HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-02-18 Petition - Van Winkle Stadium Location A Petition to the City of Bozeman and Bozeman School District
We, the undersigned Midtown neighbors and supporters, reject the new Van Winkle Stadium location.
We ask the School District to find an alternate, appropriate to location for the stadium that will not
compromise the residential areas surrounding Bozeman High School. The area is already degraded by
lack of planning for pick up and drop off, visitor/student parking, and garbage, along with excessive
hardscaping and obtrusive field lighting. Rather than being absorbed or mitigated within the campus,the
impacts of successive construction changes over the past several years' already reach within our
neighborhoods and interfere with the enjoyment of our homes. Adding a stadium in the location
proposed will only exacerbate existing problems, fixes for which should be a primary goal in any new
construction. In specific,we object to the proposed location due to:
1. Unprecedented Night Use
Complete disregard for the residential character of our neighborhood. Even with the best planning,the
traffic, noise, lighting, and garbage generated by regular use of a+-3200 seat stadium is incompatible
with family residencesa. Neighbors have long-accommodated daytime field use; lighted, night use and
broadcasting of fan-attended games is an inappropriate intrusion into a quiet, residential area.
2. Safety and Traffic Mitigation...by 2035?
North 15th and North 11th Avenues are already dangerous and severely compromised at high school pick
up and drop off. The planned pick up and drop off area along Ruth Thibault Way will not be used if it is
difficult to access. The plan suggests the addition of a round-about, if determined necessary,only by
2035. Safety must be improved on the east side of campus,where bus parking forces unregulated pick,
up and drop off to occur along neighborhood streets,and encourages jay-walking.
3. Parking,Tree Removal,and Absence of Screening
Exclusion of neighborhood streets from the traffic study. As the primary entrance to the proposed
stadium faces North 15th Avenue,game_attendees will take the shortest route possible, which includes
our neighborhoods. Already, student and visitor parking presently occur on city streets and in nearby
lots, rather than on school property. Adding a North 15th-facing stadium entry exacerbates this issue.
There is no landscaping provision to lessen the impact of the stadium, new softball and soccer fields,
parking lots,garbage/service areas or deliveries on nearby residences. Instead,20 mature trees that
buffer North 15th homes from the school's fields are to be removed. Boulevards should also be planted.
Existing parking lots should be screened so that headlights do not shine into homes and to fit with the
City's entry corridors. Dumpsters and deliveries should be removed from view.
4. Misrepresentation
In over 65 community forums and in print and in video outreach,the School District described a stadium
"rebuilt in place",to voters prior to the May 2017 bond issue. In contrast,the School District's vote to
pursue a new location for Van Winkle Stadium location occurred with 10 days' public notice and no
substantive consideration of alternatives. This makes a mockery of public process.
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