HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-18-17 Public Comment - S. Kirchhoff - Black Olive II jD i�
Nothing is more basic to the mission of the Bozeman City Commission than preserving
and protecting community welfare. The Save Bozeman group was formed in response to the
threat to the welfare of their neighborhood that this project poses. I think Save Bozeman and the
City Commission share in the fundamental mission of protecting welfare. Just as the City
Commission protects whole community welfare, Save Bozeman is protecting a part of
community welfare, the part where they live, the part that is their neighborhood—and theirs is a
noble, not a NIMBY, cause—because the destiny of a city is the accumulated destinies of its
neighborhoods. Save Bozeman's mission differs from yours only in size, not in essence.
As you already know from personal experience, many longtime Bozeman residents are
giving up, cashing in, and getting out of Bozeman. Coming here tonight to protect their own
welfare means first of all that these people have neither given in nor given up.The people who
are here to oppose the project—both members of Save Bozeman and not—are bright, strong, and
energetic enough to leave their homes,their regular cares, their domestic duties, to plead to you
for your understanding of their concerns.
Many in Save Bozeman are convinced, and I think they are right, that the project here
tonight should be denied. Not conditionally approved. Not modified. Simply denied. Denial is
within your rights as commissioners. Denial is a viable option. Furthermore, denial is the right
response to this project. Denial means you are responding to the concerns for welfare—not only
the welfare of this neighborhood, but the welfare of this city. I say the welfare of the city because
this project also causes repercussions. This project will become a precedent going into the future.
Approval of this project will undermine further the already battered and beaten-down citizen
morale.
A majority of people who live near this project, the very people who will be absorbing the
increased human and vehicular traffic, increased street congestion,increased cost of living, the
bulkification and the loss of the human scale in their neighborhood, have been saying over and
over again,that all these impacts are too much. These impacts will negatively affect their quality
of life,which is to say,their well-being. The controversy of this project has already undermined
community welfare.And not just a little.The controversy is real, is based on real, not imagined,
fears.A positive resolution—which is to say, a DENIAL—of this project and the problem of fast-
paced growth that it symbolizes,will help to remedy lost trust in government, lost faith in
processes, and lost enjoyment in living in a city that appears ready to value private interests over
public welfare.
If you trust and believe in these people when they vote for you to be in your position of
leadership, then I hope you will trust them to be showing good sense in their opposition to this
project. If you trust these people to pay taxes and fees,to support school bonds,to be active,
vibrant members of the community, the very people whose energy makes Bozeman attractive
and viable, I hope you can trust them in their encouragement to deny this project.
Leadership does not mean holding on tighter to city codes in the face of opposition to
these codes—not when you hear over and over from the people that literal interpretation of the
codes would enable a bad thing. Leadership does not mean foisting the impacts on a single group
while telling them they don't get it,they just don't understand how this project is the future.
They do get it; they see and understand it, and they don't want this Future. Codes are supposed to
protect people, not impose bad conditions on them in the name of some greater good. Their
welfare, the welfare of the people in this neighborhood, is the greater good.
When city processes and codes fall out of alignment with the wishes of the people they are
supposed to protect, the people's wishes should be adhered to, not the literal letter of a code.
Staying close to the people's wishes rather than to private interests is a basic principle of good
government. I believe each one of you, if you take a moment to reflect, has followed this "People
First" principle. If you are not reviewing this project with the neighborhood's interest in mind,
whose interest is in your mind? I hope you will deny the project tonight and demonstrate that the
people who voted for you, come first.