Report: Subdivisions in the works; Villagio, Trinity affordable housing projects fully leased (2024)

Villagio and Trinity affordable housing projects in Missoula, the two largest affordable housing projects in Montana history, became fully rented out as of mid-May.

That was just one interesting tidbit of information presented by Eran Pehan, Missoula’s director of Community Planning, Development and Innovation, as she and her staff gave an informational presentation on her office’s budget to a city council committee last month.

“Villagio and Trinity are both fully leased,” Pehan said in response to a question from city council president Amber Sherrill.

The Villagio cost $42 million to build, including funds from the city, state and federal government along with various other partners. The 350,000-square-foot building on the Northside has 200 apartment units with a total of 503 bedrooms. That's more bedrooms than any other affordable housing project in state history. The project is for households making at or below 60% of Area Median Income.

The Trinity Apartments consist of 202 affordable rental homes on two different sites in Missoula. The $54 million project includes 130 apartments on Mullan Road and 72 apartment homes on Cooley Street. In terms of number of apartment homes, the Trinity is the largest affordable housing complex in Montana history.

At the May budget meeting, as the Missoulian previously reported, both Pehan and Mayor Andrea Davis said they plan to request more funding for the Johnson Street Emergency Shelter when the city council hears formal budget requests this summer. It's unclear, though, where the shelter would be located since city leaders have said in the past that the Johnson Street location is only meant to be temporary.

"We're working with community partners and leaders in the houseless realm to determine a plan for expanded emergency shelter," Pehan explained. "We are moving forward without ongoing funding or a future long-term location. Both of those are in question. However, we do feel optimistic because we know it remains a priority for service providers in the city and the broader community."

The city council heard about an hour's worth of information about development in Missoula.

Walter Banziger, the deputy director of the development office, said the land-use development application review team is busy with subdivision applications.

"Typically we'll see two or three subdivisions at any given time during the year," he said. "We currently have eight or nine of them in our queue going through some form of review process."

Some large subdivisions in the works include an 182-lot, 250-home major subdivision in East Missoula called the Aspire Subdivision. There's also smaller ones, like the 13-lot High Park subdivision and the 18-lot Strong Riverstone Subdivision, in the planning stages.

He said that there has been a drop in the number of permitted homes this fiscal year.

"In 2024, we have seen a bit of a drop-off," Banziger explained. "We currently have 86 single-family homes that have been permitted, 78 multifamily homes and two duplexes. Those numbers are down from 2023 but we are expecting to see this pick up as we are entering the peak of the review cycle for construction."

The office has worked hard to speed up the amount of time it takes for them to respond to development applications, he added.

"We continue to improve our response times for application reviews," he said. "70% of responses are occurring within six weeks; in 2023 fiscal year it was 50%."

Pehan said the office was overwhelmed with trying to comply with a new law passed by the Montana Legislature, SB 382, called the Montana Land Use and Planning Act.

"I cannot stress enough how unprepared our workload was to assume this work in the last fiscal year," Pehan said. "Much of those changes were a surprise and we did not anticipate the scope of change that would come out of last year’s legislative process."

However, she said her staff was "excited" to do that work and will now be focusing on the city's ongoing code reform process.