South Campus meeting
The University of Montana will hold a public meeting on the almost final “long-term vision draft plan” for South Campus at 7 p.m. Wednesday in the University Center Theatre on the third floor of UM's University Center.
But one thing is for sure: When the time comes for UM to provide more housing for students and find new ground for academic departments and researchers constrained by tight quarters, the golf course is destined for history.
Since January, the committee assigned to create a long-term master plan for UM's 160 acres at Sentinel's southern edge have gathered twice a month.
Committee members embarked on a long thoughtful discussion about how to best carve up the land to meet UM's future needs, and those discussions have been open to the public.
There were always a few residents present to add their insights during the public comment period at the end of each meeting, but the meetings rarely attracted an audience of more than a dozen people.
Now, after six months of talking, weighing priorities, debating the best land-use options and hearing presentations from the people who use the land the most - golfers, students, hang gliders, commuters, bus drivers, walkers, plant researchers - a final draft plan is almost complete.
On Wednesday, the plan will be presented in a meeting wholly dedicated to public comment, said Rosemary Keller, UM's associate vice president for administration and finance.
The plan on display will show what is likely, but not certain.
UM's South Campus will likely have a giant oval much like the one on the “mountain campus,” ringed by research and academic buildings. It will likely house an indoor athletic facility, perhaps with tennis courts and an indoor track. More recreation fields will be added for intramural soccer games and to serve as the hang gliders' new landing zone. There will be additional student housing and parking - all of which will be accessible by an access road that will likely shadow the perimeter of the new campus.
“All of our meetings have been opened to the public, and from the very beginning, when the committee mapped out what we wanted to do and how to proceed, we decided we wanted an open meeting that was dedicated for public comment,” Keller said. “All our other meetings were really work meetings - even though they were open to the public and we took comments at the end of those meetings.”
Wednesday's meeting will start with Keller presenting a short history of how and why UM first acquired the golf course and the process by which the master plan committee arrived at the “long-term vision draft plan,” also known as “Version 4.”
The “plan” is just that, Keller said. Even though the outlines of buildings and parking lots are inked on it, they only serve as a visual reference for people to talk about.
“This is just a document,” she said. “The focus of this is to have a plan in place that is in line with the goals and mission of the university to meet the needs and demands of campus. This is but a visual representation of what this land could look like if and when the university decides to expand.”
All public comments will be noted and the committee will use the feedback to refine the draft plan during its next few meetings.
Keller said the plan likely will be finalized sometime in September, but she and the committee are willing to work on it longer, if need be.
“I have said from the beginning,” she said, “we will let the process take the time that it takes.”
When the committee has completed its work, the final draft plan will be handed to UM President George Dennison, who will review it and present it to the Montana Board of Regents.
Committee member Bob Tutskey described the process as “interesting.”
At the beginning, the meetings were very much a history lesson about the growing community of Missoula and a visionary UM president who saw that one day campus would need to expand and facilitated the purchase of property in and around what was a much smaller campus in the 1920s.
“It was also interesting to learn how much the land is currently used - there is more going on there than you would think - and how much interest there is for projected use of the land,” Tutskey said.
“Like a lot of people, I thought there must be more room for everybody on the existing campus, but one dean after another talked about faculty and programs being shoehorned into places, in places where two people are forced to work in a tiny space designed for one person.”
Planning discussions were honest and sincere, said Keith Glaes, who also served on the planning committee.
“Most committee members faithfully came to every meeting, and the process has lasted a long time,” Glaes said. “It's been a long haul and people were pretty blunt about things, but I think everyone said in the nicest way possible what they thought.”
“I think what we came up with in the end truly serves to meet student and academic needs.”
Keller said she'd like hear what other members of the public have to say on the issue.
“We will take people's comments, consider those comments and incorporate them the best we can,” she said. “We are going to make sure everybody has an opportunity to speak.”
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