Missoula County outlines 50-year Wye infrastructure plan to enable housing and industrial growth

Missoula County officials and private developers laid out a long-range plan at a City Club Missoula forum to guide development in the Wye area, stressing that central water, sewer and road infrastructure are prerequisites to building housing and industrial capacity at scale.

Andrew Hagemeyer, director of community and economic development for Missoula County, said the county faces two central problems driving the Wye plan: a local housing shortage and a shrinking industrial land base that affects jobs and the tax base. "The three most critical, the must-haves, are water, sewer, and roads," Hagemeyer said, framing infrastructure as the lever that will allow denser, more diverse housing and modern industrial uses.

Jeff Smith, chief executive officer of WGM Group, summarized the Wye infrastructure study and phasing. He said the study area is about 3,400 acres after removing interstate and rail rights-of-way, and that a parcel-by-parcel inventory covered more than 700 parcels. The plan uses a Phase 0–4 sequencing approach; Phase 0 identifies precedent or catalyst infrastructure needed…