Missoula County approves sweeping infrastructure plan for the Wye

Martin Kidston

(Missoula Current) Missoula County this week adopted an infrastructure plan for the Wye – a step to support what's expected to become the next hub of growth within the Missoula metropolitan area.

Roughly two years in the making, the Wye Infrastructure Plan serves as a roadmap to transform the area into a new urban center. To achieve that, the plan explores current infrastructure needs and ways to fund them.

“The plan ... identified the Wye as a growth area for the county. But today, the Wye is not set up to accommodate that projected growth,” said Andrew Hagemeier, director of community and economic development at the county. “This plan helps us identify infrastructure needs and constraints in the area. It will help us identify funding sources and think about funding infrastructure improvements over time. It also keeps the county in a proactive stance, thinking about the long term and how we grow in that area.”

With more than 1,200 acres of planned residential development and 1,100 acres of industrial land, the county believes the Wye can accommodate Missoula's growing population and house new businesses.

The new infrastructure plan projects up to 15,000 new homes and 7.7 million square feet of industrial space over the next 50 years. The latter could support nearly 11,500 jobs.

By promoting such high-density development, the plan aims to reduce sprawl at other areas and “foster a vibrant economy and improve the quality of life for residents.”

“This plan has been in process for a couple of years now. We're ready to finish it off,” said Hagemeier.

The county already has adopted two Targeted Economic Development Districts at the Wye to help fund the area's infrastructure needs. A number of larger projects also have been approved including Grass Valley Gardens, which includes several hundred housing units and a commercial town center – something the Wye currently lacks.

The next step in the process will seek to better understand the area's water resources.

“The plan recognizes that's a known unknown,” said Hagemeier. “The plan recommends that we move forward with an additional groundwater study to really understand how the groundwater works at the Wye.”

With infrastructure lacking, the private sector last year approached the county to establish the makings of a water system. One of those partners included Grass Valley Industrial, which has plans for its own property at the Wye.

Under subdivision regulations, water for both domestic use and fire suppression are required ahead of development. Rather than building a site-specific system for one parcel of property, Grass Valley and other partners will develop a water system large enough to serve 20 users across 70 acres.

It will also be designed to expand to other properties as development moves in. The county has already approved $5.3 million in tax increment to aid in the process. As agreed upon, the private sector will build the water system and the county will assume ownership and reimburse the cost once the system is operational.

“We need to build at certain levels of intensity, and we need the infrastructure to do that. Otherwise, we end up building at low density,'” said Hagemeier.