Missoula planning board backs ‘town center’ subdivision at Wye

Martin Kidston

(Missoula Current) A mixed-used development planned for the Wye received an enthusiastic and unanimous recommendation for approval by members of the Consolidated Planning Board on Tuesday night.

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.

Members of the planning board said the project adheres to the scale and intent of what Missoula County was looking for when it created its newest Land Use Policy and zoning map for the Wye. The area is seen as the next logical place for urban-style development.

“This would be a huge step for the county to approve urban-type development that's not contingent upon annexation by the city,” said board member Dave Loomis. “There's an opportunity for developers to set some standards out there. The overall design and mix of uses is good.”

The project is proposed in as many as 13 phases, though Tuesday's recommendation of approval applied only to the first four phases. As proposed, the first phase includes six commercial lots and 51 resident lots followed in Phase 2 by one commercial lot and 54 residential lots.

The following two phases would include 59 residential lots and 54 residential lots, respectfully. The area dedicated to the first four phases covers around 66 acres and the entire project would be served by a community wastewater system.

In future phases, the project would also donate land to the Frenchtown School District for a new school at the Wye.

“Missoula County has been looking for and setting the stage for development at the Wye,” said Jamie Erbacher, a project representative with the WGM Group. “The Wye is currently a job and economic center. Urban scale development is required to generate a taxable value per acre that's sufficient to be self-sustaining for infrastructure construction and maintenance.”

Missoula County planners also have recommended the project for approval.

Funding future infrastructure

Missoula County in recent years created two Targeted Economic Development Districts at the Wye. The districts are intended to capture tax increment from future growth to help fund future infrastructure needs, including roads, sewer and water.

Grass Valley Gardens would be among the first large projects to unfold within the districts and would provide tax increment for infrastructure. Its wastewater system is designed to tie into future city or county services when they arrive. Tax revenue could also go toward needed improvements to highway 10.

“These intersection impacts are seen as a regional issue that either already exist or will be exacerbated as the Wye area continues to develop,” said Erbacher. “There are funding options out there, and all this will go into that Wye infrastructure plan.”

With the Wye expected to emerge as the next population center, county officials have turned their focus toward developing an infrastructure plan for roughly 3,500 acres around the Wye – an area that's more than twice the size of the Swxtpqyen area off Reserve Street.

When fully built over the coming decades, the area could support as many as 15,000 homes and hundreds of new jobs. Given existing conditions and considering the future, those behind Grass Valley Gardens look to bring commercial amenities to the area to reduce driving trips into Missoula.

“It's a 20-minute drive for a hammer or a carton of milk. There's a lot of people going back and forth for small trips into Missoula,” said project partner Matt Mellott. “When you see job centers and a population with no services, that's a clear signal being created by the market that there's a demand for town-center services.”

Mellott, who has delivered entry-level homes in Missoula over the past six years, said attainable housing played a role in moving forward with the project. The high cost of housing in Missoula is due in part to the region's lack of supply.

Grass Valley Gardens would deliver several hundred homes across a range of types and prices, he said.

“The housing system is broken here, and it's due mainly to a lack of supply. Demand has been constant, but supply hasn't kept up,” he said. “When you have scale and relatively cheap land, you can deliver units and deliver supply to the market that will have a fundamental impact on the availability and affordability of housing. It's one of the key objectives we're after.”

Members of the planning board lauded the project for its vision and push to create a self-sustaining community in an area eyed for growth.

“I hope this builds out and becomes what it's proposed to become,” said board member Rick Hall. “We've been vocal about wanting mixed-used development where you have shopping areas locally. I think it's a great plan.”