MISSOULA — The City of Missoula unveiled the draft of its future land use plan on Tuesday night as city leaders look to address growth as far out as 2045.
The future of the plan, however, hinges on whether or not the city and county will approve new zoning codes.
“I think it's the next step in a very important process that Missoula is leading the state in,” noted Missoula City Council member and chair of the land use and planning committee Mike Nugent.
The plan brings a targeted approach to the 40,000 acres the city and county oversee with 56% of that land being within city limits.
The city projects that Missoula’s population will grow to roughly 120,000 by 2045. With that comes the need for not only more housing but also a rethinking of what that housing will look like and where it will be allowed.
The plan focused on several key themes the city hopes to implement — increased housing availability, climate resiliency, protection of the environment, accessibility, support for different modes of transportation and an equitable approach.
However, the plan's key focus relies on future zoning code reform as the plan does not fit current zoning codes.
For example, some areas could be zoned for single-family homes with one housing unit per parcel of land. That code would have to change for this plan to be implemented.
“I think the biggest tool that we have is our zoning right now," said Emily Gucklin, senior planner for the City of Missoula. "And what we found from our equity report, we have very widespread amounts of single-family zoning throughout the city. And that's what contributes to housing supply crunches. It contributes to rising housing costs just because across the city, we don't allow the amount of housing to be built that we need."
The city said it would need to see 22,000 homes constructed by 2045 to meet the needs of the future population.
The issue that arises with this is that Missoula currently has a deficit of 1,700 to 2,500 homes. To meet the projected growth, the city would first have to fill that deficit and then build roughly 1,000 homes a year for the next 25 years.
With all of this comes the plan's preferred scenario for growth. The city would like to see more housing in mixed-use areas, more transit services, increased housing options across all neighborhoods, smaller homes, small commercial spaces within neighborhoods and a reform in how parking is regulated — mainly reforming the parking codes so that it favors housing with the parking space required going down to 0.5 parking spaces per housing unit.
In order to increase the number of homes within neighborhoods, the city plans to increase the amount of housing units allowed per parcel. One key takeaway is that the city plans to change the zoning from allowing two units per parcel to three to four units per parcel in suburban residential areas.
It is important to note there are many different ways the city’s plan divides areas across the city and county. This falls into the plan’s definition of “place”.
The different place types are:
- Urban Residential High
- Urban Residential Low
- Suburban Residential
- Rural Residential
- Downtown
- Urban Mixed-Use High
- Urban Mixed-Use Low
- Suburban Mixed-Use
- Industrial and Employment
- Civic
- Open and Resource
- Parks and Open Space
One takeaway from the different types of “places” is that low areas will have one unit of housing per parcel and high areas could have up to eight housing units per parcel.
The city’s plan lays out the components of each different type of “place” in full detail, with many different factors playing into each type. You can find the full plan here. The “place” type definitions begin on page 65.
On top of what “places” are in the plan, there are also ideas for reforming “streets." The elements of a street the city outlines are the modes of travel, function and who/what is prioritized as well as design forms and treatments.
The “street” types the plan lays out are the following:
- Neighborhood Residential
- Neighborhood Greenway
- Neighborhood Mixed-Use
- Community Residential
- Community Mixed-Use
- Regional Connector
- Regional Mixed Use
- Industrial
The definition of “street types” begins on page 99 of the plan.
Overall, the city officials state the plan will lay out the expectations of what could be implemented. It provides options and predictability for what could come and what the city claims is a realistic vision for future growth.
The plan will move into the public participation process before it is fully approved by different policymakers. The plan is expected to be adopted by spring 2025 if the current schedule stays on track.
If you’re interested in participating in the next steps of the planning process, there will be drop-in review and discussion meetings at the Missoula Public Library in the Cooper Room on Wednesday, October 23, 2024, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. Another meeting is scheduled for Monday, October 28, 2024, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
