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Council grills staff on Homefront delays and proposed commercial code-enforcement hire
Summary
City staff presented the Planning & Community Services FY27 budget, including a proposed second commercial code-enforcement officer and $1.545M allocated to Homefront’s LB Lofts; council members pressed staff about missed CDBG deadlines and said staff must report back by end of June if funding isn’t committed.
Wyeth, the Planning and Community Services presenter, reviewed the department’s FY27 budget and highlighted priorities including implementation of the Montana Land Use Planning Act, completion of neighborhood plans, and the recent CityView software rollout. He said the budget includes a new Tax Increment Finance (TIF) coordinator position in planning and proposes a second commercial code enforcement officer to improve consistency of enforcement across the city.
The council’s questioning focused on the proposed commercial enforcement FTE and on $1,545,000 in city funds allocated to Homefront for the LB Lofts project. Council member Bill Kennedy said he would defer funding the second commercial enforcement position until later in the year given the city’s fiscal constraints. Wyeth said the position is included in the proposed budget but staff would not act to hire until revenues are confirmed in August–September.
Brenda Beckett, speaking for community development, told council that $1,545,000 is allocated to Homefront for the LB Lofts project and that $145,000 of that is Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) money. She said the city missed a May 2 expenditure deadline on the CDBG portion, and HUD could reclaim funds if deadlines are not met. On the HOME program portion (about $1.4M of the allocation), Brenda said she needs written commitments of roughly $350,000 by late summer to feel comfortable retaining the allocation. “This project needs to close by the end of the summer,” she said, and warned that if commitments do not materialize she would bring a recommendation back to council to reallocate the funds to other developers.
Multiple council members pressed staff for an end-of-June check-in. Wyeth and Brenda said they will monitor Homefront’s June funding notice from the state and report back; Brenda said the community development board is preparing contingency ideas and that staff will return to council if the project cannot meet federal expenditure or commitment deadlines.
The presentation also reviewed revenue sources for planning and community development, noting heavy reliance on federal HUD grants and a countywide planning levy that yields roughly $6.95 on average (identifying the levy rate as 1.34 mills). Wyeth and Anna Vickers answered questions about a long-range planning budget and administrative support needs, and explained that some positions would be activated only if property tax collections support them.
The council did not take a formal action on staffing or Homefront at the work session; staff scheduled follow-up reporting and said hiring for the commercial code enforcement officer would be contingent on confirmed revenues.
