South Campus, fairground development concepts pitched to public

What could the South Campus of the former Montana Developmental Center and the lands south of the fairground look like in the years and decades to come? County leaders aren’t yet sure, but they’re coming up with ideas and taking public comments in an attempt to figure it out.

As part of a development plan funded by the Jefferson Local Development Corporation, Headwaters Resource Conservation and Development, and the state Department of Environmental Quality, Jessica Holdren, a project manager with FourFront Design, pitched rough concepts for possible development of the sites at a community open house on Sept. 28. The concepts, she said, were developed with community input gathered during an open house on June 30 and a subsequent online survey that ended July 14. Two more open houses are in the works as part of a planning phase expected to stretch through February 2022, she said in June. The next open house is slated for sometime in November. 

In developing the concepts—four for the South Campus, two for the lands around the fairground—Holdren “[took] the goals and ideas as much as we could” from the June open house and survey.