Exciting Progress for Midtown
We had major developments recently in our work to launch a master planning effort for Midtown. With a significant investment in Urban Renewal District III funding from the Missoula Redevelopment Agency, we are now $17,000 away from a fully funded Master Plan project.
Please see our press release below for details on the historic investments being made in Midtown. We ask for you to please consider joining the 38 businesses and public sector partners supporting this effort by making a tax-deductible donation to the Missoula Midtown Foundation to help us close the funding gap and launch the Master Plan in January.
Contributions can be made online HERE or by sending an email to midtown@missoulamidtown.com.
Thank you for your support and participation!
November 18, 2021
PRESS STATEMENT
Record Breaking Investment in Midtown Missoula
Missoula Midtown Master Plan Taps Urban Renewal District III Support at Pivotal Moment
(Missoula, MT) – The Missoula Midtown Association today solidified a partnership with the Missoula Redevelopment Agency to finalize funding to launch a Master Plan for Missoula’s urban core. The MRA Board approved up to $370,000 in Urban Renewal District III funding toward a $570,000 project budget. The Missoula Midtown Association will now proceed to hire a planning & design team to lead Missoula County in an 18-month planning process to guide growth in Midtown.
The plan dovetails extraordinarily well with other efforts underway for Midtown, particularly the Brooks Street Corridor bus rapid transit project, which Missoula was awarded an $850,000 RAISE grant from the federal government to complete plans for this week. The Association was pleased to support the City of Missoula’s application for a USDOT RAISE grant that will identify all that is required to make bi-directional, fixed-route, center-running bus-rapid transit successful on Brooks Street. These two planning efforts present a combined over $1.4 million investment in charting the future of Midtown.
The Midtown Master Plan differs from other efforts in that it will approach Midtown holistically, recognizing our area as a loved place people already enjoy, and folding previous work into a comprehensive vision that embraces current residents and workers.
“Without a community vision for Midtown, we risk being caught flatfooted when demand for development increases beyond our community capacity to manage it appropriately,” Lauren Hutchison, Missoula Midtown Association Board Chair wrote to MRA. “The equitable Master Plan we envision and have carefully planned over the last two years will be a thorough, thoughtful, and innovative approach to create a space for Midtowners and Missoulians to engage in a planning process unlike any before. We plan to put Midtown on the map as an extraordinary place and Missoula on the map as a leader in innovative planning and engagement.”
The deliverable will be an all-inclusive Master Plan in a multi-media format that details a comprehensive strategy to engage public and private businesses, citizens, and stakeholders, emphasizing disenfranchised populations. This will require innovative approaches to working directly with groups who are left out of traditional public processes, and will be a fresh approach to community planning in Missoula.
The Missoula Midtown Association has been working for many years to prepare for this moment and we are grateful to our many community partners and over 30 businesses who are supporting this effort. We will be issuing the RFP to begin building the planning & design team who will lead us in this process this January and look forward to working with the community to create a plan that will guide Missoula growth for decades to come.