
City secures small northside parcel ahead of revised master plan
Martin Kidston
(Missoula Current) With the city's approval to purchase property for a park in north Missoula, it's now planning to secure a smaller parcel nearby to round out its holdings in the area.
City Council this week approved the purchase of the half-acre lot off Shakespeare Street from the Resurrection Cemetery Association. The roughly $400,000 purchase follows the city's acquisition of the 5-acre park parcel across the street.
The larger parcel will serve as a new neighborhood park while the smaller lot will be added to property held by the city in the Scott Street area. The city intends to see a mixed-use development land on the site.
“That half-acre piece will complete that missing link,” said Annie Gorski, deputy director at MRA. “When the parks department was negotiating for the five-acre lot, they (cemetery group) made it clear they also wanted to dispose of that smaller parcel.”
The city in November approved the purchase of the 5-acre lot to replace the loss of a nearby park to the extension of the area's street grid. At the time, it also intended to purchase the half-acre lot to square out the city's property holdings in the Scott Street area.
Gorski said the future of the smaller parcel and other land holdings within the area will be included in an update to the area's master plan.
“This would be a future mixed-use parcel,” Gorski said. “We anticipate updating the master plan, and as part of that planning process, we'd seek public input on the redevelopment of parcels in this area.”
Gorski said MRA will contract a consultant to update the plan starting this spring. The old plan broke the Scott Street district into several pieces to accommodate housing, commercial and industrial development. It also proposed a new I-90 interchange and a connection to Russell Street.
But since then, a number of changes have occurred, including the closing of the Roseburg particleboard plant and the construction of several large housing projects. The city plans a number of transportation improvements in the area to accommodate recent and future growth.