HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-19-17 Public Comment - C. Stillwell - North Grand HousingFrom:Addi Jadin
To:Agenda
Subject:FW: Project 17186
Date:Friday, May 19, 2017 5:06:48 PM
Robin,
Please do submit this item to the commissioners as a formal request for reclaiming project #17186. See email below.
Addi Jadin | Associate Planner
City of Bozeman | 20 East Olive St. | P.O. Box 1230 | Bozeman, MT 59771
P: 406.582.2260 | E: ajadin@bozeman.net | W: www.bozeman.net
-----Original Message-----
From: Christy Stillwell [mailto:christy_stillwell@q.com]
Sent: Friday, May 19, 2017 3:00 PM
To: Addi Jadin <AJadin@BOZEMAN.NET>
Subject: Project 17186
Yes, Addi Jadin, I do formally wish to encourage the Commissioners to reclaim this project. Please use my letter to
that effect, or direct me what else I should do.
Thanks for the information. I will alert the neighborhood.
Best
Christy
Dear Ms. Stillwell,
Thank you for your comment on the North Grand Housing Site Plan application..
I spoke with Robin Crough, City Clerk, this morning and wanted to clarify the review process because this item is
not scheduled to go before the City Commission--the Community Development Director, Martin Matsen, has
decision-making authority for site plan applications. Public comment will be forwarded to Mr. Matsen along with
the staff report after the application has received a recommendation of approval from the Design Review Committee
(DRC) and the public comment period closes. The Planning Director's decision is required within 10 days of the
close of public comment period (no later than June 26th, 2017).
However, there is one possible exception to above-mentioned review process: per Section 38.34.010.B.2 of the
Bozeman Municipal Code “The city commission may, by an affirmative, simple majority, vote of its members at a
regularly scheduled meeting reclaim to itself the final approval of a development normally subject to the approval of
the planning director. The vote shall occur prior to the action of the planning director.” If you wish to encourage the
Commissioners to reclaim this project, would you please reply stating that specifically.
Unless the Commission reclaims the item, there will be no public hearing on this project so I would recommend that
you come down to our office to look at the application materials or feel free to contact me with any further
questions.
Sincerely,
-----Original Message-----
From: Christy Stillwell [mailto:christy_stillwell@q.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2017 5:53 PM
To: Addi Jadin <AJadin@BOZEMAN.NET>; Agenda <agenda@BOZEMAN.NET>
Subject: project 17186
Date: May 18, 2017
To: Bozeman City Clerk’s office & Planner Addi Jadin
From: Christy Stillwell
402 N. 5th Ave
Bozeman, MT 59715
Please let this stand as public comment on Project 17186--301 N Grand Avenue, a proposed 5 condo
unit at the corner of N. Grand Ave and West Beall Street, in the Northeast Neighborhood Association.
I’m a resident of the neighborhood and have been for 17 years, ten years on N. Grand Ave, and the past
7 years on N. 5th Ave. I am not an adjacent property owner; I didn’t receive a notice or a letter. I am a
neighborhood resident who walks everywhere I can. Last week I passed that corner as I have for seven
years, and was shocked to read about the proposed plan 17186.
There are no other condo units of this type in the Beall or Karp Addition—Project M, and the tall skinny
modern condos near Beall Park are east of Willson Ave, and in the last decade that neighborhood has
gentrified considerably. There are commercial buildings in the vicinity of Beall and Grand, and I
understand a huge project is proposed by razing half the block at Lamme and 3rd Ave. In response to
that idea, vandals have spray painted alien figures and “SaveBozeman” all over the doomed buildings
across from the IRS building. Surely this speaks to the popularity of the idea.
For a long time, infill was the greatest idea going; it was supposed to curb urban sprawl. The short drive
to Four Corners dispels that myth; sprawl has not been stopped. The fields west of Bozeman are now a
sea of suburbia.
My problem with the proposed condo units in this very humble, largely untouched neighborhood is the
idea of tearing down a single family home, a home with a nice yard I might add. Condo units do not
make a neighborhood. Single family homes are places people buy to put down roots and actually stay a
while, maybe start a family, maybe just fix up the house, get to know the neighbors. I knew the couple
who lived in that house on the corner before the current owner. The house was in terrible shape; this
couple had children and slowly remodeled the structure into what it is. They sold the house in a rush
when they met a very willing buyer, and many of us were sad to see them go. Of course I understood
the desire for a bigger house; I was in the same position seven years ago and we got lucky: there was a
recession. We got to stay in the neighborhood.
I should add that I know several people actively looking for a single family home with a yard in
downtown Bozeman. They can’t afford the half million price tag. The people I know don’t want a condo,
they want a house with history. They want a yard to make a garden, a sidewalk to shovel. They want
trees and shade and sunlight coming through the front window. They want to the luxury of knowing
their neighbors and walking to dinner. One couple is retiring; their daughter lives in town, in the
neighborhood. They’d LOVE to buy that house and retire there, near their daughter.
Neighborhoods are precisely what give Bozeman that “magical something” you keep hearing tourists
talk about, and magazines, and all the people moving in. Tenants don’t build neighborhoods. Condos do
not provide that small-town feeling, and neither does Air bnb. Neighborhoods do. With history. The
neighborhoods in the Karp’s and Beall’s additions are perfect examples: small houses with back yards
and trees and shade and quiet. People walking by. Resdients staying for twenty years, raising families or
maybe just flowers.
Please don’t let greed and commercial interests bleed into the last truly middle class neighborhood in
downtown Bozeman.
Five condos on that corner is a bad idea.
I am officially opposed.
Christy Stillwell