Growth and Transportation

Mullan Road Residents Unhappy with Construction Plans, Developers to Revise

By Brenna Moore, 6-15-06

Residents and travelers of Mullan Road in Missoula are again dissatisfied with the construction proposed for an intersection at George Elmer Flynn Lane. At a meeting held last week at the WGM Group Inc. building, the potential engineers of the project presented their latest design for the street's reconstruction, and were met with more comments from the community on why this design still doesn't work.

The developers say the road is crucial to alleviating stress on Mullan and Reserve and connecting new development in the Wye-Mullan area to the rest of Missoula. But, neighbors say the plan at this point is too intrusive for the neighborhood and is being developed at the behest of the developers who want more access to the area, so they can develop more land. Community members are suggesting the engineers go back to the drawing board.

"If they don't go back to the drawing board, they'll be dealing with a safety issue... they could face a lawsuit and that's something they should seriously consider," Marie Drive resident Kathleen Ward said.

WGM Inc., the civil engineers and land designers of the project presented a plan in May that was met with severe protest and animosity. It cut into the front yards and property of Mullan Road and George Elmer Drive residents. The new intersection's design, at Mullan and George Elmer Drive, avoided taking over any of the landowners' property, but the plan still did not warrant satisfaction from attending community members.

The meeting's attendees, made up primarily of Mullan Road and surrounding area residents, voiced their disapproval of the project with comments ranging from the impact the reconstruction would have on a motor home's turning radius to the safety of children and families to increased traffic-related incidents.

"The safety of families, children and neighbors has to come first...before any money deals...safety has to come first," Ward said.

The design is part of the Grid Road Plan city commissioners adopted in 2002 that gives jurisdiction of the Mullan Road design to the city. The road plan is meant to provide better planning for the distribution of traffic around Missoula, as well as providing a corridor for traffic off of Reserve Street, said Ryan Salisbury, a civil engineer for WGM Inc.

WGM's job is to provide a phasing infrastructure plan -- an outline of the progression of construction events because not every change will happen at once. All design plans have to be submitted and approved by the city and county of Missoula, as well as the state of Montana, before the project can move forward, Salisbury said. If the design plan is approved, WGM will then go out and construct the road and all the elements included according to the established plan.

The design consists of a 32-foot wide asphalt road with bike lanes and a right turn deceleration lane off of Mullan Road that will go into effect this summer, Salisbury said. There is also a specific state-wide design criteria for when traffic counts climb high enough to warrant a stoplight. The light could go in on Mullan Road anywhere from two to five years from now, depending on the amount of traffic, he said.

Jean Morse, a Mullan Road resident, is vehemently opposed to the plan, especially the part that adds a new stoplight directly in front of her house, instead of putting the stoplight up by Marie Road where it belongs, she said. In doing this, the value of her house will be significantly reduced, she said.

"We've all worked years and years on our houses... and that work was for nothing. We're staying here, we want to enjoy Mullan Road," Morse said.

This isn't the first time the city has received negative feedback about designs in the Mullan Road area. As the Missoulian reported in May of last year on Shelter West, Inc.'s, along with landowner and rancher Mike Flynn's, plan to turn Flynn's "open space" land into a 545-house subdivision, known as the 44 Ranch Estates drew loud opposition. The 44 Ranch subdivision is part of the Wye Mullan West Comprehensive Area Plan, a plan outlining how and where houses should be built in a certain area in or around Missoula. As the Missoulian further reported, the propostion has been in the works since 1997, but was recently revealed in March of 2002.

The Montana Department of Transportation wanted to get the land owners involved and required Shelter West, Inc., the project's developer, to hold meetings for the public to inform them about the area's potential, Salisbury said.

Morse said she bought her house in 1995, but didn't hear anything about the Wye Mullan plan until just recently. Morse received a letter in the mail about the meeting on June 5, but said several of her neighbors received no such letter, so she made copies and informed all she could about the upcoming meeting.

"I was kinda the evangelist. No one even knew about it, they're trying to be so top secret. It was a public meeting but they're not telling anyone about it," Morse said.

"(The engineers) failed to address a lot of issues ... at this point, what I would recommend for those guys is that they sit down with everybody individually and just hash out what everybody's concerns are. We weren't really satisfied with the plan at all... it seems as if they're saying 'we'll work with whoever shows up at the meeting but we don't care about the people who are not going to show up at the meeting,'" said Dr. Pallavi Raina, an employee for the Center of Sustainable Solutions in Missoula.

Morse thinks the reason the street is being designed this way is to build a road that leads directly into the Flynn's and Shelter West's 545 houses of the 44 Ranch Estates subdivison, a notion that Salisbury said is "absolutely not true."

Salisbury said he thought the residents of Mullan Road were quick to assume Flynn was the one bringing growth to the Western side of Missoula because the residents had not been involved with the Wye Mullan plan when there has been at least 20 public hearings and chances to comment on the plan since its adaption by the county commissioners.

"Flynn is not bringing the growth, the sanitary sewer is... the Wye Mullan area has been identitified as a growth area and the city and county are providing planning for growth in an area that Missoula county residents are generating," Salisbury said.

"I don't mind (Flynn) making money. I don't care about anybody making money, it's just the way he does it that bothers me, by walking all over people," Morse said. "Why should our property value go down while he makes money," she said.

Our phone calls to Mike Flynn seeking comment were not returned this week.

George Elmer Drive is part of a county-wide transportation plan adopted a few years ago and was designed to lessen traffic impacts and accomodate future growth resulting from expansion of the sanitary sewer system into Mullan Road. The 44 Ranch project is a residential community designed to come off of Mullan Road, and George Elmer Drive will lead through the housing development and connect to West Broadway up by the airport, said Kevin Mytty, president of Shelter West, Inc.

"It's a much needed road for out in that area. It's a road that is going to be a very important road to connect a lot of parts of Missoula... and relieve traffic on Reserve and give people an alternative way to move about the town," Mytty said.

The Wye Mullan plan has been in the works for the last five years and has been the subject of numerous public meetings, Mytty said. And the 44 Ranch project and the Wye Mullan plan are the joint effort of Missoula's Office of Planning and Grants, he said.

The 44 Ranch project is funded by a wide variety of builders in Missoula and also from private sources, while the reconstruction of Mullan Road is funded by adjoining land owners, the city and county of Missoula and by the state of Montana, he said.

Several Mullan Road residents oppose the 44 Ranch subdivision, noting such negative impacts as increased traffic congestion and traffic-related accidents, declines in safety and increases in air pollution.

"We understand Missoula is growing, that it's changing, that's not the issue. The issue is that they're compromising our safety and quality of life," Ward said.

One of the major concerns expressed at the meeting was the fact that with this new plan, drivers turning left along Mullan Road will have to cross two lanes of traffic by crossing over a double yellow line (because of the added acceleration and deceleration lanes).

"You can't write a traffic plan based on the belief that people will let you in... it's unacceptable," Raina said.

Another concern centered on the frontage road that would be built when the plan is adopted. The frontage road would have to be maintained by the owners, not the city or the state, Ward said. That means retired people would be outside in the winter, shoveling off their own driveway. "It's just a bad design," she said.

Morse doesn't think the plan should go forward until everybody's happy with the way the road is being fixed. "They're going to get their road in but they're going to walk all over everyone to do it," she said.

"The whole thing that they've got planned is going to seriously impact the way traffic flows in and out of Mullan Road... what they're essentially doing is shooting down traffic down an already overburdened road," Raina said. "They're interested in their development type deal... and that's fine, that's what they're being paid to do, but they also need to be more interested in the entire neighborhood."

Raina added: "We're not anti-growth or anything, it's just that if we're gonna do stuff, let's do it right. There's no reason to ignore all the design problems that they're going to end up creating just by doing this. Do it right in the first place and then we don't have to go back and spend our tax money to do it again."

Salisbury is confident something can be worked out. "Even though some of those residents are concerned about this I really think we can address all of their comments... I think we'll be able to find a compromise," he said.

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