Near Term Code Amendments: Complying with 2023 State Legislation

UPDATED 3/27/25

The Missoula City Council will held a public hearing on March 10, 2025, and voted unanimously to approve a second 12-month extension of the Interim Zoning Urgency Ordinance, Title 20 (see Round 1: Interim Zoning Ordinance below). State Law requires the extension to carry forward the same amendments that were part of the previous 12-month extension, therefore, no changes to the ordinance were proposed or included. The extension became effective immediately (March 24,2025) and will be in affect for 12 months or until adoption of the new Unified Development Code being developed currently through the Our Missoula Code project (see Important Links in the sidebar).

Near Term Code Amendments Phased Approach

• ROUND 1 AMENDMENTS:
  • ZONING CODE & SUBDIVISION REGULATION AMENDMENTS
    Concluded. Fall of 2023, the City of Missoula responded quickly and passed the first round of changes addressing state bills that were effective October 1, 2023. These included changes to the City Subdivision Regulations and the Title 20 Zoning Code. For more information, please refer to the Round 1: City Subdivision Regulation Amendments and Round 1: Interim Zoning Urgency Ordinance (with 12-month extension) newsfeed items below as well as the Round 1 folder under Materials in the sidebar.
  • EXTENSION OF THE INTERIM ZONING URGENCY ORDINANCE
    Concluded. Fall of 2024, CPDI proposed, and the City Council approved, a 12-month extension to the Interim Zoning Urgency Ordinance.
  • Now: A second 12-month extension is proposed to the Interim Zoning Urgency Ordinance with a public hearing scheduled for March 10, 2025. For more information, please refer to the Round 1: Interim Zoning Urgency Ordinance (with 12-month extension) newsfeed item below as well as the Round 1 folder under Materials in the sidebar.
    
• ROUND 2 AMENDMENTS:
  
  • ZONING CODE : The City is requesting comment for a 2nd Round of near term zoning code amendments, updates to Title 20: City Zoning Code. As originally designed, this round included further changes to Title 20 to address state bills with a deadline of January 1, 2024, including Senate Bill 323, known as the duplex bill, and Senate Bill 528, known as the ADU bill. This second round of changes was also set to include minor, targeted amendments that will improve on the efficiency of the development review process and better implement our existing policy. For more information, please refer to the Round 2: Code Amendments newsfeed item below as well as the Round 2 folder under Materials in the sidebar.
    • Because of a District Court Injunction, the amendments related to SB 323 and SB 528 are no longer applicable. However, certain amendments, like those concerning a new maximum area for accessory dwelling units, remain unaffected by the injunction. For more information, please refer to the Court Injunction on SB 323 + SB 528 newsfeed item below.
      
  • ADOPTION OF THE INTERIM CONDITIONAL USE ORDINANCE
    The City is requesting comment on the permanent adoption of the Conditional Use Interim Ordinance that was adopted by City Council in November of 2022. For more information, please refer to the dedicated webpage for this project here.
    
  • ADOPTION OF AMENDMENTS TO TITLE 16
    The City is requesting comment on the updates to Title 16 (Manufactured Housing and Mobile Home Parks) in response to HB 246 in addition to changes that will clarify and update the title making it easier to use and understand. For more information, please refer to the Title 16: Code Amendments newsfeed item below as well as under Materials in the sidebar.

Key Dates

• CONCLUDED. March 5, 2024: Planning Board consideration & recommendation of Round 2 Title 20 code amendments, including interim conditional use adoption.
  (Link to meeting)
• CONCLUDED. March 13, 2024: Land Use & Planning Committee and Public Works Committee meeting: Consideration of Round 2 near term code amendments.
  (Link to meeting)
• CONCLUDED. March 25, 2024: City Council consideration & adoption of Round 2 near term code amendments.
  (Link to meeting)
• March 10, 2025: City Council consideration & adoption of 2nd 12-month extension of Round 1 Interim Zoning Urgency Ordinance.
  
  

How this relates to the 2023 Montana State Legislative Session

The 2023 Montana State Legislative Session passed a variety of land-use related bills, including a comprehensive re-write of the Montana Land Use Planning Act. This effort is largely due to the ongoing housing crisis which is being compounded by materials, labor, land and financing costs and lengthy development review schedules. To invoke change at an even more rapid pace, the legislature assigned immediate or late-2023 effective dates to several of the bills passed. In response, the City identified a phased approach to identifying and adopting amendments to local codes to comply with State mandates.

How this relates to the Our Missoula: Code Reform & Growth Policy Update

The Our Missoula project is an extensive multi-year project that will work with the community to update Missoula's vision for future growth and to modernize the development regulations, one of our key tools for achieving this vision. Starting this spring, we will be gaining input from our community on how to best accomplish equitable increased density and ensure that the growth policy and development regulations supports that outcome. The end result of the project will be a new innovative and equitable unified development code that is adopted by early 2025.