Missoula News

urban renewal

Missoula Midtown Association Aims to Enhance Community

By Jessica Mayrer, 5-30-07

Barbed wire surrounds a vacant lot bordering Kensington Avenue west of Missoula's railroad tracks. Photo by Anne Medley.

Getting stuck in South Avenue traffic to choke on exhaust fumes and gaze out over what’s been dubbed Missoula’s “blighted” neighborhood leaves much to be desired. But the fledgling Missoula Midtown Association is stepping up to ease the gridlock and enhance the community there.

Paving new sidewalks and bike paths, planting trees, and constructing aesthetically pleasing buildings are all steps the community may take to address Midtown Missoula’s plight, said Tim Winger, secretary of the Association and general manager of Southgate Mall.

The Midtown Missoula Association, a not-for-profit membership organization working to advocate, enhance, facilitate, preserve and promote the commerce and community of Midtown Missoula, kicked off its membership drive last Thursday.  They hope to take advantage of Middle Missoula’s designation as an “urban renewal district.” The designation, created in 2000, means that a portion of property tax dollars collected from the area will go to improving the neighborhood. 

The area qualified as an urban renewal district after the Missoula Redevelopment Agency declared it “blighted.” The Agency came to that conclusion by examining high crime rates in the area, a disproportionate number of traffic accidents and overall problems with public safety. 

Midtown spans approximately 630 acres, including roughly the area south of 14th Street, east of Reserve, north of Brooks and west of the Missoula County Fairgrounds. 

The Midtown Association hopes to bring business owners and residents together to create a consensus on how to build a safer, healthier and more attractive neighborhood.  Currently they have about 20 members and the last meeting drew close to 85 people, Winger said. 

“These are tough issues and there are going to be different opinions,” Winger said.  “For me personally, I think mixed use and affordable housing are the way to go.”

Growth and development in Missoula is never cut and dry.  Adam Wulf, 24, is in the process of buying a home on Kensington Street in Midtown Missoula. Wulf and his wife are thrilled they found a two-bedroom home in Missoula for $160,000, but they are leery of Midtown’s special tax district and promises of urban revitalization.

“The thing with beautification is who pays to take care of it?  It’s the taxpayers,” Wulf said. Even living without a sidewalk in front of his home does not persuade Wulf that shelling out the cash for urban renewal projects is a good thing.  He said his money is better off in his pocket.

“We put money into the pot.” He said.  “How long is it until you actually see that money in your neighborhood?”

The urban renewal funds are already working, though.  Sidewalks are taking the place of weed-covered walkways, trees have been planted on South Street and developers building community-friendly projects are now collecting urban renewal dollars, said Kari Nelson, redevelopment specialist for the city of Missoula. 

Providing developers with a cash incentive to build on empty Midtown parcels will, in theory, help keep property in Missoula affordable, said Collin Bangs, a Missoula Realtor.

Encouraging developers to build up, not out on those properties too will ease both the Missoula housing crunch and oozing sprawl, he said.

“What we need to do in Missoula is take a look at American sprawl,” he said.  “Is this the way we want to grow?”

Pessimists can look to Downtown Missoula to see the benefits of urban revitalization.  Just 20 years ago Downtown Missoula was in rough shape before becoming an urban renewal district, Nelson said.  The construction of Caras Park was largely a product of urban redevelopment dollars. 

In turn, that money “brought it back, from almost the point of extinction,” said Jeremy Keene another member of the Midtown Association.

Midtown Missoula has a unique advantage because of its central location.  Keene said.  “It is a place where people can live and work and see entertainment at the same time.”

More information may be found at www.missoulamidtown.com.

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