HomeMy WebLinkAbout12-10-18 Public Comment - C. Naumann (on behalf of DURB) - NCOD Update
City of Bozeman City Commission
Community Development Department (submitted via e-mail)
City Commissioners and Mr. Matsen:
On November 20, 2018 the Downtown Urban Renewal District Board discussed the Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District and pending policy recommendations. The NCOD guidelines place an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy over the downtown district which has its own comprehensive “neighborhood” guiding document—the Downtown Bozeman
Improvement Plan. The URD board believes that applying the NCOD in addition to the Downtown Plan creates policy confusion and regulatory conflict. In the past, efforts to reconcile the two have been subject to inconsistent interpretation from one project to the next and by one administration to another.
The Downtown URD Board concluded that the Downtown Plan should be the governing document for the downtown district and that the NCOD is best suited to guide residential neighborhoods. Therefore, the Downtown URD Board respectfully requests that the Downtown B3 and URD Districts be excluded from the NCOD and its associated guidelines.
Downtown has a long history of thoughtful planning: 1995 Downtown Urban Renewal Plan; 1998 Downtown Bozeman Improvement Plan; 2009 Downtown Bozeman Improvement Plan; and the pending 2019 Downtown Bozeman Improvement Plan. All the plans have spoken to the importance of our Historic Districts and adjacent residential neighborhoods. All the plans also call for continued
change and evolution of Bozeman’s central business district in order to remain vibrant as Bozeman grows from a big town into a small city. Considering downtown has a clear plan for the future that is rooted in the past, issues like transition of the urban built environment along the interior periphery of the B3 zone should be regulated by the
Downtown Plan. Correspondingly, the NCOD should address potential transition guidelines along the interior periphery of residential zoning district. The 2019 Downtown Bozeman Improvement Plan provides an opportunity to reinforce the transition requirements that were codified in the 2018 UDC update. The new Downtown Plan will emphasize
the importance of the existing Historic Districts and Historic Buildings. In addition, the new Downtown Plan may recommend formal historic designation and protection based on the findings of the 2016 historic inventory report which provided updated assessments for over 100 buildings downtown. Until recently, the NCOD included the primary set of design guidelines for new construction and
significant remodels for downtown. Recently a robust set of commercial design guidelines were codified in Article 5 of the 2018 UDC Update. Therefore, that role of the NCOD has been supplanted. In addition to the six nationally recognized Historic Districts in and around downtown, numerous properties are essentially protected due to ownership by the City of Bozeman, Gallatin County,
Federal GSA, Bozeman School District, and several non-profits (churches and Emerson Cultural Center). These properties are in essence “conserved” with little probability of changing significantly,
thus providing a significant buffer particularly adjacent to four of the Historic Districts on the southern half of downtown. See the map below.
With the pending updates of the Downtown Plan and the NCOD, now is the time to clearly delineate
district boundaries and specifically define each document’s purview. Thank you for your consideration of this formal request to exclude downtown from the NCOD.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the Downtown Urban Renewal District Board,
Chris Naumann
In addition to the six Historic Districts (highlighted), a significant amount of property (outlined in red) within downtown is protected by ownership subject to minimal change.