New ‘community review’ seeks to create playbook for growth

What, exactly, is the best way for a city to grow? The answer to this question is crucially important – particularly for a small town set for lightning-fast growth. 

East Helena last updated its growth policy — a planning tool prescribed, but not required, by the state — in May, 2021. That document, 35 pages long with 200 pages of appendices, broadly anticipated considerable housing coming to the former ASARCO smelter lands. “It is important for the City of East Helena to continue to plan for the development of these areas to protect the character and identity of the community,” it stated.

But that was over four years ago. The size and scale of the looming residential developments — and associated infrastructural, environmental and economic challenges — have since come into somewhat clearer focus.