Maintenance of Common Areas in Missoula Development Park

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On June 29, 2023, Missoula County and the City of Missoula entered into an interlocal agreement regarding county-owned parcels in the Missoula Development Park.

The purpose of the agreement is to define the roles and responsibilities of the City and the County to document the County’s intent to transfer ownership and maintenance responsibilities of certain county-owned parcels to the City. A condition of transferring Butler Creek Park (1 East) and Kestrel Park (2 East) is removing the blanket utility easements on those parcels.

The County has determined the following process for removing the blanket utility easements:

  1. Perform utility locates on the parcels,
  2. Notify all utility companies of the intent to remove the blanket utility easements,
  3. Notify all property owners in the Missoula Development Park of the intent to remove the blanket utility easements,
  4. Draft a resolution removing the blanket utility easements and hold a public hearing before the Board of County Commissioners for consideration of removing the blanket utility easements,
  5. If the resolution removing the blanket utility easements is adopted, link the resolution to the subdivision documents in lieu of filing an amended plat to the subdivision.


The public hearing for consideration of removing the blanket utility easements is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on April 3, 2025 in the Sophie Moiese Room in the Missoula County Courthouse Annex. More information about the meeting can be found here.

On June 29, 2023, Missoula County and the City of Missoula entered into an interlocal agreement regarding county-owned parcels in the Missoula Development Park.

The purpose of the agreement is to define the roles and responsibilities of the City and the County to document the County’s intent to transfer ownership and maintenance responsibilities of certain county-owned parcels to the City. A condition of transferring Butler Creek Park (1 East) and Kestrel Park (2 East) is removing the blanket utility easements on those parcels.

The County has determined the following process for removing the blanket utility easements:

  1. Perform utility locates on the parcels,
  2. Notify all utility companies of the intent to remove the blanket utility easements,
  3. Notify all property owners in the Missoula Development Park of the intent to remove the blanket utility easements,
  4. Draft a resolution removing the blanket utility easements and hold a public hearing before the Board of County Commissioners for consideration of removing the blanket utility easements,
  5. If the resolution removing the blanket utility easements is adopted, link the resolution to the subdivision documents in lieu of filing an amended plat to the subdivision.


The public hearing for consideration of removing the blanket utility easements is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. on April 3, 2025 in the Sophie Moiese Room in the Missoula County Courthouse Annex. More information about the meeting can be found here.

  • Updates

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    Offers for "Park 4" and "Park 8" of the Missoula Development Park were accepted through Aug. 2, 2024.

    Missoula County commissioners accepted an offer for Missoula Development Park "Park 6," at their public meeting on June 27, 2024. Missoula County was unable to accept previous offers for Missoula Development Park “Park 4” and “Park 8” because the offer price was lower than the appraised value. According to state law, the Board of County Commissioners may not sell land for less than the appraised value (MCA 7-8-2513). Missoula County issued a new Notice of Intent to Sell for “Park 4” and “Park 8,” following the same procedure as the original notice, with a new deadline of Aug. 2, 2024.

    View images of these parks under "Photos" and learn more about them in the document labeled "Development Park Notice of Intent to Sell" on the right-hand side. If you would like to place an offer for one or both of these parks, email Land and Economic Development Specialist Flanna McLarty at fmclarty@missoulacounty.us or mail her at:

    Flanna McLarty
    200 W. Broadway
    Missoula, MT 59802

    If anyone submitting an offer did not agree with the appraised value, they could submit an appraisal by a disinterested certified general real estate appraiser with their offer. The appraisal had to be in line with the intended use for the property.

    Missoula County commissioners accepted an offer for Missoula Development Park "Park 6," at their public meeting on June 27, 2024. Missoula County issued a new Notice of Intent to Sell for “Park 4” and “Park 8,” following the same procedure as the original notice, with a new deadline of Aug. 2, 2024.

    Missoula County was unable to accept pervious offers for Missoula Development Park “Park 4” and “Park 8” because the offer price was lower than the appraised value. According to state law, the Board of County Commissioners may not sell land for less than the appraised value (MCA 7-8-2513).

  • About the Park

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    The Missoula Development Park is a 446-acre area Missoula County developed between 1991 and 2017 for industrial use. Located just west of Missoula between Interstate 90 and the Missoula Airport, the City of Missoula annexed it in 2018.The common areas have remained in County ownership since annexation, with maintenance responsibilities falling to the Property Owners Association (see the Property Owners Association Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions under the “Documents” section).

    The POA no longer has enough dues-paying members or board leadership needed to properly maintain the common areas. This has led to the common areas, including parklands, sidewalks, trails and stormwater facilities, falling into disrepair.

    Rather than exercise its ability to put a lien on the properties within the Development Park (see the Property Owners Association Covenants, Conditions and Restrictions under the “documents” section) to pay for deferred, cyclical and long-term maintenance, the County proposed to:

    • Address deferred maintenance to the stormwater system by ‘un-parking’ and sell common area parklands 4, 6, and 8 for private development. These parks were up for sale, and offers could be made to Flanna McLarty until 5 p.m. Wednesday, May 15, 2024.
    • Transfer ownership and maintenance responsibility of the common area stormwater parklands 3, 5, 7, 9A, 11 and 12 to the City of Missoula.
    • Transfer ownership and maintenance responsibilities of common areas Airway Boulevard, Expressway Boulevard and Butler Creek to the City of Missoula.
    • Transfer ownership and maintenance responsibilities of common areas Redfern 2 and Canyon Creek Park parcels to third parties, preferably to the adjacent Canyon Creek Home Owners Association or AT&T.

    For this project to be completed, a majority of the voting members of the Missoula Development Park Property Owners Association needed to agree that the transfer of common area was allowable. After a vote to "allow Missoula County to transfer common areas in the Missoula development park to third parties," where all voting interests were mailed a physical ballot using addresses on record with the State of Montana Department of Revenue, of the 81 ballots returned, 72 voted "FOR" the transfer of property by Missoula County (89%), and nine voted "AGAINST" the transfer of property by Missoula County (11%).

    Therefore, Missoula County intends to proceed to transfer common areas in the development park to private individuals and/or entities. The first to be addressed will be Parks 4,6, 8, Redfern 2 and Canyon Creek Park.

Page last updated: 27 Feb 2025, 02:25 PM