Missoula's Future

Downtown Masterplan: Final Public Workshop Tonight

By Jonathan Weber , 11-19-08

For almost a year now, consultants from the Portland firm Crandall Arambula have been working with Missoula officials, business leaders and the public on a long-term masterplan for downtown Missoula. Key elements of the proposal as it stands now include a “festival waterfront” concept with an expanded Caras Park; a new cultural district - including a conference center and new UM museum - near Kiwanis Park; a streetcar line; new bike paths and parking structures; a new commercial district on the north end of downtown straddling the railroad tracks; and a mixed-use plan for the Riverfront Triangle parcel.

The fourth and final public workshop on the plan will be held Wednesday evening from 7:00 to 9:00 at the Holiday Inn Parkside.

Envisioning the future of downtown is a complicated process, and of course the plan is the just the beginning. A lot of what’s on the table will cost a lot of money, and require a lot of buy-in from local and state government, local businesses, and the public.

But if some of what’s being considered seems like a stretch given the current state of the economy, the beauty of a masterplan is that it’s by nature a long-term vision, to be developed in phases over many years. If you want to see the details of the process and the proposals thus far, click here for the most recent workshop presentation. And if you want to get involved or have opinions about where it’s all going, come down to the Holiday Inn tonight.

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