Lose - Lose For Miller Creek
Missoula - While transportation improvements to the Miller Creek area have now lost funding, congestion is continuing to increase, and more is on the way as the Teton Addition, part of the Maloney Ranch subdivision, begins construction. Today the Missoulian reported (see Missoula link) that Missoula County lost $1.27 million that was meant for a roundabout designed to relieve congestion at the intersection of Upper and Lower Miller Creek Road. It is easy to try and find blame in a disaster such as this, and there is plenty to go around at both county and federal levels of government, but I think such superfluous rhetoric misses the point.
The entire Miller Creek area, including Linda Vista and Maloney Ranch, was a flawed design at the start. This part of Missoula is a great example of what not to do when planning the transportation infrastructure of a new neighborhood. Outside of the Missoula city limits when the Miller Creek area was first developed, county officials dropped the proverbial ball when these subdivision designs were approved. If Missoula County had used strict guidelines regarding efficient transportation access and impact fees, perhaps the developers of that land would have provided the extra funding needed for additional road access other than the lone Miller Creek Road. Now, a few decades later, the cost of the poor design is still being inherited by current and future Missoulians. This poor design is compounded by the lack of any public transportation from Mountain Line.
Has the lesson been learned? I would hope that our current elected officials have learned from this ordeal. It is far easier, and cheaper, to get it right the first time around rather than to try and go back later and fix bad transportation design. Even with this simple lesson, subdivisions like Maloney Ranch have still been approved by both city and country officials without developers paying for their share of infrastructure improvement. They reap the benefit of real estate sales, yet take no responsibility for the increased strain their development puts on an already taxed system. The least they could do is pay for bus service to the area, which would benefit home sales anyway.
As more land in the valleys of Western Montana is converted to homes and businesses, I hope that the lessons of Miller Creek are remembered by our local officials. This latest development proves that we cannot always count on federal funds to bail us out of transportation messes created at home. The solution starts locally, before the earth movers go to work.
- Benjamin