North MRL Triangle Redevelopment Public Process to Launch

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - What is called by the City of Missoula, the North MRL Triangle, which currently contains the Johnson Street Shelter, will be redeveloped according to a public process to be launched starting March 5 with a community meeting.

I spoke with Michael Hicks, Project Manager with Missoula Redevelopment Agency about the initial steps in determining the future uses of the eight-acre site owned by the City of Missoula.

“Over roughly a nine-month period, MRA (Missoula Redevelopment Agency) working with the lead consultant team GGLO (a Northwest-based design firm), will be exploring community priorities and redevelopment feasibility for the site,” began Hicks. “The idea here is to get a sense of the community's priorities and interests in what the future of this site might hold.”

Meeting to Plan the Future of the North MRL Triangle Will Be on March 5

Hicks laid out the planning process for the site.

“We basically are going to have three phases to this project,” he said. “The first phase is going to kind of center on imagining the future uses of the site. Phase two will explore some draft options, and then phase three will focus on a preferred option.”

Hicks specifically described the initial public meeting to be held in early March.

There Will be Three Community Meetings to Plan the Site's Future

“We're planning to have three community workshops,” he said. The first is going to take place on March 5, at Stockman Bank at 3615 Brooks Street. It'll be an open house style where residents can come by and kind of explore some of what the consultants have learned to date, as well as share ideas that they have for how this property could be redeveloped in the future. Then there will be two more community meetings similar to that for the other two phases of the project as we move forward.”

Hicks said the area is planned for a ‘mixed-use’ concept, and he is hoping the three public meetings will help to determine the future of the site that stretches from South Avenue all the way down to Johnson Street.

“One of the baseline guiding principles that we're going to be using for this is the Midtown Master Plan,” he said. “Within that, there were some sort of high-level assessments and interests for that property’s redevelopment, and among them were being used as a neighborhood mixed-use space, promoting active street frontage providing access to that park and trail that you have right there alongside it.”

The Midtown Master Plan will be a Guiding Principle for the Project

The City Council released the following statement regarding the Johnson Street Shelter:

“Approve and direct the Mayor to sign a resolution of the city council committing the city to commencing the Johnson Street Property master planning process within one year and completing demolition and site preparation of appropriate buildings within three years.”

Mayor Andrea Davis is hopeful that the area currently taken up with the Johnson Street Shelter may eventually bring what she termed “much-needed homes and businesses to serve both this neighborhood and all of Missoula.”

The first meeting will be held at Stockman Bank on Brooks Street at 5:15 p.m. on March 5, and the public is invited to attend.