HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-15-17 Public Comment - M. Rude (NeighborWorks Montana) - UDC Updates inNei9 hboM rksc
MONTANA
September 15, 2017
Bozeman City Commission
c/o Tom Rogers, Senior Planner, AICP
Department of Community Development-City of Bozeman
20 East Olive Street
Bozeman, Montana 59715
RE: Bozeman UDC Updates
Dear Commissioners:
Please accept this letter of public comment based on the new draft of the UDC dated July 28, 2017. HRDC
shared their comment letter with us and we encourage you to review that letter, submitted August 14`h of this
year. NeighborWorks Montana works with HRDC on many levels including as a lender on housing
development, a funder of housing counseling and education, and a colleague in various affordable housing
programs and projects. NeighborWorks Montana is a statewide non-profit organization with a mission of
creating opportunities for families and individuals to live in affordable homes in strong communities.
One area of particular interest to NeighborWorks Montana is manufactured housing. We have worked in this
industry for over a decade in various capacities—as a lender, a developer and a manufactured home
community consultant. Currently our focus is on preserving existing manufactured housing—by assisting
communities to form cooperatives and become owners and managers of their land. Manufactured housing is
one of the largest sources of unsubsidized affordable housing in Montana.
As you look to make changes to the UDC please keep in mind the implications of those changes on existing and
future manufactured home communities. We echo HRDC's comments regarding these communities: "We
want to ensure that existing manufactured home communities (not on individual lots)with failing water and
septic systems will have the ability to annex into the city without incurring undue burdens that may result in
the loss of this affordable housing resource. We also want to ensure the ability of owners to replace and
upgrade their units."
Our hope is that improvements of these homes and communities will be encouraged, preserving this housing
by allowing improvements to be made without risk of loss of lots or triggering additional major expenses. To
this end it is particularly important that if a home is moved out another home is allowed to be moved in
without changing historic site design and set backs. It is also important to allow existing sites to upgrade their
infrastructure without requiring significant changes to existing homes and home sites.
Thank you very much for your time. We are happy to provide additional information should you have
questions. Thank you.
Sincerely,
�ry
Maureen Rude
Executive Director
MAILING ADDRESS PO Box 1025 I Great Falls,MT 59403
PHONE406-761-5861 I TOLI. FREE 1-866-587-2244 I FAx406-403-0273
EMAILinfo@nwmt.org I WEB www.nwmt.org