Our Successes
Learn More About Our History and Successes!
The North Missoula Community Development Corporation has been a neighborhood-led and community focused organization since its inception. With strong community activist and advocacy roots planted by the early 1990s Northside Neighborhood Association, the NMCDC incorporated in 1996.
That same year, the community initiated a neighborhood planning process, which led to the adoption of the Joint Northside/Westside Neighborhood Plan in 2000 and a citizen review of the Plan in 2006. This document, ratified by the Missoula City Council, was a citizen-initiated, government-funded and democratically crafted plan for the neighborhood’s future. It formed the central strategic document for NMCDC activities to the present day.
Since that time, the NMCDC has been the primary grassroots driving force for the equitable growth of the Northside and Westside neighborhoods through new initiatives, programs, and projects, and has played a role in the creation of various well-loved Missoula organizations and community projects. Below are just a few such accomplishments:
53
permanently affordable homes
91%
of Missoula CLT homes are stewarded by NMCDC
110+
families achieved homeownership with NMCDC
23
years working in our community
Other NMCDC Successes
1996-2003
- 1996: The NMCDC initiates the North Missoula Housing Partnership, which until the establishment of the Land Stewardship Program (our community land trust program) helped approximately 35 households achieve homeownership in the Northside and Westside neighborhoods.
- 1997: With the assistance of the NMCDC, the Missoula Urban Demonstration Project (MUD) establishes the Missoula Tool Library.
- 1998: The NMCDC helps the neighborhood construct “Project Playground.” This children’s facility adjacent to Lowell School developed out of public meetings associated with the neighborhood planning process and was constructed with all volunteer labor. Now following the wooden Playground’s successful 20-year lifespan, the NMCDC is working with Parks and Recreation and the Missoula School District to raise funds for Project Westside Park, a state- of-the-art play facility with a value exceeding several million dollars.
- 1998: The NMCDC establishes the Hill and Homestead Preservation Coalition (HHPC) to advocate for continued city ownership and preservation of the 13-acre Moon-Randolph Homestead in Missoula’s North Hills.
- 1999: The City of Missoula constructs the Northside Railroad Pedestrian Overpass, a 2.2 million dollar non-motorized infrastructure improvement and the culmination of ten years of community activism initiated by the Northside Neighborhood Association and the NMCDC. It is financed with tax-increment and Montana Rail Link funding.
- 2000: Initiated by the neighborhood plan and federally funded, the California St. Bridge is constructed by the City of Missoula. This is a non-motorized 1.8 million dollar infrastructure improvement that spans the Clark Fork River.
- 2000 — present: The NMCDC signs a Preservation Services Cooperative Agreement with the City of Missoula, takes responsibility for partnering on rehabilitating the Moon-Randolph Homestead and developing education, agriculture, and youth advocacy programs. The NMCDC establishes a year-round caretaker in a renovated dwelling on the site and raises over $100,000 for maintenance, building rehabilitation, and programming. The NMCDC remains the Homestead’s fiscal sponsor.
- 2000: The NMCDC receives Community Development Block Grant funds to establish its Community Land Trust (CLT) for the development of permanently affordable housing. The program is based on the national CLT model and receives additional start-up support from the Institute for Community Economics.
- 2002 — present: The NMCDC hosts the first season of Missoula Outdoor Cinema (MOC). MOC presents films for the community in the playfield of Whittier School on Saturdays in July and August. Now in its 20th year (minus one season cancelled due to COVID), the MOC is a beloved summertime tradition.
- 2003: The NMCDC begins providing financial resources and staff time to develop the Missoula Community Food Co-op, a cooperatively-owned consumer food co-op with related community food projects. This partnership ended when the Missoula Community Food Co-op closed their doors in December of 2017.
2005 – Present
- 2005: The Northwest Area Foundation awards the NMCDC an inaugural “Great Strides Award” for its innovative work in poverty mitigation and neighborhood revitalization.
- 2006: The NMCDC’s Community Land Trust program completes the development of Clark Fork Commons, which comprises 25 townhomes and sits on the river in the Westside neighborhood.
- 2006: The NMCDC purchases a 1.5 acre site on the Westside to create the Burns Street Community Center, a commercial building dedicated to providing space for community-oriented local business and gathering facility for neighbors. This purchase was made possible with funds from the Northwest Area Foundation, City of Missoula Entitlement Funds, the USDA, a Missoula County loan, and donated local monies.
- 2007: The LSP completes its 17-unit Burns Street Commons community land trust housing development in the Westside neighborhood.
- 2009: The NMCDC publishes a feasibility study for Trust Montana, a statewide community land trust.
- 2010: The NMCDC obtains a National Register of Historic Places listing for the Moon-Randolph Homestead.
- 2011-2012: The NMCDC obtains a federal appropriation and other grant money to invest more than $1M in the Burns Street Community Center, the Food Co-op grocery store and the Burns Street Bistro kitchen development.
- 2012 — present: The NMCDC launches the Burns Street Kids Club program in collaboration with the Missoula Food Bank.
- 2013: On behalf of Trust Montana, the NMCDC acquires IRS 501(c)3 status for a statewide community land trust and coalition of land stewards.
- 2014: The NMCDC establishes a Legal Defense and Education Fund to provide neighborhood advocacy to cause the White Pine Sash state superfund cleanup.
- 2014 – 2015: The NMCDC signs a lease with the Western Montana Growers’ Cooperative to construct a food aggregation center and new Growers’ Co-op offices in the Burns Street Center — further investing in the Center as a regional food hub.
- 2015 – 2019: NMCDC receives the donation of a downtown property containing a vacant, city-red-tagged, apartment building. Subsequent fundraising successfully includes city and state federal passthrough and local tax-increment funds and results in the seven townhome Lee Gordon Place development in the Heart of Missoula neighborhood.
- 2019 – Current: The NMCDC begins a partnership with Common Good Missoula and through funding assistance from the Headwaters Foundation and the Catholic Campaign for Human Development increases its staffing dedicated to grassroots neighborhood organizing to bring forward a largely disenfranchised resident voice for equitable development, legislative accountability, and citizen agency in Missoula’s rapidly changing, dangerously gentrifying, environment.
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