Growth Policy

One Last Stump for Responsible Infill

By Kirk Siegler, 11-07-05

Sustainable growth. Livable neighborhoods. Mike Kadas says they can happen simultaneously.

The outgoing Missoula mayor said as much today in what will probably be one of his last pitches for responsible, in-fill development. His speech was part of the Practical Ethics Center’s Ethics at Noon series on campus.

Missoula has grown exponentially since 1990 – or – in real terms – by about 23 percent. And in that time, median home prices have nearly tripled – from around $65,000 in 1990, to $185,000 today.

“We can change the character of our neighborhoods by doing nothing,� Kadas says, making a jab at opponents of infill in the city’s urban core.

The mayor’s push for high density development has largely been shelved by the current city council, though Tuesday’s election could radically change things. Nonetheless, several candidates are running on platforms promising to “protect the unique character of neighborhoods.�

Part of the resistance to infill stems from a frustration among some residents in neighborhoods like the Franklin to Fort part of town, who say high density developments aren’t coming with any of the promised amenities. Amenities like more open space or parks around the crowded lots, or ramped up public transportation to serve their neighborhood's influx of new residents.

This was noted to the mayor in a cordial manner by one of his speech’s some forty attendees.

Kadas responded that the entire system of decision making needs to change, and he faults himself for prior glitches in the debate, as much as anyone else.

Still, he thinks a conservative growth vision, one that bans new housing developments in the urban core, is short sighted, especially if the city continues to grow by two-percent annually. The mayor says Missoula is at a crucial crossroads, and he thinks high density development, if done right, can create more livable neighborhoods and more affordable housing.

“If we freeze supply, the city is going to be so ugly, because only the rich people will be able to live here,� Kadas says.

That’s what Boulder did, in part, in the early seventies. Facing a similar predicament that Missoula’s now in, that similarly-sized city on the Colorado Front Range bought up a greenbelt of open space on its perimeter, capped the amount of building permits issued, and in the process created a beautiful public parks system, all the while effectively stonewalling Denver’s encroaching sprawl.

But it wasn’t all good news. Housing prices and rents would soon skyrocket, and, like Missoula, homes started popping up in allies especially on University Hill, to compensate for the shortages.

But Boulder today has an aggressive high density development strategy, one that’s focused largely on design, which Kadas considers key to selling infill and planned neighborhood clusters (or PNC’s) to some Missoulians resistant to change.

“We are going to run out of space if we continue with two dwelling units per acre,� he argues. If Missoula doesn’t adopt a progressive growth strategy for both its established and newer neighborhoods, Kadas says, more and more people will be living in the Longmonts of Colorado and the Clintons of Montana. And the mayor thinks the economic diversity is what makes communities like Missoula so unique, and in some cases, so hip.

Nearby Bozeman, less than half the size of Missoula, is also grappling with seemingly insurmountable growth, though city policies there, like Boulder, encourage more than six dwelling units per acre. That said, much like Missoula, soaring housing prices in Bozeman have caused an exodus of residents to outlying areas, like Belgrade, where land is cheaper, and big, manicured lawns are aplenty.

But unlike the roomy Gallatin Valley, Missoula is restricted by basic geography. The publicly owned open spaces and steep faces of Mount Jumbo, the North Hills and Mount Sentinel mean growth can only go west.

Kadas thinks by going west, the city should encourage more high density developments like Canyon Creek Village near the airport, and Hellgate Meadows behind Home Depot. Both are on public bus routes, and both are designed around existing and new retail centers, in hopes that new suburbanites won’t be bound to their car for daily errands.

Whether new, progressive developments in the suburbs will truly achieve the same popularity as the established University or Slant Street districts, is the million dollar question. Though most old and new residents here agree on one thing; eventually, Missoula’s growth will be capped, by those geographical realities, and not political ones.

That’s why the mayor is insisting the debate on growth shift to sustainability.

“We need to ask, how is this going to work in fifty years?� Kadas says.

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