Envision Lincoln to pursue funding for community Master Plan development

Following a pair of meetings over the last month, the Envision Lincoln core team agreed to apply for a Montana Main Street grant to help hire a professional to develop a master plan for the community.

The need for a master plan has become apparent since Envision Lincoln hosted an open house in February to discuss the in-town trails plan and to kick off the discussion of downtown revitalization. The core team first discussed the issue of master planning during a July 30 Zoom meeting with representatives from Main Street Montana and the Montana Department of Commerce Community Development Division.

Lincoln became the first unincorporated community in the state to be accepted into the Main Street Montana in March. Tash Wisemiller, the manager of Community and Economic Vitality Program, said the results of the Envision Lincoln economic development efforts in 2017-18 played a significant role in Lincoln's acceptance.

During the July 30 meeting, Wisemiller noted that master planning can be a daunting and expensive process that needs additional public input, and needs to be widely known and recognized by residents.

"We're not by any means advocating that you do a plan," he said. "I think that the best efforts locally have strategies and plans in place. We work with a lot of towns across the state, a lot of different sizes, a lot of different needs."

Karyn Good, the lead coordinator for Envision Lincoln, said the group's planning workshops in 2017 and 2018 highlighted what the community wanted for itself, but noted it's a large-scale, lengthy project that will take a lot of time and funding.

"There is a lot more planning that needs to be done if we are going to be able to get funding and support from needed partners...if we are going to move this forward," she said.

The original Envision Lincoln workshops led to a framework for the town's economic development, but a master plan would help weave local priorities together in more detail to help guide the community's design and growth.

Hiring a professional would help guide the process. Depending on community needs, professional planners analyze factors that can include the local economy and population, business recruitment and retention issues, community facilities, transportation, traffic, housing and infrastructure needs, land use, downtown design, and even marketing and branding.

The cost of professional planning can run the gamut and the Wisemiller was reluctatnt to make an estimate, but he said he's seen plans for similarly sized communities run the $30,000-$35,000 range.

In a synopsis of the Aug. 19 core team meeting, Good noted that a master plan would also make Lincoln more competitive in grant applications for necessary funding, and would further develop partnerships with the Montana Department of Transportation and Lewis and Clark County, which is Lincoln's local-level government as an unincorporated community.

During that meeting, core team members were on board with the idea of developing a master plan and agreed to pursue to hire a professional planner, with the understanding they would have to find a planner with experience planning for small, rural communities like Lincoln.

"For me, the benefit of having someone with expertise come in and do it is that they would have experience," said Kate Radford. "We can put out a request for proposal to find somebody who has experience with small unincorporated communities and the kinds of challenges those communities have faced in other places."

She added it could be an advantage by allowing them to get the expertise member so the group may not have.

"A planner would know more questions than we know, and you can't find answers when you don't even know the questions." fellow team member Karen Frank-Plumlee added.

During the July 30 meeting, Wisemiller and planning specialist Rebecca Shaw suggested going after a Community Development Block Grant, but noted the application would need to be submitted by a government agency. In Lincoln's case, that's Lewis and Clark County. However, an agency can only submit one CDBG application per year, and the county already has on one in the pipeline for a different project. According to Good, the county agreed to consider a submission on Lincoln's behalf in 2021.

The core team opted instead to apply for a grant directly from Main Street Montana this year. MMS has a $100,000 pool of funds available for grants to member communities, but the grant process is quite competitive.

"We're gonna have growth, we're gonna have changes," said Paul Roos, who favored preparing to apply for the MMS grant when they open it to applications in October. "The longer we put off effective planning, the more likely it is we will lose options on what we can do."

Good and Erin Farris-Olsen with Heart of the Rockies are exploring non-profit organizations that have experience in rural community planning and can provide the service at a lower cost.

Envision Lincoln expects to apply for a $20,000 grant. Heart of the Rockies has agreed to provide $4000 in matching funds and to help Envision Lincoln with the application.

In addition to applying for the grant to help hire a planner, the core team also discussed the need to show some tangible results from Envision Lincoln while master planning efforts are underway. That effort will likely include searching out microgrants for small improvement projects, and the possible development of a cost share program to help downtown business and property owners with property improvements.