‘Mini town’ with attainable housing, agrihood planned for Wye

Martin Kidston

(Missoula Current) Citing a shortage of housing in Missoula and the county's planning efforts at the Wye, a local development team looks to break ground on a new residential project built around a farm and a town center next year.

On Monday, the Missoula-based GroundSpeed Concepts announced plans to begin the project next fall, pending final approval. Grass Valley Gardens aims to address Missoula's need for more housing at a range of housing types and keep food production local.

“Starter homes don't exist anymore. Access to physical ownership in our community is out of reach for so many people,” said Matt Mellott, the project's managing principal. “Grass Valley Gardens aims to do something about it by offering a wide variety of housing options to Missoulians, both for sale and for rent at approachable prices.”

Over the past two years, Missoula County has turned its planning efforts toward the Wye, including the creation of two Targeted Economic Development Districts. It's Land Use Map, adopted in 2019, also identifies areas around the Wye as neighborhood residential with a dedicated commercial center.

Recent demographics suggest the greater Missoula area will need more than 8,000 new homes over the next decade to keep pace with the population growth and the Wye, in the years to come, could accommodate up to 15,000 new homes.

“The goal here is to make a complete mini-town where a Missoulian could rent their first studio apartment in and then theoretically grow inside of the same neighborhood their entire lives, moving from a studio to a 4-bedroom house, and all options in between,” said Mellott. “This is not some gated community designed to exclude. It’s a place and a community meant to connect.”

The project, planned in four phases, will also include what Mellott described as “the Farm Haul,” or a gathering spot with a food venue and a variety of food and beverage options. He said future phases of the project would also include a Main Street experience, offering a range of services and attractions from galleries and restaurants to groceries and hardware.

But aside from its housing and service amenities, the project's design also includes an “agrihood” as a key feature. It's based upon similar successful concepts including Agritopia in Chandler, Arizona.

Mellot said assistance from the Community Food and Agriculture Coalition would help the project partner with local market gardeners to produce food at the center of the development.

“These neighborhoods put food – and the market gardens that grow it – front and center in the neighborhood,” a project memo stated. “Grass Valley Gardens aims to be a miniature town built around a 45-acre permaculture farm.”

Backers of the project believe that a town center built around an existing employment hub like the Wye will help augment infill elsewhere in the city and county. By bringing hundreds of new housing units to the market, it could also create a “price breather,” giving local residents a chance to catch up on housing costs.

As proposed, the project would deliver single-family homes, condos, townhomes and other unit types at a range of prices. In Missoula County, the median price of a home in 2020 was $345,000, according to the Missoula Organization of Realtors. It now sits at $535,000 with all housing types factored in.

“The first housing project I worked on in Missoula in 2018, we built a new single-family starter home, 2 bed, 1 bath, for $199,000,” said Mellot. “Now, that same home is on the market for resale at $475,000. Our housing market is wildly out of balance.”

Mellott said Phase 1 construction is anticipated to begin in the fall of 2025, pending final approval by county and state officials.