HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-17-17 Public Comment - C. Werre - Black Olive IIFrom:Clarissa Werre
To:Agenda
Subject:Black-Olive proposal
Date:Monday, October 16, 2017 10:53:31 PM
Attachments:Dear Commissioners.docx
Dear Commissioners,
I am writing to express serious concern about the Black-Olive proposal. I have followed thisissue from its beginning, and have seen the great amount of citizen attention it has drawn. In
listening to the presentation Home Base made to you last week (Oct. 9) on its new blue-print, Istill see several problems with this proposal.
1) Mr. Holloran explained that he sees the Black-Olive complex as being just the start of a
new streetscape in the B-3 zone North and South of Main Street. He suggested the futureblock character of Olive and other B-3 streets will have more structures built in the same scale
as B-O. He referenced that the Stiff Building, next door, will likely be changed into anotherhigh-density housing complex, with many others going up around this neighborhood too. If
this takes place, and you (the Commissioners) lay the groundwork for having limited parkingrequirements for these structures, you are only going to have another 40-50 more cars
overflowing onto public street parking with each new project. This will take parking awayfrom customers who drive downtown to be able to shop, dine or recreate. This will take away
the availability of the downtown experience from all Bozeman and Gallatin Valley citizenswho live far enough away that they must drive and find a parking spot to enjoy downtown.
This will take parking away from the employees who need to reach their workplacesdowntown. This will take parking away from residents in the downtown neighborhoods, some
of which have no parking spaces even on their property (no alley access and/or no parking padon their property). I urge you: Require Home Base to provide 1 parking space on its own
off-street property for each dwelling unit. Do so for not only this development, but also forfuture proposals in the downtown Halo.
2) Home Base is early in the process of promoting infill downtown. However, they are
heavily relying on public resources to do this. When the Element was put up downtown,Home Base chose to lease parking spaces from the city’s new parking garage, as opposed to
putting enough parking on their own lot. 5 West has 42 residential units, some with 3bedrooms, and a parking lot with 46 spaces. However, because Home Base is charging
$100/month for each of those spaces, only a few are actually being filled. The greatmajority of 5 West tenants are opting to use free street-side parking. If Black-Olive goes up,
Home Base says it plans to have the same protocol, charging tenants extra for their parkingspaces. It is easy to see that few tenants will want to accept this fee, when they can just find
free parking on the streets. As more and more infill developments go up in the Halo area,more overflow parking will spill out on the streets, and this problem will quickly get
exponentially worse. I urge you: Don’t let developers charge extra for their parkingspaces.
3) It is pretty easy to see that Home Base accepts these parking lots will be empty without
customers for the first few years. But this is because after more Halo infill is built and free on-street parking gets flooded out 6-8 blocks from Main Street, Home Base KNOWS it will be
able to sell their parking spots to tenants in the future. This adds $100/month to the rentalrates, and makes this development even further away from Bozeman’s goal of providing
affordable housing. A citywide goal is to improve the availability of affordable housing to ourcitizens. Home Base is trying to make every possible dollar on the most square-footage they
can sell in this project. I urge you: Please promote development in the B-3 Halo area withmid-rise housing and commercial units that do not overrun and overshadow the existing
neighborhood and downtown business community.
The bottom line of the Black-Olive proposal, and other future infill development downtown,is to NOT let developers tell the Bozeman Commission what kind of variables they need to
make a “vibrant, sustainable” downtown. There are many ways a 4-story complex that has aparking spot for each housing unit would still “pencil out.” YOU are our city’s leaders. YOU
have the power to ensure that the first large-scale downtown developer doesn’t capitalize onthe public resources (street-side parking, sun exposure, horizon viewshed, etc.) that are valued
and used by ALL downtown users. We need downtown infill development to be sustainable,so please refuse this proposal.
My greatest thanks for all of your efforts towards representing Bozeman’s citizens!
Clarissa Werre