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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-20-18 Public Comment - A. Bruer - Van Winkle StadiumFrom:Chris Mehl To:Agenda Subject:FW: Van Winkle Stadium- exemptions Date:Monday, August 20, 2018 2:39:24 PM Attachments:stadium lights_1.docx Parking lot lights 2_Nov 2016.docx Chris Mehl Bozeman Deputy Mayor cmehl@bozeman.net 406.581.4992 ________________________________________ From: Abigail Breuer [abigailbreuer@gmail.com] Sent: Monday, August 20, 2018 2:29 PM To: Chris Mehl; Terry Cunningham; I-Ho Pomeroy; Cyndy Andrus; Jeff Krauss Subject: Van Winkle Stadium- exemptions I write in advance of tonight's hearing on Van Winkle Stadium to: a) Share the two photos attached of i) car headlights and ii) soccer stadium lights streaming into my home. The School District is requesting exemption from the UDO’s “Additional Screening Requirements.” I have been asking the School District for relief from what the photos show since 2013, following the addition of a south lane of parking to the support services parking lot with no public review, and 2015, when the tennis courts were moved, and neighbors lost any shield from the lighted soccer stadium. These lighted fields have been in increasing use after- school hours for soccer, football and marching practice in recent years, along with games. I jump, regularly, inside my home, when the lights go on. Following 2010 and 2012 campus renovations, the view from my home now includes 3 parking lots. A few years ago, I began to note, that by comparison, Wal-Mart and Safeway look like a botanic garden. Given how little money and effort would be involved in screening the North 11th parking lots and improving field screening from neighbors, the fact that neither has occurred is symbolic of the School District’s overt disregard for its neighbors in site use and planning. b) Suggest the District not be exempt from the UDO’s parking requirements, as the reliance upon “off-site” street parking and access from neighborhood streets already creates unreasonable congestion throughout the day. Because the District refuses to provide access to the school from an internal road and fronts its facilities upon the neighborhoods east & west, in strong contrast to the 2nd high school, where facilities and parking are sited internally, parking on neighborhood streets over the District-allocated spaces will occur. Can the District be held responsible for policing an evening extension of the BHS Parking District on game nights? At present, the existing stadium’s entry-gate and infrastructure funnels game goers to/from on-campus spaces (and also off-site spaces on adjacent properties, e.g. nearby churches, the Hastings shopping center, and vacant lots on Main). Under the proposal, with a main entry facing N. 15th and a visitor entry facing N 11th, it is more likely that event goers will walk from the residential neighborhoods that surround the new stadium location. The access is better. A couple of months ago, I forwarded photos of the lane of cars that parked daily in the ‘no parking’ zone north of the North 11th entrance during the 2017-2018 school year. As neighbors to BHS have learned, it is not merely the number of spaces that count, but their location in relation to entry points. Even this summer, with school parking lots mostly empty, BHS visitors have opted to park in the ‘no parking’ areas by the N 11th entrance, as its simply more convenient than legal options. The School District should not be able to transform the character of N 15th from a residential neighborhood to an extension of its parking area, any more than it should be able to continue to use North 11th for pick up/drop off, deliveries, and garbage collection. The District’s needs and private homes (R1, R2, R-3, and R-4) are incompatible without a transformation of the campus, in which facilities’ entry becomes inward-facing within the campus, with site access via an internal road. Similarly, suitable parking should be on-site with active design to minimize off-site usage. The stadium fails to achieve this type of compatible design. Thank you, Abigail Breuer 502 N 11th Avenue Impact of field lighting inside a North 11th Avenue home (following tennis court removal) View of car headlights entering a North 11th Avenue home from an unscreened parking lot on the BHS campus. The addition of the North 11th entrance (absent a student pick up and drop off area), unscreened parking lots, dumpsters, truck traffic/deliveries and more—without the usual mitigation measures used in the City of Bozeman—mean North 11th homes have regular impact from the ‘service alley’ of the BHS campus.