planning

A group of local policymakers, builders and housing advocates on Thursday agreed that addressing Missoula's affordable housing crisis will require a large toolbox and good planning.

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.

Since adopting its housing strategy in 2019, the city has helped build or preserve several hundred housing units, launched a housing trust fund and adopted a new strategy to help direct more revenue to the city's housing needs.

While the population of Missoula County in 1975 was little more than 67,000 residents – the City of Missoula even less – it has since grown more than 80%, now housing more than 121,000 people.

Strategies range from reducing minimum lot sizes to allowing taller buildings and reducing buildings’ required setbacks from property lines to encouraging development of accessory dwelling units.

While the department's new requests add up to around $1.59 million, they don't yet include probable requests around homelessness and shelter. Those requests will be presented in the coming weeks.