The yellow line in the illustration shows the intended route of the Billings Bypass, which could begin construction in 2019. (Courtesy image)
Originally published in the 12/1/17 print edition of Yellowstone County News.
LOCKWOOD — The Yellowstone County Commissioners on Tuesday approved the recently completed Master Plan for the Lockwood Targeted Economic Development District (TEDD) after a public hearing.
Planners under the direction of KLJ, have spent most of the past year developing a plan under which an industrial park will be developed in Lockwood through the taxing mechanism of a TEDD. The TEDD is a tax increment finance district in which future new tax revenues are applied to infrastructure development within the district boundaries. Highlights of the draft TEDD Master Plan were presented during the county commission meeting last week.
With the approval of the document by the Yellowstone County Commissioners, the next steps can be taken to develop the TEDD, which including appointing an Advisory Board and beginning an application process for grants to fund additional planning and development.
Commissioners were also informed that there are now property owners outside of the TEDD who would like to go through the process of being incorporated into the TEDD. That will require a different process and may include required zone changes.
The Master Plan takes a broad approach in planning for transportation, rail, utilities, and flood protection. It includes areas beyond TEDD borders, because the build-out of those systems will impact all the developable land in the area.
Research in developing the Master Plan revealed that Lockwood water and sewer systems are currently inadequate to serve the extended area. The plan assumes that TEDD wastewater will be routed to the Firth Lift Station where they will be pumped to the sewer trunk main system, where they will continue by gravity flow through the trunk mains to discharge into the Main Lift Station, to be pumped across the East Bridge, to discharge to the City of Billings treatment plant.
That TEDD is outside the Lockwood Water and Sewer District (LWSD) and would have to be ... Read full story online by subscribing or buy 12/1/17 print edition for story.
