The Missoula City Council is set to vote in early September on a new development that would add 450 housing units in the South Hills.
The Wildroot development, which received a nod of approval from the Missoula Consolidated Planning Board earlier this month, would comprise 21 townhomes, 226 single-family homes and multi-family apartment buildings with 203 units on a 106-acre plot of land between Hillview Way and Rimel Road in the Moose Can Gully neighborhood.
When the property was put on the market — for $16 million — in 2017, it was one of the largest tracts of undeveloped land ever listed for sale in Missoula, as the Missoulian reported at the time. It was purchased in April 2022 by a team of buyers that included a Denver-based real estate development firm called Pando Holdings.
Pando and its partners have already begun construction on the five apartment buildings, a luxury complex known as Pine, which is slated to be complete by the end of 2026, Pando’s Kiely Wilson told the Land Use and Planning Committee on Aug. 28. The planned buildout includes seven phases over 20 years.
“Our goal with this project is not just to develop real estate, but to create a neighborhood that is an asset to the area and aligns with the goals and objectives of the city,” Wilson told the committee. “I’m proud the work we do will help with local housing attainability. Building more housing is crucial to making homes more attainable across the board.”
The proposed development would also feature almost eight acres of park space, 22 acres of common area and 14,000 linear feet of trails.
Most of the proposed project lies within city limits. However, the developers are also asking the city to annex five parcels on surrounding county land and to rezone seven parcels to allow greater density. The annexed land would be connected to city services under the proposal.
A key pinch point is the potential for increased traffic on Rimel Road, a rural portion of which is maintained by neither the city nor county and as such falls to the Rimel family, who own the adjacent property.
The developer has accepted a condition that the part of the road outside the development would only be open to emergency access.
Like many subdivisions on the edges of Missoula, a portion of the proposed development would also be located in the wildland urban interface, constituting a moderate fire risk and requiring corresponding language in the covenant, Missoula senior planner Tara Porcari told the committee. The Wildroot project is also located in a bear buffer zone.
“It’s important to us, and should be to the city as well, that any significant change of the existing Rimel Road would impact the character of these properties,” Whitney Rimel told the Missoula Consolidated Planning Board, which recommended the project on a unanimous vote, last week.
Other challenges include the steep slopes in the area. But the city has signaled a willingness to accept variance requests that would, in theory, address this and other physical conditions.
Still, it’s hard for the city to please everyone — especially in one of Missoula’s more secluded neighborhoods.
“I live on Mainview Drive and my home faces this development. For two years, 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, I have had to live with the noise of the construction on this property,” one public commenter, Mary Wozniak, wrote. “The beeping of trucks backing up, constant hammering, heavy equipment grinding & banging, dust blowing, constant noise! The thought of having to endure this for 20 more years is unbearable!”
The full council will take up the development when it meets on Sept. 9.
