Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-18-17 Public Comment - J. Wilkinson - UDC Update Subchapter 4BFrom:Jeanne Wilkinson To:Carson Taylor; Cyndy Andrus; Chris Mehl; Jeff Krauss; I-Ho Pomeroy Cc:Agenda Subject:Affirm/Readopt SubChapter 4B Agenda Item Date:Sunday, September 17, 2017 7:36:49 PM Dear Mayor Taylor and Commissioners Andrus, Mehl, Krauss and Pomeroy, I read the staff report about your agenda item tomorrow night - affirming and readopting SubChapter 4B of the NCOD Guidelines. I urge you to NOT affirm and readopt SubChapter 4B. Here's why: 1. Presumably, SubChapter 4B was created as an extension of the Downtown Bozeman Improvement Plan which called for increased infill and density in the area surrounding downtown. Nothing in the DBIP hinted that developments up to 70 feet tall would be allowed around downtown, yet that is exactly what Subchapter 4B appears to allow. If the public process employed to institute the DBIP is considered tacit public approval of Subchapter 4B, this is a faulty conclusion. The DBIP document never mentioned nor did it illustrate in its pictures the potential for developments 70 feet tall. 2. It appears to be a widely accepted conclusion that the Historic Preservation Advisory Board approved SubChapter 4B in 2015. This is not true. Resolution 4598 specifies: "HPAB notified at April 23, 2015 meeting." I reviewed the minutes to that meeting. Here is the link. http://weblink.bozeman.net/WebLink8/0/doc/133744/Electronic.aspx . I could find no evidence there was any discussion or approval of SubChapter 4B by the HPAB, 3. Further, how could the HPAB be notified on April 23, 2015, when according to the May 18, 2015 staff report, staff received direction from the Commission to re-write SubChapter 4B during its April 26, 2015 meeting? Exactly what did the HPAB supposedly approve on April 23rd if the staff didn't even receive direction to finalize the guidelines until April 26th? 4. Subchapter 4B in it's granularity apparently negates other sections of the NCOD guidelines that would otherwise enforce consideration of context, neighboring structures and surrounding character when the City reviews developments in the B-3 zoned area. This is a major change to the intent of the NCOD Guidelines. Yet, the public process did not include the public or the historic preservation community. 5. The City of Bozeman created the historic preservation program to integrate historic preservation into local planning and decision-making processes. Historic preservation was not integrated into the original decision to adopt SubChapter 4B. 6. Please consider initiating a true public process now to get it right. The process should include something that resembles the original process that occurred when the NCOD guidelines were adopted in 2006: two public workshops and favorable recommendations from the Bozeman Historic Preservation Advisory Board and the Design Review Board. Thank you, Jeanne Wilkinson 415 South 3rd Ave.