City moves to comply with state’s new Land Use and Planning Act

Martin Kidston

(Missoula Current) Changes made by the state Legislature to streamline development and remove a range of administrative hurdles also requires larger cities across the state to comply with the new Land Use and Planning Act by 2026.

The Missoula City Council this week took a step in that direction, saying the law will shift public engagement to the front of the process – when land-use plans, zoning and subdivision regulations are being written – and away from site-specific projects, as has been the case in the past.

With code reform under way and the city moving to comply with the tenants of Senate Bill 382, that means the time for public engagement is now. Barring a few exceptions, public comment on specific projects will no longer take place once the Land Use Plan is adopted.

“The act shifts opportunities for public engagement surrounding land use and development to be during the planning and adoption of city land-use policies and codes rather than at the project level,” said city planner Emily Gluckin. “After the Land Use Plan is adopted in accordance with the Land Use and Planning Act, many site-specific projects will be administered by the city.”

The state's new Land Use and Planning Act has been described by some as a needed update to Montana's outdated development process. It applies to cities with more than 5,000 residents and counties with more than 70,000 residents.

The change is intended to streamline housing construction and create a “modern and seamless approach” to community land-use planning and development. Among other things, the plan must include projections on future land use, housing needs, economic development and natural resources.

“This change is meant to address cumbersome permitting and development processes, such as misaligned regulations and expensive board review,” said city planner Madson Matthias. “Once we identify the amount of people and the number and types of housing we must apply by 2045, we use the categories of local services, economic development, and natural resources and hazards to narrow the scope of where and how we provide that housing.”

Projects Permitted 'By Right'

In past years, a number of proposed projects in Missoula have faced protracted public debates, one of which famously lasted for a year. Many proposed projects have also faced backlash on the neighborhood level, resulting in lengthy and often contentious public hearings.

But under the state's new law, those hearings will become a thing of the past. Public engagement must take place during the writing of the city's Land Use Plan – a process that's taking place now. The city's code-reform effort will also set the foundation for future development, which will be permitted “by right' once the Land Use Plan and code reform processes are finished.

“There's a balance to be struck,” said council member Stacie Anderson. “The Legislature has been on a trajectory of taking away a lot of local control, but dealing with land use is some of the hardest things we deal with on council.”

The new Land Use and Planning Act also requires cities to create a planning commission and on Wednesday, the City Council gave initial approval to do so. For the first year, the former Consolidate Planning Board will become the new Planning Commission.

Many of its responsibilities won't initially change, city officials said. But eventually, the commission will evolve to serve as an appeal for certain projects, when such appeals are permitted by law.

“The current planning board has for some time been a resource for development review and recommendations for city growth policy, subdivision and zoning regulations,” said Laval Means, the city's community planning manager. “But there is an added new function to use them as an appellate board for appeals of administrative, site-specific development review decisions.”