By Sherry Devlin/Missoula Current

During an unusually subdued meeting Monday night, the Missoula City Council unanimously approved the annexation and rezoning of property from 2718 to 2802 South Avenue West for a new Northern Rockies Orthopedics building.

The surgeons have been so successful that they’ve outgrown their offices at Community Medical Center, said city planner Drew Larson. So they plan to construct their own office building directly north of the hospital, three blocks west of Reserve Street.

When the property was zoned back in 1959, planners envisioned the area as residential. But it is now home to the hospital and associated medical buildings, as well as Fort Missoula Regional Park.

So city Development Services staff members recommended the rezoning and annexation, and no one spoke against that plan on Monday.

Representing the physicians, Dale McCormick of Professional Consultants described his clients as “very successful orthopedic surgeons.”

“They’re so successful that they’ve run out of space,” he said. “This site allows them to remain close to the Community Medical Center campus.”

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