by Evelyn Pyburn
The failure of the Billings City Council to approve an amendment to its agreement with Landmark has created a hiccup in plans for One Big Sky District (OBSD), but it’s not going to alter plans by the community “partnership” to continue to push for passage of legislation that would provide incentive for the development.
A five-to-five split among city council members, Monday evening, failed to pass an amendment to the agreement that the City has with Landmark to reimburse Landmark for their up-front investment in developing plans for OBSD, should they not be involved in building any of the four catalyst projects.
Without that assurance, it is uncertain what the relationship between Landmark and the Billings partnership group will be, from this point forward, explained Steve Arveschoug, Director of Big Sky Economic Development (BSED), one of the partnership members. But, Arveschoug saw no reason for the community not to continue to move forward with the OBSD vision. “I don’t want to walk away from all of that time and work,” said Arveschoug, in a later interview.
Voting in favor of adopting the amendment were City Council members, Mike Yakawich, Denise Joy, Peggy Ronning, Shaun Brown and Mayor Bill Cole. Voting against it were Brent Cromley, Frank Ewalt, Chris Friedel, Reg Gibb and Richard Clark. Council member Roy Neece was absent.
One Big Sky District is an economic development plan for a major portion of the downtown Billings area that proposes four major multi-use structures which would in total invest about $2.5 billion of infrastructure, funded in part by private investors and in part relying on public funding through several federal investment programs, including one being proposed at the state legislature. CLICK here to read more
