Staff recommends that Council approve the submittal, support and acceptance, if awarded, of a Montana Community Reinvestment Plan Act Planning Grant of up to $30,000 to support comprehensive planning (AKA a growth policy update per Senate Bill 382). A letter of support (draft attached) will be signed by the Mayor after Council action on this grant application.

In 2023, the Montana Legislature passed the Montana Community Reinvestment Plan Act, HB 819, with the purpose “to begin to address housing needs and offer a regional, community-based solution to creating affordable, attainable workforce housing infrastructure in the state.” Section 22 of HB 819 appropriated $1 million to the Department of Commerce to “provide planning grants to local governments and tribal governments for planning and zoning reforms to increase housing supply” and “cover administrative costs of the grant program.”

The City of Billings per action by the 2023 Legislature in passing the Montana Land Use Planning Act (SB 382) is about to launch a new round of comprehensive planning (AKA growth policy update) in early 2024. The City Council budgeted $200,000 in Fiscal Year 2024 to conduct this comprehensive planning effort over the next two and a half years. A major component of this work is to conduct a Housing Analysis that must inform, per SB 382, the future zoning and infrastructure plans of the City to accommodate the number of housing units in the next 20 years that the Housing Analysis finds is needed.

Staff is applying for this grant to help fund the Housing Analysis component of the comprehensive planning as this grant is specifically focused on this type of project to address housing needs. The most that may be applied for is $30,000, which is what staff is proposing. The Montana Department of Commerce Community Division will administer the grant program. The Department anticipates providing at least $1,000,000 in planning grants to eligible applicants during the current biennium (State Fiscal Years 2024 and 2025). The deadline for the grant submittal is February 9. Awards are expected in late spring 2024.
 

City Council may:

• Approve; or,
• Not Approve submittal of the grant. There is no disadvantage to submitting this grant as it would increase the City's resources to complete the Housing Analysis component of the growth policy update.

If this grant is awarded, it will provide up to $30,000 in support of the Housing Analysis component of the City's new comprehensive plan (AKA growth policy). The grant requires a 20% match of the amount of the total project and up to 50% of the match may be met by "in-kind" contributions, like salaried staff time or other services provided by the City. Since the total project budget is $200,000, $30,000 would be added to the total to make a total project of $230,000. The City would put up to a total match of $46,000 ($23,000 cash/$23,000 in-kind). That leaves $177,000 in funds for the remaining comprehensive planning elements, required code audit and recommended code updates.