HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-10-17 Public Comment - J. Lindstrom - SoBo LoftsTO: Bozeman Community Development-Planning Office, Bozeman City Commission
RE: SoBo Lofts Proposal
To whom it may concern:
I am a 20+ year full-time resident of Bozeman. I hold BS and MS engineering degrees from MSU-
Bozeman, and am self-employed as an engineering consultant. In 2010 I purchased (rescued) my 1917
Craftsman Bungalow located at 215 South 5th Avenue, where I’ve since converted its 3 dilapidated
apartments back to a single family home. I’ve navigated the certificate of appropriateness (COA) and
building permit process several times, and am thankful that the COA process is somewhat effective in
helping to preserve our charming, historic neighborhood.
I am writing to you in regards to my concern over the proposed SoBo Lofts:
1) The proposed building’s size is entirely too large and out of scale with its residential
surroundings. The proposed building would loom over the historic single family homes located to
the immediate south, east and north-east, as well as substantially overcrowd and decrease the
quality of life for the adjacent homeowners who have long maintained the history and charm of
their neighborhood. The proposed Sobo building’s style and construction materials are hardly
complimentary to these historic single family homes; it is unclear to me how/why the Sobo
building has no comparable COA process, as is required by the adjacent single family
homeowners.
2) I find the traffic study that was completed for the Sobo project to be fundamentally
flawed. Perhaps the study abides by some archaic technical requirements, but it fails to reflect
the traffic issues that already exist on Olive St. The troublesome corner of 8th and Olive wasn’t
even mentioned in the traffic study, which is already backed-up regularly without the 50+
permanent residents and cars that the proposed Sobo would add. The study also suggests that
outbound arterial traffic from Sobo would move south all the way to Cooper Park, and then west
to 8th Avenue (and vice versa for inbound traffic). This notion is fictional. The existing traffic
study should be discarded and repeated to capture current traffic patterns, followed by adding
realistic assumptions for what would be expected from the proposed Sobo. I estimate a full and
accurate traffic study would find that the 50+ permanent residents/cars plus retail shoppers
would bring 8th and Olive to complete gridlock during 5 PM rush hour.
I strongly encourage the Community Development-Planning Office and the Commission (i.e., the City, to
whom it may concern) to use all tools available to ensure that any Sobo project evaluation realistically
considers its negative impacts, and firstly considers the existing Cooper Park District residents who have
long abided by the historic preservation requirements established for our neighborhood.
Many thanks for your consideration,
Joel Lindstrom
215 S 5th Ave
Bozeman, MT 59715
(c) 703-475-7987