MISSOULA — Missoula County will hear proposals from a local developer and engineering firm about their interest in redeveloping a local golf course into a housing development.
In a statement Friday afternoon, the county said Blueline Development and the WGM Group will present their plans next week to convert the Larchmont Golf Course into a mixed-use development.
“Larchmont is a treasured public amenity with enormous use, and the county must take a measured, thoughtful approach to any idea for developing it because once it’s gone, we can’t get it back,” said Emily Brock, director of economic and land development with the county. “However, this is a bold proposal that could add significant housing supply to our market, and the developers deserve a chance to present it.”
Friday’s announcement was the first time the proposal was publicly announced, and not many details were offered. But according to the county, the proposal would represent another land deal between the county and Blueline.
The county in 2019 gave the developer and other partners several acres of vacant public land off Mullan Road to construct an affordable and low-income housing project, known as Trinity. That project will contain 130 apartments and is currently under construction.
In exchange for the 152-acre Larchmont Golf Course, the County would obtain 157 acres of land owned by the developer off Highway 93 south of Missoula near the Bitterroot River. A new public golf course is proposed to be developed on that property where housing cannot be built because it lies in the floodplain.
The golf course is one of Missoula’s largest and most popular. It’s located off Reserve Street near Fort Missoula Regional Park.
The county said further details of the proposal will be released next week.
“We are in the very beginning stages of this, and there are still a lot of legal and financial questions about the value of the land and quantifying its public benefit that the county would need to answer to pursue the proposal,” Brock said.
