MISSOULA — The future growth of Missoula has been at the top of mind recently for some city officials.
The Missoula Metropolitan Organization (MPO) and Missoula Urban Transportation District (MUTD) — better known as Mountain Line — have been working on their long-range transportation and strategic plan with growth in mind.
The MPO and MUTD have both created plans that look five years out into the future, with near-term, medium-term and long-term plans and goals put in place.
The plans of both MPO and Mountain Line focused on similar goals: meet the needs of the community as well as continue to pursue proposed projects.
One of the ways they plan to reach these goals is by potentially changing various bus route times, particularly to increase frequency for certain routes and decrease frequency on other routes.
Both MPO and Mountain Line expressed that funding for future projects is tightly constrained, so they will have to prioritize need-based projects first in the coming years.
Even with a tight budget, they are still projecting that they will be able to distribute the remaining funding across projects such as ones that would be focused on increasing the mobility of older adults.
MPO and Mountain Line will be looking for public comment in early 2025 to seek input on their plans.
