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Organizational efforts aimed at directing the development of an area in front of MetraPark have resumed this year. Members of the Trailhead Hospitality Corridor Vision Steering Committee met on Jan. 6, and plan to continue meetings once every two months to continue an effort that was launched during the past year.

The group is comprised of representatives from a wide variety of community groups including the City of Billings, Yellowstone County, the Billings Chamber of Commerce, Big Sky Economic Development Authority, the East Billings Urban Renewal District (EBURD), MetraPark, as well as others.

The committee wants to oversee and coordinate a number of planning efforts and studies that focus on the development of an area that extends from the Lockwood Interchange to Airport Road, which includes Exposition Drive in front of Metra Park. The “vision” is to make the route into a showcase development that will serve as a “gateway” into the community.

Part of the master plan for the EBURD tax increment finance district, which encompasses properties along Exposition Drive, proposes a more focused plan for those properties to more tightly control how they are developed in the future, so as to fit with the “gateway vision.”

Needed funding for doing an “Exposition Gateway concept” plan in EBURD is estimated at $100,000, according to Patty Nordland, EDA’s director of community development. She said that they are “confident” that they will raise all of the necessary funding, with several entities having already pledged contributions including $25,000 from the tax increment district, as well as a number of impacted businesses. They will issue a request for proposal from firms interested in doing the study as soon as possible with the hope of having the plan completed in 12 to 18 months.

Included as part of the proposed corridor is Swords Park, where the Chamber of commerce is ready to formally open a newly developed bike/pedestrian trail that will be a model for the rest of the trails plan, according to John Brewer, Chamber President.

Wyeth Friday, Billings Planning Department, reported on the progress of a transportation plan for the area that his department is doing. He said that they too will be issuing a request for a proposal and that part of the stipulations of the RFP will be to coordinate their planning with that of EBURD, Metra Park and the Montana Department of Transportation, which is planning some changes for the Lockwood Interchange.

While there are still some details to be completed on the Bench Connector, the new road that connects Bench Boulevard and Sixth Avenue North is open. Metra Park officials said that they are anxious to see how the new exits from MetraPark will work at disbursing traffic following their next big event.

County Commissioner Jim Reno reported that while the funding the county had hoped to get from the federal government to build a grade separation at Sixth and Main fell through, they are not giving up on the project. “It is critical” to get a grade separation at that point, he said, pointing out the difficulty of biking through the intersection without one. “It is truly the cork in the bottle,” he said.

Marty Connell, a member of the property owners group in EBURD, said that they are setting up a special committee to look at ways of acquiring the funding needed to build the grade separation, which will be an important consideration of business considering locating in the district. “I think we have the money on the table to do the job,” he said.

There was discussion about whether there will ever be a “state of the art convention center” for downtown, with some pondering whether it might be located in the EBURD now that it is no longer included as part of the plans for the Empire Parking Garage on Montana Avenue.

City Administrator Tina Volek said that a convention center has been “put on a back burner,” since a survey done by Greg Krueger with the Downtown Partnership found it to be economic unfeasible without considerable subsidies.

Connell commented further the study showed that the market alone would not sustain it, “so they dropped part of the plans that would have gone over Crowne Plaza’s parking lot.

Mayor Tom Hanel reported that the parking garage project is looking for private investors interested in developing commercial or residential units as part of the city’s parking facility which is projected to add over 500 parking spaces for that area of downtown.

Wyeth Friday further reported that there is another effort afoot to develop another corridor involving MSU-Billings, the hospitals and downtown. It, too, is looking at doing a feasibility study, later this year, he said.

Commissioner Reno reported that MetraPark is focusing its planning efforts on “the backside,” now that areas in the front have been refurbished “as far as we can take it.”

MetraPark Manager Bill Dutcher noted that “this is the first time in a year a half we haven’t had some kind of construction going on at Metra Park. It’s nice to focus just on events.”

There was also considerable discussion about the future of the Museum of Yellowstone County. Charles Yegen, a member of the museum board, explained the vision of having a much larger footprint for the museum to prevent “the hemorrhaging of our historic past and to make it a major attraction.” He noted that there have already been grave losses to the community in that there was no place for collections like the Towe Automobile collection to go or for the collection of farm equipment that was part of Oscar’s Dreamland.

Yegen said, “It hasn’t quite got its own wings yet. I hope it does before all these thing are gone.”

The course of discussion unveiled a conflict of the concept to locate the museum on the rims in the vicinity of Swords Park, with bike trail advocates who want Swords Park to remain in a natural state. It was pointed out that to not consider another possible location for the museum – such as below the rims – “could kill the effort.”

Mayor Hanel suggested the possibility of developing plans for a larger museum with plans for a convention center.

Yegen said that as far as he was concerned “every option is on the table. If you have a first class facility it would be quite remarkable. Our history is so new much of it is still here.”

It was further noted that the development for the East Billings area (EBURD) will require some “streams and lakes” in its landscaping to meet EPA requirements to handle storm water drainage.

“You will only get one crack at it,” said Marty Connell, to plan jointly for such things. “Once we do the special improvement district that land will be way too valuable for anything but motels.

It was also commented upon that to place the convention center in any area other than downtown would “kill downtown.”

John Brewer said the study for the convention center showed that the best location for it was downtown, “so don’t take it off the table, since if we put in the infrastructure [for east Billings] we will get hotels. They are dying to come.”

It was also noted that the City of Billings public works department will be doing a sewer and water project on Montana Avenue this summer, and the State Department of Transportation will then overlay the street in 2013.

The next meeting of the committee will be March 2, and future meetings will be held on the first Friday of every second month, at the EDA conference room in Granite Tower.