Missoula commission and commissioners approve Buck House growth-policy amendment and rezone after debates over floodplain, sewer and Highway 93 safety

A divided Missoula County planning process ended with the Planning & Zoning Commission recommending approval — and the County Commissioners adopting — a growth-policy amendment and zoning map change for an 83-acre property at 4285 Highway 93 South, a parcel long used for gravel, salvage and equipment storage and containing a closed Class 3 landfill and extensive floodplain. The applicant and their consultants argued the change would cluster any future development into a small footprint and protect about 90% of the site as agricultural, working lands and resource/open space; county staff recommended denial, citing transportation safety and the wide range of uses allowed under a Commercial Center designation.

County planner Kathleen Arthur outlined the staff position, noting the site contains both 100- and 500-year floodplain, has shallow groundwater, and lacks public sewer; those environmental and infrastructure constraints, Arthur said, limit development potential and raise public-health and safety questions if higher-intensity uses were later pursued. "Public sewer and water is currently not available to the property," Arthur said, and agency comments from Missoula County Water Quality, Public Health, Parks and Recreation, the Rural Fire District and the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes flagged shallow groundwater, landfill-related deed restrictions and wastewater feasibility concerns.

Applicants — represented by Jason Rice (the applicant/landowner) and consultants Joe Dennard (IMEG) and Izzy Varley (staff presenter) — responded that subsurface testing and updated preliminary floodplain maps show a relatively small developable footprint and argued that a Commercial Center designation applied at a constrained, clustered scale would enable public benefits such as river access and riparian buffers. Dennard said the proposal consolidates most potential disturbance into roughly 10% of the acreage so the remainder can be preserved: "This amendment is not about expanding growth," he said; "it’s about placing the right land use designations in the right locations." The team also said they had discussed the idea with MDT (Montana Department of Transportation), Fish, Wildlife & Parks and DEQ and proposed a 500-foot riparian buffer and a 5-acre parking area for future river access with deed restrictions to limit interim uses.

Commissioners probed traffic safety and wastewater options at length. Several members said MDT’s corridor studies show high speeds at this stretch of Highway 93 and warned that a new access would require an MDT approach permit and traffic mitigation. Applicant representatives said MDT signaled willingness to work on access and that a formal traffic analysis would accompany any detailed development proposal. On wastewater, the applicant said evapotranspiration (ET) systems or other alternative approaches could be feasible for low-frequency workshop/storage uses but acknowledged that occupied residential or higher-intensity uses would likely require more expensive solutions or sewer extension.

After more than two hours of questions and public comment — including residents who urged protection of river access and others who worried about gas stations or travel plazas — a motion to remove the parcels from Citizen Initiated Zoning District 39 and recommend the growth-policy and rezoning changes passed in the Planning & Zoning Commission and was forwarded to the Board of County Commissioners. The Board then voted to adopt the recommended growth-policy and zoning map amendments.

The approved plan assigns about 52.3 acres to agriculture, roughly 9.4 acres to working lands, preserves river-adjacent land as resource and open land with a proposed riparian buffer, and designates roughly 8.6 acres as Commercial Center where conditioned, clustered commercial/shop/storage units could be located. Supporters said the amendments align land-use mapping with on-the-ground constraints and could make future, limited public river access safer; opponents and at least one commissioner said they would prefer Industrial Light zoning to more tightly limit potential future commercial uses.

Next steps: the rezoning decision allows future development proposals but does not itself approve any specific building, septic or sewer design, or MDT access permit. Applicants and staff indicated that any subsequent special exception or development application would trigger site-specific studies, DEQ review for wastewater systems, and MDT review for access and safety.