Wye

Calling it an innovative approach to housing and development and saying it was in the right place, Missoula County on Thursday approved the Grass Valley Gardens subdivision at the Wye.

Grass Valley Gardens, which consists of 187 acres south of Highway 10, is proposed as a Planned Unit Development that looks to create a stand-alone community built around a range of housing types, commercial amenities and a 45-acre permaculture farm.

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.

Missoula County looks to drill a monitoring well in Frenchtown to better understand the source of bacteria in area groundwater and replace a second test well at the Wye.

The Metropolitan Planning Organization will help fund the creation of an infrastructure plan for the Wye to ensure it includes trails, transit and connectivity.

A subdivision approved in 2013 received a three-year extension from Missoula County last week to file its final plat, giving the 70-lot project more time to complete its phasing plan.

The developers behind a project that will include both industrial and residential offerings near the Wye are set to begin the project's first phase, they said his week.

As economic activity grows in several development districts created by Missoula County in recent years, it's now streamlining the authority board that oversees them.