Midtown Missoula Master Plan Visioning Workshop

The Midtown Missoula Master Plan visioning workshop is scheduled for Tuesday evening at the YMCA.

We spoke with Melanie Brock, Executive Director of the Missoula Midtown Association about the event.

“We are at the exciting Community Visioning process in this 18-month long project to come up with a cohesive plan for the redevelopment of the Midtown area,” began Brock. “On September 27, we're hosting a community visioning workshop at the Missoula YMCA on Russell Street from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.”

Brock said this will be the public’s first opportunity to see the vision that planners and developers have been working on for several years for the midtown area.

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“You’ll meet with our team of economists, transportation planners and parking experts, engineers, and urban designers,” she said. “We have a really great team there who will lead everyone who shows up in a visioning exercise where you could walk around the Missoula YMCA gym and give your feedback on things you love about Midtown, things you don't like about Midtown and things you'd like to see change and not changed.”

Realizing that many new to Missoula may not understand the term 'Midtown', Brock provided some parameters for the area.

“We consider midtown south of Mount down to 39th Street and Reserve Street over to Higgins on the eastern side,” she said. “For this study boundary we had to consolidate a little bit, so we will be studying the eastern part of South Reserve Street to Bancroft as the eastern boundary and Mount on the north and 39th Street on the south.”

Years in the making, Brock provided financial details of the plan and the project.

“The whole process cost over half a million dollars, but we raised it from the community,” she said. “The Midtown Association started a steering committee. We brought in various members to help us. We started over two years ago, and we have over 33 businesses who contributed to make this possible, as well as some public funding partners. We are very blessed that Urban Renewal District Three is right in the center of the study area. So there are TIF (Tax Increment Financing) urban renewal district dollars being used for the Master Plan.”

The visioning workshop will be Tuesday evening at the Missoula Family YMCA from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. and all are welcome to attend.