HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-20-18 Public Comment - A. Hoitsma - Strategic PlanFrom:Amy Kelley Hoitsma
To:Agenda
Subject:Comments on the Draft Bozeman Strategic Plan
Date:Tuesday, March 20, 2018 5:29:55 PM
Hello:
Thank you for accepting comments on the draft Strategic Plan. The following are my
comments:
1.1 Outreach: 2b) Dramatically increase transparency and create access to all city documents.
The Planning Department needs to make documents submitted by developers digitally
accessible to citizens. Currently a citizen must physically go down to the Planning Department to look at documents. The digital files should be accessible via links to projects on the
Community Development GIS map.
I also feel that the public notice requirement of posting a written notice on site and requiring
notice to only the residents within 200 feet of the proposed project is inadequate.
2.1 Business Growth - Support retention and growth of both the traded and local business sectors while welcoming and encouraging new and existing businesses.
Please read the excellent Chronicle article of 3-18-18 on the growth experience of Ft. Collins,
CO (part of the “Postcards from Bozeman’s Future” series, https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/news/to-grow-or-not-to-grow-in-fort-collins-
a/article_42b7f0b5-9c23-579e-b25e-75e93874dcb2.html ). They very clearly warn against a strategic plan that focuses on growth and on providing incentives to recruit new businesses. I
quote Kelly Ohlson, former City Council member and mayor of Ft. Collins, from the article:
“The strategic plans should always be better, better, better, not bigger, bigger, bigger. But that’s who government officials hear from: the people who want it bigger, bigger, bigger…
Building six lanes in both directions, at some point you have the same congestion as you did with two lanes. Now all you have is 12 crowded lanes rather than four.”
…But more than the incentives, Ohlson takes issue with the way local governments in places
like Fort Collins and Bozeman continue to sell themselves to the outside world in the face of vocal opposition from their constituents.
“All I’m saying is you go growth-neutral,” he says. “You don’t subsidize, you don’t give
incentives to growth, you make sure it pays its fair share in fees, you have good land use planning, you have good sign codes, you have good codes to protect riparian areas and
natural habitats, you have a good open space program with proper funding. You do all those things and there are still going to be growth pressures. But you don’t have to throw gasoline
on the fires of growth to benefit the few and cost the many.”
2.2 Infrastructure Investments…a) Identify Commercial/Industrial Infrastructure
Needs… and develop new financing strategies to fund these investments.
Again from the Ft. Collins article:
“According to Fort Collins Councilmember Ross Cunniff, the first questions Bozeman, or any
growing city, should ask itself are who is benefiting from growth and who is paying for it?
“It’s not legal and not supported by your populous to say, ‘No more growth,’” Cunniff says. “But the people who live here shouldn’t have to pay for the people coming here. If we get
10,000 new people, I want them to pay their fair share of what the rest of us have been paying for decades.”
4.5 Housing and Transportation Choices
I wholeheartedly support the notions of enhancing non-motorized transportation and
developing a Comprehensive Affordable Housing Action Plan that actively encourages Bozeman’s major employers to develop workforce housing programs for their employees. I
know from a friend who works in management at the Deaconness Hospital that housing is a primary issue in terms of recruiting and retaining employees.
Best,
Amy Kelley Hoitsma
406-581-1513aok@mcn.net
aokworks.com