Retirement News : Seniors : UM to unveil retirement center plans

UM to unveil retirement center plans

Date Added: 09-03-2005

MISSOULA - Details for the University of Montana's retirement community along the campus golf course and the master plan for future expansion at the 150-acre site at the base of Mount Sentinel and Pattee Canyon will be revealed in a series of public meetings scheduled for April 6-7 in Missoula.

UM officials and the university's team of land developers originally believed the plans and the meeting would happen by mid-March.

The date was pushed back to allow UM officials to spend part of March visiting other universities that have developed housing for alumni, former campus employees and retired faculty, staff and administrators.

 
Stops at the University of Michigan, Penn State and the University of Florida are on the tour, said Bob Duringer, UM's vice president for administration and finance.

Final arrangements are still being worked out as to where and when the April meetings will be held.

Specifics of the plan won't be revealed until the meetings, however, said Walt Brett, a UM alum who now lives in Park City, Utah, and is leading the development team.

Brett said the master plan his team has created for UM's south campus including the retirement housing project are sensitive to most of the concerns Missoula residents aired in a series of January meetings.

In UM's plan, the retirement complex would be built in three phases at the southeast corner of the golf course, with space left between three housing clusters. The makeup of the housing, such as patio homes, condos or duplexes, and the number of units or their cost has yet to be determined.

If the retirement complex is built, the golf course would be reconfigured, Brett said. What would impact the course the most is if UM decides to expand and build more academic buildings, Brett said.

Sites in the heart of the course have been identified for six buildings the size and scope of the Gallagher Business Building.

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