HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-23-17 Public Comment - J. Rockne - Black OliveDear Mayor Taylor and Commissioners
Please consider the following comment as you enter into decisions regarding the proposed Black Olive
development currently moving through the Community Development system.
My husband and I live at 222 S. Black Ave, just four houses from the proposed project.
First, we support infill and think Bozeman’s downtown core will be stronger and more pedestrian-friendly for it.
One concerning issue for us is the abrupt step from B-3 to R-2 zoning. With no higher-density residential
transition between, the proposed project as designed will impact the character of the South side
dramatically. While what’s proposed is classified as “mid-rise,” it may as well be a skyscraper. We realize the
zoning is what it is for this project, but we would support a project that would mollify the transition from
residential to this project that is designed nearly to the extremes of the B-3 code. I am not alone in thinking
more neighborhood-friendly set-backs and a building height of no more than 3 – 3.5 stories are appropriate and
a more balanced approach. That Mr. Holloran has continued to ignore the scale requests of the many
neighbors impacted by this project as well as those of the Design Review Board tells me he is acting solely in
his self-interest and not with the sensitivity of the historic neighborhood in mind.
As downtown fringe residents, we do walk and ride bikes all over town and into the nearby mountains. We also
own a car and have made a choice to own just one. Most of our friends, both single and couples, own more
than one vehicle. This is a more apt representation of the household norm. In a more urban setting, it’s more
realistic to own just one vehicle per household because everything you need to reach is so close – or a Metro
ride away. In Montana, it’s difficult not to own a vehicle, and suggesting everyone who lives in the Black Olive
will have just one or even no vehicles per unit is fantasy. As is suggesting that everyone who lives there will
work downtown. With federal building employees, downtown employees and patrons, current residents and
their guests already parking on the street, adding vehicles of Black Olive residents, visitors and cafe
patrons only will make an already challenging problem more so. S. Black Ave. already only has parking on one side of
the street. And if there’s any truth to the rumor of expansion on the Federal Building site…
Mr. Holloran has offered up space in City-owned parking lots he leases for Black Olive overflow parking as a
solution. I appreciate his gesture, but human nature will thumb its nose at it. If any one of us has the
opportunity to park near where we live or do business, we will. I strongly suspect those spaces will go unused.
As much as I admire Mr. Holloran’s vision of residents minimizing car use and using car-share vehicles, I think
a project going in at Black and Olive should anticipate a higher vehicle number and have the capacity on site to
accommodate all its residents’ vehicles underground or inside so as not to add to a problem.
Of further concern on this point is the lack of adequate bike parking for a development purporting to promote
alternative transportation and walkability. To have bikes tied to every stationary object within reasonable
distance of the Black Olive would be an eyesore in this historic neighborhood, let alone invite vandalism and
abandonment of those bikes. S. Black is a major conduit for MSU students and others walking and biking to
and from downtown. Items disappear from yards frequently – last Fall, my husband’s bike was taken from our
fenced back yard (it was recovered – without the attached bike lock – two houses away). Bikes attached to
objects in the open likely will be bait for bike thieves and vandals.
A house that is built or remodeled in a neighborhood can be absorbed into it. Its color or design may change
with different residents, and though it may have localized novelty, its impact on the neighborhood as a whole is
minimal. A building the size and scale of the Black Olive as proposed, will impact this historic neighborhood
profoundly and for many years to come. We are a community proud of its past and planning for its future. We
need to bear both of these in mind and aim to balance and respect them, not allow one to run roughshod over
the other. Development in Bozeman’s core needs to mesh and create appropriate transitions that the proposed
Black Olive lacks.
Please do what is in your power to help ensure the lasting integrity of our historic neighborhood and deny the
Black Olive project as proposed.
Thank you for your attention.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Rockne
222 S. Black Ave.
Bozeman, MT 59715
406-582-8294