BILLINGS — The Downtown Billings Alliance and Business Improvement District (BID) are planning to open the first-of-its-kind standalone public restroom on Aug. 17.
The restroom, located on Second Avenue North next to the Park 3 Parking Garage, is a Portland Loo® facility.
“It’s designed so that there’s nothing easy to break inside. It’s very durable. Everything’s replaceable,” Joe Stout, the BID director of operations, said on Tuesday. “It’s not going to be a place where you can take someone in there and victimize them in any way. You can hear everything that’s going on in there, good or bad.”
The Portland Loo® is made with crime prevention in mind. The facility is built with angled slats on the top and bottom. The lower slats are designed to show if someone is inside the restroom, without invading the user's privacy.
“The typical public toilet is mistakenly designed to make users as comfortable as possible which only increases the likelihood of illicit behavior. It might sound counter-intuitive, but the more privacy and accommodation a public toilet provides, the more it will be misused,” the Portland Loo® website states.
The DBA said the project was funded by a pair of federal grants and additional city tax money from the downtown tax-increment financing (TIF) district. The two federal grants totaled $192,715 and were appropriated by the federal Community Development Block Grant, which is part of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. In January 2022, Billings City Council approved an additional $70,000 in TIF money to complete the project.
“They aren’t cheap. They’re built to last,” Stout said. “It’s not going to be a shelter for anything. It’s just going to be a toilet for someone who needs a toilet. More of a human dignity kind of thing.”
Stout said the BID will be maintaining and cleaning the facility. They do anticipate vandalism but are hoping that wrapping the restroom with art from local artist Terri Porta will decrease those chances.
Porta did the mural on the nearby Park 3 Parking Garage.
The restroom features a heated toilet and hand sanitizer on the inside. There is a hand washing station on the outside. BID also said they plan to add a garbage can outside of the facility for feminine products and will hang signs with emergency numbers on and inside the restroom.
