Missoula County Commissioner Wants a TEDD at Grant Creek Crossing

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - A TEDD (Targeted Economic Development District) has been proposed for a nearly 80-acre area called the Grant Creek Crossing off the north end of Reserve Street.

I spoke with Missoula County Commissioner Josh Slotnick on Friday about the proposed district and what it might mean to Missoula’s growth and economy.

“A TEDD is called a Targeted Economic Development District,” began Slotnick. “This is a district where we can divert a portion of tax revenue that would be coming from that district back to a fund where that fund can only be spent inside the district. This is a pretty commonly used tool to catalyze economic development; hence the name Targeted Economic Development District.”

Grant Creek Crossing Recommended as TEDD by Missoula County

Slotnick explained how the district's development would be funded.

“We will be using this money to put in infrastructure, sewer, water, and road grids that would facilitate other development,” he said. “Right now, this area, which is kind of off the northwest end of Reserve Street, is a former gravel pit. It's been an empty chunk of earth for quite a long time. This land has resisted development because the infrastructure demands are so high and so expensive, developers don't want to touch it.”

The Missoula Economic Partnership Favors the TEDD for Grant Creek Crossing

Slotnick said many agencies interested in growing Missoula’s economic base are in favor of creating the TEDD to develop the area.

“The Missoula Economic Partnership came out strongly in favor of this development,” he said. “For engineering organizations or anybody who's into retail or housing, those sorts of economics that basically make our whole system go round and round, require infrastructure, and the cost of building them are really high. So if you're interested in seeing any of that type of development, you would want infrastructure. Once we created the TEDD, which we do, I believe it has a sunset date of I believe, 20 years.”

Missoula is growing and Slotnick said the TEDD is one way of helping this growth occur in a well-planned manner.

“I do know that there are developers who are quite excited about making use of this space,” he said. “Think about it. There aren't very many chunks of 80 acres close to the urban area of Missoula left. I mean, this is pretty prized ground in that way, and it's been undeveloped because it doesn't have any infrastructure. So now that we're making money available for infrastructure, those very same developers are excited about this.”

One Opponent of the TEDD is the Reserve Street Working Group

To further the establishment of the Grant Creek Crossing TEDD, Missoula County entered into a contract with Pioneer Technical Services to assist the County.

One opponent of the plan is the Reserve Street Working Group. Kevin Davis wrote an editorial that can be found in the comments of this post.