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Missoula committee approves administrative overhaul of utility service review process
Summary
The committee approved a resolution to convert the monthly Utility Service Review Committee (USRC) meeting into an administrative review process, aiming to speed application reviews and integrate them into the city’s permitting system while retaining council control over fees.
The Missoula Public Works Committee unanimously approved a resolution March 12 to revise the city’s Utility Service Review Committee (USRC) policy, moving the review of requests for municipal utility service outside city limits from a monthly committee meeting to an administrative review process.
Andy Schultz, city engineer for utilities, said the USRC, established by resolution 8181 in 2017, is often poorly attended and slows applicants because it meets only once a month. “Our proposal…would be to eliminate the monthly USRC meeting and move the process to an administrative task,” Schultz said, describing a system that would route applications immediately to required reviewers and ultimately be integrated into Accela, the city’s permitting platform.
Schultz told the committee staff met with the stakeholders listed in the existing resolution and said most supported the change. He emphasized the change is intended to speed reviews and improve recordkeeping, not to remove council oversight: fee schedules would still require council approval. Committee members praised the proposal as fitting the mayor’s directive to streamline boards and commissions; Bob Campbell moved the recommended motion and the committee passed it unanimously.
The resolution will be placed on the consent agenda for the council with staff direction to integrate the administrative review into existing permitting workflows and to preserve council authority over fee-setting.
