MISSOULA — The City of Missoula has been hard at work completing its land use plan, which paves the way for future development within the city.
However, a recent court ruling from Gallatin County has left the city in an uncertain situation regarding the pursuit of its land use plan.
But city officials say that regardless of the ruling, they are pushing forward.
“[W]e’re not going to put everything on hold and wait for resolution," said Missoula City Attorney Ryan Sudbury. "We're, we're kind of full speed ahead. We've heard from the public that they want changes and they want us to, you know, take steps to make development, affordable housing or housing generally easier and more predictable. And that's what we're going to do."
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Montanan’s Against Irresponsible Densification, LLC, brought the case to the Montana Eighteenth Judicial District Court — arguing that the Montana Land Use Planning Act was unconstitutional and the law did not allow for enough public input.
“The court found that the one problem in the Montana Land Use Planning Act was related to allowing or limiting public participation in some land use decisions. And that's what we're still going to have to kind of grapple with as we move forward,” Sudbury said.
The Montana Land Use Planning Act set up cities to have all public comment during the drafting and approval of each city’s land use plan. The Act then allows city leaders to make ministerial decisions, like approving a phase of a subdivision, without public comment.
But, the court ruled that public comment is still required for those actions.
“[T]here’s all this public participation with the thought being that once you did all those rules and you had public participation in all those rules, you wouldn't need public participation in site-specific developments because they're allowed,” Sudbury said.
City officials hope the decision will either be appealed or addressed by the legislature but they tell MTN that despite the ruling, they are still full speed ahead with the land use plan and zoning reform.
