MISSOULA — This edition of Current Events with Missoula Current editor Martin Kidston takes an in-depth look at the possibility of redeveloping land off of Reserve Street.
There's a large gravel pit in northwest Missoula that county officials are eying to transform into housing. It could help with the housing crunch, but there's a lot to consider before the project becomes a reality.
“The county hired a technical firm to take a look at this and eventually declare it void of infrastructure which allows the county to establish a Targeted Economic Development (TED) District,” Kidston explained. “That's the goal with this property.”
“Right now, the plan is to bring infrastructure to these areas. The county has several TEDs. They have two out at the Wye, they got the Bonner Mill plant, they got the thing up by the airport. This would be their latest TED,” Kidston continued. “The idea of a TED is very similar to an urban renewal district in the city. It captures tax increment [funding]. That tax increment goes to sewer, water -- the infrastructure that's needed to support redevelopment and that's what they're hoping to do.”
“There's some preliminary ideas -- they're still trying to get their partners together -- but the idea would be commercial, maybe some medical housing is a great place for housing,” Kidston said. “[It’s] near existing city services off Reserve Street. A sizable mixed-use development built around housing, retail, office space, things like that.”
“The city and the county plans to try to keep growth as close to the city core as possible and avoid sprawling out further and further and further into the valley,” Kidston explained. “This is a large piece of land that sits near the city limits, right near existing services.”
“Most people feel it's a good place and a logical place to grow, and it takes the pressure off some of the outward growth we see around here sometimes got you.”
“Tax increments can sometimes be controversial as we all know, but that's really one of the only tools the city and county has to get ahead of the structure and fund the infrastructure,” Kidston noted. “The cost of doing that out of the general fund would be unfeasible. There's not enough money in the city or county to tackle this on their own. So, you have to bond these projects, or you got to try to get tax increment out of them to get ahead of the growth.”
The proposal would not bring tax increases to city or county residents.
“They would not see their taxes increase from this. Not right now. So, this is a project will take a couple of years to kind of get it ready to establish the TED, but no tax increase,” Kidston concluded.
