The city’s growth policy consultant is returning to town and holding community conversations Aug. 21-22.

The city hired Orion Planning and Design in May with a $371,184 contract.

City Commissioners also appointed a growth policy steering committee during that May meeting, with the objective “to ensure the involvement of a diverse range of groups, entities, disciplines, and citizens throughout the growth policy process. Members will provide input and feedback at each stage of the planning process, including the preliminary plan vision and goals, guiding principles, base concept development, strategies, element policies, priority actions, implementation strategies, and recommendations.”

City awards contract, appoints steering committee for growth policy process

During the Aug. 21-22 meetings, the consultant team is looking to better understand the city and have initial discussions with topical groups to prepare for broader community engagement in the coming months.

These meetings are open to the public and the schedule is:

Room B-136

Aug. 21

• 3-4 p.m.: environment
• 4:30-5:30 p.m.: utilities

Aug. 22

• 9:30-10:30 a.m.: land use
• 11 a.m. to noon: housing and community development
• 1:30-2:30 p.m.: public health and human services
• 3-4 p.m.: public safety

B-137

Aug. 21

• 3-4 p.m.: economic development
• 4:30-5:30 p.m.: schools

Aug. 22

• 9:30-10:30 a.m.: neighborhoods
• 11-noon: parks, trails and open space
• 1:30-2:30 p.m.: community character
• 3-4 p.m.: mobility

The city formally started the growth policy process in December 2023 and it’s expected to be a roughly two year process.

The city last did a full growth policy process in 2013 though staff did some internal reviews in the meantime.

City to consider growth policy consultant, committee appointments

In July, the steering committee met for the first time.

The committee, according to staff, will be involved in:

• reviewing ongoing growth policy drafts, objections and goals
• serving as the communication channel for their area of expertise or representative group
• assisting with public engagement efforts
• ensuring cohesion, collaboration and minimal contradictions in the growth policy

The city received 58 applications for the committee between March 26 and April 12.

City receives 58 applications for growth policy committee

The mayor and each city commissioner provided up to five recommendations for each interest area, ranked in order of preference, according to staff, who then then assigned a numerical value to each recommendation, which resulted in the following recommendations for committee membership:

• Rick Tryon, city commissioner, selected by the commission
• Heather Hoyer, GFPS superintendent, selected by GFPS
• Brett Doney, Great Falls Development Alliance director, selected by GFFA
• A Malmstrom Air Force Base representative who has not yet been selected
• Katie Hanning, representing housing and development
• Kris Cron, Mike Hallahan and Brian Kaufman, representing business and industry
• Tom Heisler, representing agriculture and environment
• Abigail Hill, representing public health and medical
• Stephanie Erdmann, representing higher education and adult training
• Spencer Woith, Carol Bronson and Wayne Klind as the citizen members

During the July meeting, Planning Director Brock Cherry asked the group to introduce themselves and say one thing they loved about Great Falls.

Allison Mouch, a partner in Orion, attended the meeting.

“I want this to be the greatest public engagement ever in our city’s history,” Cherry said.

He asked the group to start thinking about a public engagement plan and said city staff would organize the traditional things such as open houses, visits to neighborhood councils and surveys but asked them to think about how to fill in the gaps.

City accepting applications for growth policy committee

Cherry started the group off considering a logo and branding for the growth policy.

He said he’s seen other communities adopt brands for their plans and asked Brett Doney, executive director of the Great Falls Development Alliance, why he thought a brand was important for the plan.

“I don’t,” Doney responded.

Cherry said he thought it was important and that they were using staff to come up with a phrase and logo.

They looked at versions of “Future Great Falls” and “Envision Electric City” with brown and teal in the color palette.

Doney said that something he likes about Great Falls is that “people are direct, no games,” and thinks it would turn people off to know the city is spending time and money on logos and graphics.

“The more time you spend on that, people will focus on what you’re spending our money on,” Doney said.

Cherry said that the design was done in house and not included in the consultant’s scope of work.

City beginning growth policy update

The city has been using the graphic to the right for growth policy related posts.

As for public engagement, Andrew Finch, city transportation planner, said that they’re looking to talk to people involved in local activities to represent various areas of interest, such as outdoors and the environment, nightlife, cheer squads, etc.

Cherry said they’d use one of their planners who was previously a teacher to help engage younger residents. They also plan to work with Great Falls Public Schools and higher learning institutions in the city to talk to students about what would keep them here.

“To me right now, the danger is our most precious commodity [youth], is our biggest export,” Cherry said.

Cherry said they’re also wondering how to engage the older population and would lean on the committee to help reach them.

City staff asking for RFP, resolution approval to start growth policy process

He said they’d be doing focus group meetings in August with plans for more public outreach throughout the fall.

Doney said that democracy favors those who show up to share their opinions, but if the city really wanted engagement, they’d have to meet people where they are since many residents are busy and working.

Mouch said that the consultant team intends to get input, then come back to the table with that and say this is what we heard, and ask the public if they agree with the team’s summation or interpretation.

She said in considering land use policy, people are tactile, so it will be helpful to show the public what decisions will look like and the impact they could have.

“We’ll do some gut checks to say, ‘is this what you were thinking,'” Mouch said.

She said the idea is not to come out with a static vision for the next 20 years, “that would be insane,” but rather what does growth look like in the short term and how does the city incrementally evolve into the future.

Cherry said that through the growth policy process, the public will also learn the economics of the city.

County opts not to review growth policy; floodplain regulation review underway [2022]

He said that people might say no to more taxes and it’s up to staff to explain what that might look like for services and growth.

Or, the public might say they want to grow and expand. Cherry said it would be silly for the city to say, well, our soils aren’t great, and fire and police are going to have a hard time getting out there.

It’s an opportunity to talk about growth, but also inform the public about basic city functions, he said.

Klind said he was having a hard time figuring out how to explain to people what the growth policy was and that it doesn’t sit on a shelf.

Tryon said that the city uses the growth policy regularly as the basis for all zoning and land use decisions, which make up a large portion of what the commission handles.

City soliciting feedback on development review process [2023]

Hanning, director of the Great Falls Homebuilders Association, said the 2013 growth policy is on her desk and she references it often.

“It’s not just a plain old document,” she said.

Finch said that the update process and growth policy itself will guide staff in terms of making city code changes. He said staff will analyze demographics, housing trends, employment, industries here and more to consider those changes.

He said the city has to comply with state laws in terms of land use and building codes.

“I hate it when the state puts their fingers in local government, but they do,” Finch said, and some recent legislative changes affected local land use rules.

Mouch said that Great Falls’ growth policy will be one of the first to be updated under new state laws, meaning there are a lot of unknowns since some of those laws are being challenged in court in some jurisdictions.

She said they’ll also be updating the plan during a legislative session, “which adds a little bit of spice.”

Cherry said they’ll leverage existing plans in the community, such as the Downtown Master Plan, GFDA’s plans and Visit Great Falls Montana’s recent tourism strategic plan.

Doney said there were “tons of good ideas” in the 2013 plan and that “you can dream” but he’d push for a realistic plan.

Mouch agreed saying the plan has to recognize that “if everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority, and if everything is supposed to happen all at once.”