HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-06-17 Public Comment - A. Kociolek - Black Olive IIFrom:Angie Kociolek
To:Agenda
Subject:Public Comment for October 9th Meeting
Date:Friday, October 06, 2017 1:35:53 PM
Dear Mayor Taylor, Deputy Mayor Andrus, and Commissioners Pomeroy, Mehl and Krauss,
I will be out of town on Monday October 9th so am sending this to you now.
Monday’s vote on whether to approve the Black-Olive proposal will be precedent setting. Our
combined future is in your hands.
I’ve heard the arguments:
1. We need higher density infill in town so that we will not need to develop farmland. Yes, in theory, I believe this is a good strategy. But let’s remember we still need our City to be
livable. The experience that is ‘daily life’ fundamentally changes when you live in a super urban environment. If Bozeman is to retain its livability, we need room to breathe, to park our
cars and carry groceries and children into our homes without walking many blocks, we need room to ride our bikes safely, we need to see the mountains, we need to be able to know our
neighbors, we need human scale architecture… These are the things that make up our quality of life. I am not convinced that high density building downtown would preclude the
development of farmland. One is in the City’s jurisdiction and the other in the County’s. We know both will happen unless …
2. We need more affordable housing.
Agreed! So then we need to stop approving housing that is not affordable by most resident Bozemanites’ standards. Case in point: Up until last week, 5 West had banners reading
“Luxury condos for sale” dangling on the newest Bozeman tower. If there is such a demand for that kind of housing they would have been filled at the outset. It proves there was no
veritable NEED but plenty of opportunity to cash in. This building for the rich when we say we need affordable housing is out of sync. And it will keep happening as the other nearby
properties that have been gobbled up on Tracy get demolished/developed unless …
3. The Black-Olive proposal meets the requirements for the permit. That may be true but does it fit with the existing neighborhood? Whoever wrote the
requirements probably could not predict such an audacious proposal as this. In addition, much is being based on a contentious document that was crafted largely out of the public’s sight.
The City has the right to reject a proposal simply because the neighborhood doesn’t support it. Consider the rejected Kagy Town & Country proposal. A vote for Black-Olive will declare
loud and clear a solid alliance with big developers over regular citizens who care about preserving the character of their neighborhood and the City we love as a whole unless …
… unless our elected leaders take a stand for our shared values.
Please see how your vote will impact Bozeman to its very core. The core that is our historic
downtown, the regular people who live in the adjoining neighborhood - educators of all kinds, tradespeople, children, small business owners - and those of us across Main Street in the
Northeast Neighborhood waiting for the next shoe to drop. Give us faith. Give us hope that you are listening.
A vote to approve Black-Olive is a tacit declaration that the City of Bozeman is willing to lie
down and play dead. That it’s ready to be transformed into something unrecognizable and be lost forever. The statement that ‘growth is inevitable’ sickens me not so much because of the
predicted higher density of people in our region but because our leaders didn’t have what it takes to save what it says it cherishes.
A vote for Black-Olive is a precedent-setting decision against livability, affordability and
strong community. These aspects of Bozeman will be lost unless you as a Commission vote no.
Make a vote that is congruent with what you say want for Bozeman: Livability,
affordability and a strong community.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Angela Kociolek620 N Tracy Ave
Bozeman, Montana 59715