BILLINGS — Billings' West End, which has grown by nearly 160% since 2000, is now looking to the future with a comprehensive 20-year growth plan designed to guide development and ensure a sustainable, affordable community through 2045.
Engineering firm Sanbell was tasked by the City with devising a 20-year land and transportation plan for the West End neighborhood area from Shiloh Road to 64th Street West
Due to a 2023 legislative measure, the Montana Land Use Planning Act, cities with populations over 5,000 located in counties holding more than 70,000 people are required to have updated growth plans through 2045. This new mandate replaces the previous plan from 2001 and aims to provide a more structured framework for urban development. The goal is to ensure that growth is managed thoughtfully, balancing the needs of residents, businesses, and the environment.
John Halverson is a land planner with Sanbell and has been working on the project for months.
“We need to guide growth, and we need to have a process for it and not just an ad hoc, one-by-one kind of process where we fight it out over every single development and every single zone change," said Halverson. “This is all kind of part of the state government's attempts to address housing and housing affordability.”
The plans must meet certain housing, transportation, and zoning requirements before approval.
“The purple on this map is kind of a heat map of the likelihood of development. That's proximity to water facilities, to roads, and even existing residential high-density development," said Halverson.
The plan puts a focus on community involvement by allowing the public to comment throughout the creation process. On Wednesday, a public meeting was held at the Ben Steele Middle School, where community members came together to share their ideas.
Howard Holz is a member of the West End Task Force and on the steering committee that helps guide the engineering firm in the study. He was among those who participated and explained his approach to creating a map for future development, which took into account existing infrastructure and services.
“When I looked at the map, I looked at what was already developed in certain areas, and looked like those areas might be amenable to the same kind of development," said Holz. "Also, then looked at what services are available, where's water and sewer lines. They can put power lines in pretty much any place, but they can't dig a hole sometimes."
Many residents, like Holz, understand the long-term impact of this planning effort.
“If you don't get involved, you're going to have to put up with what happens. This land use map thing changes completely when people get to voice their objections, desires, whichever," said Holz. “When the plan and the map is done, that's the way the land should be developed.”
The public meetings and planning sessions are an essential part of the process, giving residents the opportunity to voice their concerns and preferences before the official plans are set.
“When this map gets drawn, which we revisit this map every five years, the public has a chance to speak on this and give comment on it now, and then we will not have a public process for zone changes anymore," said Halverson.
One of the key issues on the minds of many residents is the affordability of housing as the West End continues to grow. Some are concerned that without careful planning, the area could become unaffordable for families who have long called the community home.
“I've lived here once before, and I loved it so much. I came back," said resident Jessica Thompson. “A big thing on everybody's mind is affordability, making sure that the community stays affordable for families like myself to continue living here and enjoying the benefits. The only thing missing so far is a closer grocery store.”
Residents will have the opportunity to continue submitting their thoughts and feedback throughout the month until Sanbell finalizes the growth plan by early 2025, setting the direction for the West End’s development well into the next two decades.
“We need it to work. We need it to serve us and serve our young people and our families and our service sector folks as well as retirees. There's a lot of different people that this area needs to serve, and so making sure that we achieve those as functional part of town for those people is really the goal of this plan," said Halverson.
Click here to view their website on the plan.
