This story was originally published by Montana Free Press at montanafreepress.org.
The Missoula City Council on Wednesday advanced a sidewalk project that revived discussion of the financial implications for property owners citywide.
After the city first notified affected property owners in late October, a handful of Rose Park neighborhood residents voiced concern about their estimated assessments for the project, with one couple facing a $9,000 bill, spurring three council members to work to abolish the assessments.
Discussion of that proposal has been delayed in part to allow for a staff presentation on the city’s sidewalk program last week, Daniel Carlino, Ward 3 council member, told Montana Free Press. Carlino said he hopes it will appear on the public works committee’s agenda on Wednesday, March 13.
“I’ve been attempting to schedule it since November of last year so it is pretty disappointing that we voted on assessing households thousands of dollars for another sidewalk project before we were able to talk about alternatives,” he said.
On Wednesday, the council approved phase one of the Rose Park project—improving sidewalks and other street work along Ivy and Franklin from South Fourth Street West to Woodford Street—with Carlino casting the sole “no” vote. The council unanimously voted to award the construction bid to Knife River for $1.37 million, with 15 percent, about $185,000, to be paid by assessments.
“This neighborhood could definitely use the sidewalks and the more permanent roundabouts there,” Carlino said during the meeting. “However, I have heard from quite a few constituents who live on this stretch about the financial hardships this is going to put on their families. I would like to see the council take one of the different approaches to help remedy that in the future.”
Filling in Missoula’s 220 miles of missing sidewalks is a 100-year problem.
Gwen Jones, Ward 3 council member, said since the assessment formula was greatly modified in 2020, there hasn’t been enough time to see it in action.
Before 2012, property owners paid the full cost to add sidewalks adjacent to their property. To help residents offset rising prices, the city established a cost-sharing formula, which was reworked in 2017 to account for inflation and in 2020 to decrease property owners’ portion of the bill.
Kristen Jordan, Ward 6 council member, disagreed that the current formula is in a “sweet spot.”
“These are financial hardships for people, and … we always should be open to modifying rules and the ways we fund things,” she said. “I’m really hopeful we can have some good discussions in the future on how we can take some of these funding onuses off of homeowners.”
On Feb. 29, Jeremy Keene, the city’s public works director, presented several potential changes the council could make to the assessment system to reduce costs to property owners. Keene told the council that changes could be applied retroactively to current projects prior to issuing bonds, which occurs after construction wraps up.
“It’s important to recognize that many of these changes have budget implications,” he said. “Our advice is to consider these in context of the [fiscal year 2025] budget this summer when we look at the whole picture.”
Filling in Missoula’s 220 miles of missing sidewalks is a 100-year problem, as the current budget allows the city to build about 1.5 miles per year, Keene said.
“In today’s dollars, this would be about $100 million do all the sidewalk that’s missing in the city. It’s a substantial challenge for us,” he said. “We’re tackling it based on where we can get the most benefit for sidewalk connectivity and linking neighborhoods to places that people want to go by foot.”
The public works department budgets about $607,000 annually for sidewalks, with $430,000 to $465,000 coming from road district revenue, Keene said. The department’s ideal annual budget for the sidewalk program, however, is $1 million, with about $700,000 from the road district and $300,000 from assessments, he said.
The road district is a citywide special taxing district created in 2011 to help pay for street and right-of-way work. The public works department determines the amount of road district funding needed and requests it as part of its budgeting, said Leigh Griffing, city finance director. The city council has the final say on the amount and could theoretically increase it to help pay for sidewalks or other eligible costs, Griffing said. Increases to the road district are not limited by the state like general property taxes, but the council is sensitive to tax bill hikes, she said.
This year, the city expects to receive nearly $500,000 in property owner assessments compared to the usual $142,000 because a sidewalk project in Missoula’s Northside neighborhood was delayed from 2023, Keene said.
The $1.36 million sidewalk and street work project along Turner Street from Scott Street to Worden Avenue, Worden Avenue from Turner to North Fifth Street West and the east side of Holmes Street will include about $300,000 from assessments, Keene said.
The amount is higher than average because the area includes some large parcels that do not qualify for cost sharing, said Monte Sipe, surface project manager. Assessments from one- and two-family homes total $59,840, compared to $197,915 from exempt properties, he said.
The Ivy/Franklin project includes about $185,000 in assessments. After receiving a construction bid in late January, the city notified residents of updated assessment estimates and upcoming meeting dates, said Brandt Dahlen, surface project coordinator.
Since the $1.37 million bid came in 20 percent lower than the engineer’s estimate of $1.69 million, assessments for 26 of the 41 parcels decreased and 15 stayed the same, Dahlen said. Assessment estimates for seven properties were more than $3,500, including three commercial properties, according to city documents.
Property owners can pay the assessment in full or over eight, 12 or 20 years. Residential properties with an assessment of more than $6,000 or those making less than 80 percent of the area median income can defer payment until the sale of their home. The amount deferred accrues interest, plus an administrative fee required by state law. The city currently charges 0.5 percent interest on deferred assessments.
One of the potential changes Keene presented last week to address residents’ financial concerns was to increase the threshold for income-qualified deferrals from 80 percent of the area median income to 120 percent. The city could also lower the $6,000 threshold for partial deferrals, Keene said.
“That would provide a little more relief for those high-assessment corner properties where they’re seeing a lot more cost,” he said.
The city could increase its cost-sharing portion to account for inflation as it did in 2017 and 2020, Keene said. It could also allow new construction and accessory dwelling units to qualify for cost-sharing if they postpone right-of-way improvements, he said.
As suggested by Carlino’s proposal, the city could discontinue sidewalk assessments and fully fund projects. That change would reduce staff time spent administering the assessments, which costs about $30,000 a year on average, Keene said.
Any decreases to the assessments would mean the city would need to find some other money or reduce the number of sidewalk projects, Keene said.
Council member Jordan, one of the co-sponsors of Carlino’s proposal, said it is not an effort to find the money in the city’s existing budget but to spur conversation about different funding methods.
While Carlino reiterated the city should fully fund sidewalks as public infrastructure, he said he is open to the compromises Keene presented.
“We should have a conversation about why the city is charging homeowners up to $9,000 for sidewalks because it’s really not necessary if we make sidewalks more of a funding priority,” he said. “If we’re concerned about property taxes, I think we should be even more concerned about slapping thousands of dollars onto individual households.”
Missoula does not assess property owners for sidewalk projects in urban renewal districts, and it would be equitable for all residents if the city fully funded all sidewalk projects, Carlino said.
Council member Jones said decades of homeowners have paid for sidewalks adjacent to their property and implied asking them to pay more for others would be unfair.
All council members who spoke on the topic during the most recent committee meetings said they would be open to further discussion. Carlino said he thinks the council can come up with a solution that works for everyone.
“If [the] council doesn’t want to pass our resolution, then we hope to propose some of the other options Jeremy Keene presented to us at the end of his presentation,” he told MTFP. “Anything we can do to help get the city to pay for more sidewalks rather than individual households.”
