MISSOULA — A federal grant announced this week will help the City of Missoula complete its unified development code and expedite a number of other changes that would have taken years to complete.
Add it up and the city's share of the $7 million grant provided by the Montana Department of Commerce looks to increase the construction of affordable housing by cutting red tape and other regulatory barriers.
“It's really working to support communities like Missoula as we come into full compliance with the Montana Land Use and Planning Act,” said Eran Pehan, director of development in Missoula. “It will allow us to innovate around the creation of housing and complete what we know will be some remaining tasks.”
The city late last yearadopted its new land use plan and, in doing so, it estimated a current housing shortage of 3,000 units. It also cited the need for 27,000 more housing units by 2045 to keep pace with anticipated growth.
Such projections are required by state law and are based in part by the recommendations issued by a housing task force established by Gov. Greg Gianforte. The group identified several problems linked to the state's housing shortage and included solutions intended to remove barriers in cities across Montana.
With Missoula's new land use plan in place, the city is now working to finalize its unified development code. Pehan said the $371,000 grant awarded to Missoula will help boost the city's capacity to move through the process faster than before.
“It will allow us to move a couple of things we had anticipated completing within the next four years up significantly in our timeline,” Pehan said. “It will allow us to get some outside expertise and resource to help our internal staff do that work.”
The $7 million grant, provided by the Department of Housing and Urban Development and its “Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing” program, will also help cities in Montana address restrictive land-use and regulatory policies.
That includes new housing strategies that offer a range of incentives for the development of affordable housing. That could include loans at a reduced interest rate and allowance for innovative housing construction.
“With more people moving to Montana and with not enough homes being built, the price of housing has skyrocketed, putting a key element of the American dream out of reach for many,” Gianforte said in a statement. “Working with the legislature, we enacted key pro-housing reforms in 2023, and Montana is now a national leader on increasing housing supply.”
Missoula is one of 11 cities across Montana to receive funding from the grant. Its work to comply with legislative changes through code reform and an updated land-use plan will serve as a model to other communities facing similar housing challenges.
Missoula's new land-use plan identifies where greater density is suitable and area's where certain constraints may limit growth. It also looks to allow for more “diverse” and affordable housing types, smaller lot sizes and mixed-use development.
Pehan said the city's share of the grant will enable it to move quicker into the next and final phase, that being the creation of a unified development code.
“We're deep in that work right now,” said Pehan. “We anticipate bringing a draft code to the public in April and work to get to that final adoption later in spring or summer. The finish line is in sight. This grant will help us implement all the good work in our land use plan we just adopted.”
