COUNCIL UPDATE: New Era for Old Montana

By Teresa Rochester and Jorge Casuso

It was literally the dawn of a new day, and for Montana Avenue Neighbors, it was figuratively the dawn of a new era.

Several hours before the sun rose, the five remaining City Council members unanimously directed staff to quickly draft a series of measures to protect the upscale avenue's historic character from over development.

"This is an unprecedented moment. We are at the dawn of a new era," said Doris Sosin, chair of the North of Montana Association. "Both NOMA and Wilshire-Montana Neighborhood Coalition, neighbors from the north and south, have come together to save our precious Montana Avenue."

"I'm very happy they told city staff to do basically what we wanted," said Bill Bauer, vice chair of the Wilshire-Montana Neighborhood Coalition. "Allowing development to come in with a shortage of parking doesn't make any sense what so ever."

Galvanized by the pending demolition of a 50-year-old mortuary on Euclid Street to make way for a building with eight stores and four housing units, neighbors on both sides of the street launched an offensive to stem the influx of major retail chains they fear are replacing quaint mom and pop stores.

Heeding their cry, city staff will draft an interim ordinance that will take effect before the city engages in the lengthy process of developing a Master Plan for the area. The ordinance would:

· Reduce the size of new and redeveloped buildings

· Limit the sale of incidental food, which includes coffee houses and juice bars. This could include imposing a moratorium on future establishments.

· Require that smaller buildings fall under public scrutiny before they are approved.

· Increase landscape or sidewalk requirements.

"I strongly agree with the neighbors," Councilman Ken Genser said. "I think the two issues are to reduce the permitted size of buildings and prohibit incidental food."

"We need to act now before we lose what we have," Kevin McKeiwn said.

Planning Director Suzanne Frick cautioned the council about moving forward with the Montana Avenue Master Plan. Her department, she said, has limited space, employees and time.

"If you decide to proceed with the Montana Master Plan we need to sit down and have a discussion about what doesn't get looked at," Frick said.

Representatives of the proposed commercial and housing development on the mortuary site said they were encouraged by the meeting, but noted that the proposed ordinance would not apply to the project, which planning staff already has approved.

"There's room for a healthy dialogue about Montana standards that will lead to what we hope will be mutually acceptable results," said Chris Harding, who represents the developer of the mortuary site at 1230 Montana. "I thought on the whole everyone seemed to be acting in a fair-minded way. I found that very encouraging."