HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-31-17 Public Comment - J. Milchen - Black OliveFrom:Jeff Milchen
To:Agenda
Subject:Comments on Black-Olive Proposal
Date:Friday, March 31, 2017 11:50:36 AM
From Jeff Milchen
222 S. Black Ave.
406-579-1828
I should have been one of the easiest people in Bozeman for HomeBase to turn into a supporter of a
development at Black and Olive. I support infill, lowering parking minimums and live a block South of the
site, so our sunlight would not be blocked and we’d likely see our home value go up. Yet the wildly
inappropriate scale of the proposed building, the corporation’s disregard for the concerns of residents and
its cynical exploitation of city zoning laws has turned me into an opponent.
Re 33 parking spaces for well over 100 residents, Could many households share one vehicleamong all residents and a few go carless? I hope so. Will half of them go without any vehicle?
Of course not. The claim has as much credibility as HomeBase arguing that building less thanfive stories could not be profitable.
The cynicism of HomeBase representatives is further evidenced by the lack of bike parking.
One covered bike space per projected resident would be the minimum for any serious attemptto minimize car dependence and lessen required parking -- especially since there soon will be
no grocery store downtown.
If the City wants to experiment and see how car-sharing works, let’s test its viability inBozeman on a modest-sized development. Smart governance means experimenting and
innovating, but doing so incrementally until a concept is tested, not with mega-projects whosenegative impacts would be irreversible.
HomeBase would have us believe that we must choose between downtown mega-projects or
sprawl. But sprawl can be contained only through county-wide planning and rules thatincentivize clustering development. Absent that, adding even more construction jobs and
residents downtown does not reduce sprawl, but exacerbates it.
I realize the City Commissioners are in a tough spot, dealing with a company looking tosqueak by each numerical requirement to maximize profit while shunting costs onto taxpayers
. But the Commissioners have latitude to require HomeBase to scale their plans to meetexisting character-based criteria, then allow the company to prove itself. Please do so. Thank
you.