The Montana Land Use Planning Act

UPDATE: Missoula City Council unanimously approved the adoption of the Our Missoula 2045 Land Use Plan (with amendments) on December 16, 2024. The plan is now in effect and a draft can be read here. A finalized version of the plan will be available soon.

What is the Montana Land Use Planning Act?

The 2023 Montana State Legislative Session passed a variety of land-use related bills and developed the Montana Land Use Planning Act (the Planning Act). The Planning Act requires that cities in Montana with populations over 5,000 people that are located in counties with populations over 70,000 people update their land use plans and zoning and subdivision regulations within 3 years of the passage of the Act. The City of Missoula meets this population threshold and therefore is subject to the requirements of the Planning Act.

Implications for Missoula

1. Public Participation Plan

The Planning Act requires ongoing public involvement when creating, changing, or updating land use plans and regulations. It mandates that the City must adopt a plan to show how it meets the public participation requirements outlined in the Act. The Missoula City Council adopted this Public Participation Plan on July 15, 2024, through Resolution 8788.

The Planning Act changes when the public can engage in discussions about land use and development. Instead of having input during specific development projects, public participation will now focus on the planning and adoption of citywide land use plans and codes. Currently, the public can weigh in during both the planning stages and site-specific developments. Under this new approach, only the planning and adoption stages will allow for public input, while individual development projects will be reviewed by the City without direct public involvement. Public input on site-specific developments will be limited to any unforeseen impacts that were not addressed during the planning or adoption process of the city's land use or zoning regulations.

This change emphasizes the importance of participating in city planning initiatives, like the Our Missoula project, to ensure community voices are heard as the City shapes its land use policies and regulations.

2. Planning Commission

3. Updated Land Use Plan + Future Land Use Map

The draft Our Missoula 2045 Land Use Plan (the Plan) is being considered for adoption by the City Council. The Plan is an update to the City's Our Missoula 2035 Growth Policy. It outlines a vision for Missoula that can meet community needs and desires, attract new businesses, protect the environment, and plan infrastructure effectively. By guiding the form, mobility, and intensity of land use, the plan strives to support a resilient and livable community by addressing housing, economic conditions, local services, public facilities, and natural resources. Once adopted, the Plan must be reviewed for necessary updates every 5 years.

The Plan includes a Place Types map which reflects the preferred pattern of development within Missoula over the next 20-years based on population and economic development projections, housing and local service needs, and public input received, while considering the environment, natural resources, and natural hazards of the area.

4. Incorporation and Sunsetting of Neighborhood Plans

The City is taking a fresh approach to guiding coordinated and planned growth for the future by creating a new relationship to Neighborhood Plans. State law mandates that neighborhood planning efforts be based on current data and include a robust and continuous engagement process. Any substantive land use recommendations from previous Neighborhood Plans had been considered in the adoption of the 2015 Our Missoula Growth Policy and relevant concepts have been integrated into the draft of this Land Use Plan. Sunsetting these plans means they will no longer be a supplemental consideration for land use and other city planning considerations.

The Land Use Plan will include an implementation action to develop a Neighborhood Planning Strategic Plan. This strategic plan would establish a process for developing future Neighborhood Plans in coordination with Neighborhood Councils. This step will help establish the ways to prioritize neighborhood planning in the future to support community and neighborhood needs together.

5. Updated Zoning Code + Zoning Map

The City must adopt a zoning map and zoning regulations that align with the updated land use plan and future land use map. Included in the Planning Act is a list of zoning reforms for encouraging housing - the City must adopt at least five of the listed options.

6. Updated Subdivision Regulations

After the land use plan and future land use map are updated, the City will also adopt updated subdivision regulations that reflect the Montana statutory requirements for subdivisions and subdivision review.

Connection to the Our Missoula Growth Policy Update & Code Reform Project

The city is currently in the process of aligning the requirements of this bill with the overall project workflow of the Our Missoula Growth Policy Update and Code Reform. The update and reform is an extensive planning process that empowers the community to update Missoula's vision for future growth and to modernize the City's development regulations. This includes updates to the Land Use Plan, Title 20 and the Subdivision Regulations. This project is led by the Community Planning, Development, & Innovation Department.