Annexation approved for Missoula’s growing Linda Vista subdivision

The Missoula City Council on Monday night approved the annexation of three areas within the Linda Vista subdivision, including one parcel not yet developed.

The annexed areas include 15 acres already developed with 200 apartments in 17 buildings, and a separate area consisting of seven lots on 2.5 acres off Joy Drive.

Both areas are already occupied and the homes connected to city services.

The largest piece includes around 18 acres containing 41 undeveloped lots off Miller Creek Road. Plans call for single-family structures served by city services now that annexation has been approved.

The annexation request, which came before the city early last month, raised questions and conversations around traffic. Those conversations are likely to continue even now that annexation has been approved.

“We really can't take that into consideration when allowing for this annexation,” council member Stacie Anderson said of traffic concerns.

Over the past 20 years, development has worked its way south and is inching ever closer to Lolo. The Linda Vista subdivision and others in the Miller Creek area have provided hundreds of new housing units, but ways in and out of the hilly area remain few.

Anderson said it has emerged as a point of frustration for those in the area. She and other are expected to push for a traffic study and possible future infrastructure improvements.

“We need to continue ramping up our efforts to do that, but we can't as part of this annexation,” she said. “Many of my constituents believe that we're continuing to grow and feeling there's a pinch point in getting in and out of the Miller Creek-Linda Vista neighborhood.”

https://missoulacurrent.com/business/2021/10/egress-miller-creek/