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A Different Way: New Kinds of Developments in The West

By Greg Lemon, 10-06-06

A Different Way: New Kinds of Developments in The West

Development is gaining speed in momentum in the Rocky Mountain West – everyone knows that. But some developments are breaking away from the norm either in scope, methods, or goals. Six of those new developments were highlighted Friday afternoon.

Stuart Goldberg, Northern Lights Development

Goldberg is developing a keystone in Missoula’s open space – McCauley Butte. Developing open space sounds like oxymoronic, but by developing it, Northern Lights Development is really protecting, Goldberg said.

Essentially the McCauley Butte property overlooks the juncture of the Bitterroot and Clark Fork Rivers. It’s 285 acres of land historically used for farming and ranching. The first thing Northern Lights Development did was place the vast majority of the land – 250 acres – into conservation easements. The actually building will be 128 housing units on about 19 acres. It will include townhouses and single-family units.

The concept behind the development was to present the conservation aspect of the development to the community first, rather than the development part, Goldberg said. Even though this negated the potential tax breaks afforded by the conservation easements, it allowed the community to see that the developers weren’t trying to destroy open space for the sake of housing, but rather providing housing and protecting the open land important to the greater community.

Justin Bigart, Sage Spa Living

Sage Spa Living is a company started by Bigart and his wife to promote emotionally restful and healthy homes. The concept has led to a housing development in Helena’s new Great Northern Town Center.

Essentially the question Bigart wanted people to consider was: “Can a home inspire a healthier more vibrant life?”

While Bigart doesn’t call himself a developer, he came promoting a new kind of living. The Great Northern Town Center has been developed with office space, shops and community transportation in mind. Sage Spa Living’s development Stillwater will be the center’s first residential development.

The building will have six living spaces on the second, third and fourth floors, while housing the spa facilities on the ground floor. Residents will be able to tailor their homes to the healthy lifestyle and atmosphere they desire, while having memberships and benefits from the spa business.

It’s a business model that Bigart feels is becoming more in demand as people, particularly baby boomers, want a healthier lifestyle.

Geoff Badenoch, Intermountain Development Company

Geoff Badenoch feels that smart redevelopment in the urban setting is an important piece of managing and directing growth. His project, the Market Square on Russell, will take a former lumberyard in the heart of Missoula and turn it into a housing and business development.

The concept is to provide some low-income housing, connections to Missoula’s mass transit facilities and office space in an area of town that is experiencing more and more growth.

“Our vision is for a thoughtfully planned, mixed use, truly mixed income development,” Badenoch said.

Badenoch and Intermountain Development Company, which is connected with the Missoula Housing Authority, took a lot of input from the people living around the old lumber yard and are incorporating their ideas into the development’s plans. For instance, the taller buildings in the development will face Russell Street, a main thoroughfare in Missoula. The side streets will have shorter buildings and there will be park space included in the development.

In total, the development will provide Missoula with 12 acres of infill, which includes 70 low-income housing units and 40,000 square feet of commercial space.

Russ Squires, The Spires at Red Lodge

Developments should be sustainable and for Russ Squires that means using materials that conserve energy and building is such a way as to cause minimal impact to the natural resource and have a small footprint on the ground.

He took that goal and applied to the Spires at Red Lodge, which is a development on the edge of the small community in south central Montana.

But another important element was communicating with the local community and incorporating their ideas into the development.

The Spires will be built in such as way as to conserve the riparian zones, provide park space and trails systems, and have affordable housing units.

Squires sees his development as ideal because it still provide tremendous view sheds of the mountains and surround open lands, while enhancing city trails and parks.

Wayne Freeman, Ecton Ranch

Land is being developed around Bozeman a rapid rate and being a part of another huge development wasn’t something Wayne Freeman, director of CTA LandWorks wasn’t excited about. But Ecton Ranch became an opportunity to help change the way other developers look at property.

The development will occur near the traditionally agriculture communities of Churchill and Amsterdam on a 340-acre piece of farmland.

Freeman described the project as “green development” not just in how homes are constructed, but in how wastewater is managed, streetlights are operated and roads are built.

To assist in the idea, Freeman went to Toyota, which will help provide transportation to Bozeman and provide residences of the development a reduction on the price of a hybrid car.

When the sheriff approached Freeman about providing nearly $500,000 to his department to mitigate the development’s impact, Freeman offered, through the Toyota partnership, to provide the sheriff’s department with a fleet of hybrid patrol cars.

The development will also include 16 commercial units, a retirement center, community gardens, an organic farm, 55 acres of open space, and community center.

And since the development will nearly double the size of the two communities at buildout, CTA LandWorks is also helping to design and build new school buildings.

Tom Maclay, Bitterroot Resort

Maclay sees an opportunity for smart development to join with developed recreation. If built as planned the Bitterroot Resort would be the largest destination ski resort in North America.

Maclay’s design includes open space, a walking village, ski runs to the top of Lolo Peak, a golf course, underground parking, wastewater treatment facilities, and bus and train transportation to Missoula.

Though the resort has been controversial with Missoula and Bitterroot Valley residents, he feels good about the support he has.

Beyond discussing his plans for developing a resort, Maclay, whose family came to the Bitterroot Valley in the 1800s, also promoted directed land use that is less consumptive.

“We’re pretty well surrounded by a fairly land consumptive land use pattern,”
Maclay said. “What we need to make sure we do as quickly as possible is come up with a template for better development for Montana and the region.”

After Maclay presented, Jonathan Weber asked the panelists a few questions.

He first asked the developers about some of the hurdles they encountered from a policy standpoint in the development process.

Squires called for the policy makers in Montana to make better laws governing growth.

Goldberg agreed. In fact, it seemed that policy made bad development easier.

“I was surprised at the whole process how there are so many steps in the path that sort of steer the developer toward the easy choice,” he said.

He wanted to find a way to convince counties to fast track developments that were trying to do good things.

Badenoch also agreed. Counties should give developers more incentives to do things that were less land consumptive and geared more toward smart growth, rather than make it easier to develop poorly.

“I think in a lot of ways carrots work better than sticks,” he said.

It’s time to develop policies that encourage developers to do what the community wants, Badenoch said.

Click here to listen to audio from this panel.

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