that disconnect locally, Hagemeier added. Once the process is completed, Missoula will have a consolidated planning document rather than a bunch of scattered laws, zoning and growth plans.

“If a project meets the vision and regulations, it simplifies the approval process,” Hagemeier said. “It's really putting the planning process back where it needs to be.”

While code reform plays out and local officials look to other cities for fresh ideas to address affordable housing, they also agree that new tools to finance certain projects must be explored.

In Chicago, Brooks said housing officials found access to capital in ways others didn't. They also cut development fees and created their own nonprofit development corporation to Secure New Market Tax Credits.

At times, Brooks said they also found it quicker to develop their own affordable housing projects. In Missoula, some believe local government could find a new role as well.

“There are ways cities and counties across the nation are providing access to financing directly to developers for mixed use, cross-subsidized projects. They don't have to wait for a tax credit allocation or federal funding to subsidize that project,” said Eran Pehan, the city's director of Planning, Community Development and Innovation.

“The role of local government might need to change. The city might have to think about how to get into the housing game.”