Roundup Community Partners welcomed Mayor Sandra Jones to a Community Coffee discussion at the Musselshell County Senior on the evening of January 22, 2024 regarding Roundup's growth policy. Also in attendance were Musselshell County Commissioners Mike Goffena and Mike Turley, real estate appraiser Gary Barta, and Cody Marxer from Great West Engineering.
Ms. Marxer gave a detailed explanation of the city's growth policy, which includes housing planning and is separate from any plans for the county.
Montana Code Annotated is the foundation and regulates housing and compliance, infrastructure. Also impacted are grant funding and planning. Then come the problems of ordinances, capital improvements, traffic, parking, and the entire master plan for our downtown area.
"The housing needs assessment for Roundup are impacted by our topography and the flood plain," per Ms. Marxer. "We need to analyze potential areas, then revitalize and repurpose those areas."
From that discussion, the topic changed to the unoccupied downtown buildings. Roundup does have a TIF district, Tax Increment Financing. More information is available here: https://leg.mt.gov/content/Committees/Interim/2017-2018/Revenue-and-Transportation/Meetings/May-2018/tif-glossary-cornish.pdf
The Mayor does recognize there is a problem with the unoccupied, unused buildings along Main Street. We, as a community, need to come together to encourage the owners of those buildings to repair, or even sell, those structures. The final answers will have to come from all angles. If the community thinks a change is needed, then we all have to find a way to make this happen.
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