The Missoula Redevelopment Agency and its consultants will host a Community Workshop for the North Reserve/Scott Street Urban Renewal District Master Plan on Wednesday.

Once, the north side of Missoula was all about the logging and timber industry. Its decline became evident after the massive Van-Evans warehouse fire in 1985, the largest single fire in Missoula's history. The White-PIne and Sash Company and Clawson Manufacturing were also once major employers in the area, but now, the area is in transition.

One of the chief planning engineers at WGM Group, Jeremy Keene, said the community workshop is necessary to develop a workable plan for the North Reserve and Scott Street areas.

"It's a very diverse area with a lot of different land uses going on," Keene said. "There's everything from commercial to heavy industrial to some residential, so we're figuring out how all those uses can fit together and how we can continue to work together to grow that part of town."

Keene said the presentation on Wednesday evening will feature several items.

"We'll do some presentations about what's going on out there today, and then we'll ask attendees to do some workshop exercises around a map and some photographs that will have different kinds of land use, and we'll be looking for them to show us where those different uses might be appropriate," he said. "We'll use the public responses to frame out a plan and a concept for the area and how the various areas will be connected with transportation."

The first public input meeting will be held on Wednesday from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. at Ruby’s Inn, 4825 N. Reserve St., Missoula.

Get more details by calling the Missoula Redevelopment Agency at 552-6155, or the WGM Group at 728-4611.

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