HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-14-16 Public Comment - R. Outlaw - Black OliveHello City Commissioners and Bozeman Design Review Board!!
My name is Rob Outlaw and have lived at 412 South Black Ave since 1988 where my wife Trudi
and I raised our daughter since she was 2 years old. We have lovingly taken care of our
historical home, remodeled and landscaped the premise during this 28 year period. In those
early days of ownership one could count all of 3 contractors in the yellow pages. Times have
changed. Through these years we have also seen a number of other residents of the
neighborhood maintain and update their homes all within the spirit of the historical character and
architecture of this neighborhood. And now comes this Black Olive project down the street.!!
Allow me to cut to the chase to express my adamant disapproval of the Black Olive on a litany
of different levels, and will detail a number of them below.!!
First and foremost the city needs to reconsider their B3 zoning not just for this project but others
in the future. Its incredulous that a project of this magnitude and scale could even be considered
in such a neighborhood which is already densely packed with full time ownership residents,
student rentals, and various other rentals which are not student related. Abutting a 5 story, 55
Unit complex with virtually no setbacks next to private residences in a city that doesn’t even
have the infrastructure to support it in unconscionable. If this B3 zoning is not changed the city
will be dealing with this for years, wasting tax payer dollars, time and energy grappling with
zoning system that is just plain wrong and which existing residents literally hate. This doesn’t
even begin to include the law suits which the city will most likely incur and loose by not
reconsidering this issue. These type of zoning and building projects are NOT what we signed up
for when purchasing our home in 1988. I suspect there are literally hundreds if not thousands
who live in the historical areas of downtown Bozeman who would agree. !!
While Bozeman’s growth is to be encouraged, at what rate that growth rate should be (as
apparently deemed by the city commission) is obviously at odds with neighborhoods such as
ours. Who gave the city commission permission to encourage and permit this level of fast paced
high density growth. I certainly didn’t. The reality is not everyone can live in Bozeman, nor
should we try and make room for everyone. Projects like the Black Olive make me want to sell
my house and become part of the urban sprawl you’re trying to eliminate. To add salt to the
wound, the cart is being put before the horse simply because the city does not have the
infrastructure to support this level of building and dense housing. At the heart of this deficient
infrastructure situation is parking, or rather severe lack of it in this case. South Black Ave as well
as many of the other streets are packed bumper to bumper from late afternoon until mid
morning, and now we are asked to consider adding yet another 20 and perhaps twice that many
vehicles to this abominable situation. And what about visitors to the residents of Black Olive?
Where will they park, out at the mall and walk back into town? The downtown parking garage
from what I understand is already full on a daily basis. The notion that a town like Bozeman will
only need 35 parking spaces for a 55 unit complex is naive at best, and a conn job by the
developer who can skirt cost to pack as many residents in as possible to pad his back pocket. !!
We hear much about affordable housing, or lack of it in Bozeman. Sadly those days are gone
and short of some unforeseen economic collapse or some wealthy benefactor purchasing and
donating large tracts of land to be used solely for building affordable housing here in our fair city
affordable housing is never coming back. You cannot argue with the laws of economics when
land values are high, cost of construction is high, cost of materials expensive, with high property
taxes and rising and think affordable housing is possible. The Black Olive is a prime example of
this. Before trimming off 40% of the initial design the projected unit cost, we were told, would be
$1200 to $1500 per unit, now those cost will surely have to rise to make up the difference. Not
exactly affordable housing cost. Can you imagine spending $1500 per month or more for a 520
square foot apartment? This is the stuff of congested cities, but shouldn’t be what Bozeman is
made of. If it continues at this rate make no mistake this cities desirability will diminish greatly,
perhaps to the point of vanishing completely.!!
This brings me to the aesthetics of the place, or once again the lack there of. There just is no
other way to put it, the Black Olive as currently designed and laid out is butt ugly and does not fit
into the historical scheme of the downtown area. Taken a step further, same could be said for
Home Base’s other projects. While some of them might look mildly spiffy today, in a decade or
so once they become a bit weather worn and used these projects, all of them, will start to
resemble overpriced tin shack ghettos which is what they really are.!!
In conclusion I encourage both the Design Review Board and the City Commission to
categorically reject the Black Olive until the developers can provide not only an appropriate
aesthetically pleasing design neighboring residents can appreciate but also a project more
sensible in size and scale that blends with the area rather than the overwhelming monstrosity as
it currently is and which provides adequate off street parking most of all. !!
Thank you for taking the time to consider this. Please do forward this to the Design Review
Board and anyone else involved.!!
Regards!!
Rob Outlaw