City of East Helena approves Rose Hills mixed-income neighborhood

EAST HELENA — The city of East Helena unanimously approved the Rose Hills mixed-income neighborhood plan, which has been in the works for over seven years.

East Helena Mayor Kelly Harris said, “I think Rose Hills, being affordable housing, really represents East Helena’s past and brings us into the future, having people have opportunities to work.”

This is part of the two-thousand-acre former Asarco smelter site. It is slowly being transformed into something new.

Part of it is now Prickly Pear Park, which opened this past spring, and these 250 acres will be a neighborhood.

Much of the former East Helena smelter site is being converted into space for the community.

“East Helena creates an opportunity for housing and to build housing where it needs to be, which is near towns where the jobs are, food is, and infrastructure is,” Helena Area Habitat for Humanity director Jacob Kuntz said.

Helena Area Habitat for Humanity submitted its Rose Hills neighborhood plan to the city of East Helena in December 2024.

Following an extensive public review process and a series of unanimous approvals by the East Helena zoning board, planning board, and city council, the neighborhood plan is now moving forward to engineering and infrastructure design.

Kuntz said, “To have this approval from the city on a very innovative neighborhood that is going to help us address more housing that Montanans can afford is a pretty big deal.”