MISSOULA — The Missoula City Council passed the Our Missoula 2045 Land Use plan on Monday night, giving the city a concrete plan to address its growth.
The plan's passage goes hand in hand with the long-range transportation plan that the Missoula Metropolitan Organization (MPO) and Mountain Line recently released.
“That the best transportation plan is a good land use plan. And that is absolutely true for transit,” said Mountain Line CEO and general manager Jordan Hess.
The Our Missoula 2045 Land Use Plan largely focuses on what future neighborhoods and streets will look like. With up to 40,000 more people expected to live in Missoula by 2045, getting around town will certainly look different.
“We have plans for some new roads and bridges. So areas, especially that area west of Reserve Street,” said Missoula Public Works and Mobility planning manager Aaron Wilson.
Both MPO and Mountain Line are looking at efficiency and robust planning to address the growth.
“The more orderly and predictable development is the better it is for public transportation and, and there’s no, that’s the reason why, you know, more traditional neighborhoods are much more productive from a transit standpoint,” explained Hess.
"It's an opportunity for us to look at how the community is changing, what does growth look like? What're traffic patterns? Where are we seeing issues? And then just make sure we're on the right path,” stated Wilson.
Mountain Line has proposed shifting bus schedules around to better address ridership levels while MPO may have to get a little more creative to fulfill their plan.
“The thing to realize that we have, you know, in our 200 projects or approximately 200 projects in the plan. Over 25 years is, you know, equivalent of over a billion dollars, maybe as much as $1.6 billion," Wilson explained. "And our projected available revenue to do those projects is about 250 million. So the the need far outpaces the amount of money we have And again, that just reinforces we need to make really good decisions about how we use that money."
The key thing to remember with both Mountain Line’s and MPO’s plans is that they will not raise taxes in any way, as they are limited to a fixed rate of funding.
So with the city land use plan passed, transportation planners are excited to see how the future of getting around Missoula may take shape.
