HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-15-16 Public Comment - L. Domaszewski - Black OliveTo Bozeman Community Planning Staff, City Commissioners and Design Review Board members,
I believe the Bozeman community as a whole is in shock of the new high rise construction in our
Downtown Bozeman District, moving towards changing the character of this town forever.
City infill of apartments are needed to prevent sprawl, but we know sprawl will still continue.
Parking is only one of the huge issues we face.
This is just the beginning of several locations looking to build 5 and 6 story high rises, which will tower
over our
historic Bozeman “Old Town” creating a wall around the city, separating existing neighborhood one and
two story single homes.
The existing brick Blackmore apartment building on Black and the north side of Olive is 3 1/2 stories
high.
A tapering appeal to the existing neighborhood would appropriately be a 2 1/2 to 3 story building next to
one and two story homes.
If this massive 5 story building of 55 units, 35 parking spaces, and 3 shared spaces is allowed as
proposed,
it will allow more of the same, inappropriately transitioning from existing neighborhoods.
I feel this is disregarding privacy, views, light, building material quality, noise pollution, existing historic
character.
Home owners have had to go through so many hoops over the years to renovate, adding onto existing
buildings, etc.
Large high rise apartments with massive infill are claustrophobic and inexcusably overpowering next to
existing one story neighborhoods.
This proposed building reminds me of the overcrowded projects in nearby NYC where residents are
jammed into a large boxed dwelling with no sense of community gathering or welcoming area.
Whitefish has a 35 foot downtown Height limit. 3 1/2 stories high.
There code also states:
Respect the residential character in style, scale, and form.
Minimize obstruction of views.
The size, height, and mass must not detract from, conflict with or overwhelm the surrounding neighbors.
Eighteen months ago Boulder, Colorado City Commissioners voted for a moratorium on buildings no
higher than 35 feet after public review.
Let us see what we, as a community can do to save our our downtown from this wall of high rises.
I hope we can look at communities like Whitefish and Boulder, Colorado as examples of a growing city
with integrity, respect, and vision.
We want to be proud of our Mountain Town and know we had a voice.
I believe this project should be denied as proposed.
Two 1/2 story town house resident buildings with welcoming green space would be more appropriate for
this space and area.
Thanks so much..
Loretta Domaszewski