HomeMy WebLinkAboutGrowth Policy PB memo 1-9-2019
TO: PLANNING BOARD
FROM: CHRIS SAUNDERS
RE: GROWTH POLICY UPDATE – FUTURE LAND USE MAP
DATE: JANUARY 9, 2019
Three questions have been identified as work progresses on the development of the future land use
map. These questions will be discussed and formal action requested at the February 5th Planning
Board meeting. In order to give board members time to consider the issues the questions are being
presented now. If members wish we can discuss them briefly at the Jan 15th meeting.
1. Planning Boundary – The SW corner of the planning area includes the treatment plant for the Rae
water and sewer district (Rae). That area has been included for many years and is also within the
City’s water and sewer service areas. Recently, the Rae service area expanded to the west to include
the area west of Gooch Hill Road where the Toyota dealership and the Woodland Park subdivision
are located. The area shown below in the blue shade is the functioning district service area and the
blue dots south of Huffine Lane is the total allowed service area.
The same area showing the planning area east of Gooch Hill Road. The edge of the brown shade is
the current outer limits of the planning area.
It is expected that at some point the Rae system will finish its life cycle and need to connect to
Bozeman’s water and sewer systems. This is similar to what is happening to the Riverside district
north of town. Bozeman’s systems have been planned with this possibility in mind. The newly
expanded areas of the Rae system would then be receiving services from Bozeman. The City doesn’t
extend its utilities to allow connection without annexation.
Question: Shall we expand the planning area to include the full area of the Rae system anticipating
that with municipal service provision will also eventually come annexation to the City?
2. Present Rural – In the past two growth policies the City has shown as urban area only that area
needed to account for existing City limits plus the additional square miles of urbanized area
necessary to meet expected demand as projected in the document. Since this has been considerably
less than the total area within the planning boundary the City has designated some areas to remain
rural until some future date. In the current growth policy this is the Present Rural designation. It is
shown in the brown shade on the future land use map. You can find the map at
https://gisweb.bozeman.net/Html5Viewer/?viewer=planning. Click on the box next to the
“community plan future land use” row to make it display on the map.
The City continues to grow but the planning area has remained fairly consistent in size due to the
correlation with utilities planning and limitation on functional service areas. Therefore, as the City
grows the amount of non-urban area is shrinking. At some point, it becomes unproductive to try to
fine tune the urban area too much. There are some areas, such as existing conservation easements,
that will remain as they are for the foreseeable future.
In laying out the map, it is important to remember that no urban development can occur until the
necessary sewer, water, and transportation capacity is provided to support it. This will shape the
sequence in which property will change to an urban status.
Question: When preparing the future land use map is it now time to simply plan for fully
urbanizing the entire planning area with the exception of areas with unique limitations such as
conservation easement?
3. Suburban Residential – The City has identified existing suburban developed areas on its last two
future land use maps. The description for the Suburban Residential designation says: “This category
indicates locations generally outside of City limits, but within the planning area, where a land
development pattern has already been set by rural subdivisions. Subdivisions in this area are
generally characterized by lots two acres in size or less. It is probable that portions of this area may
be proposed for annexation within the next twenty years. The area is able to be served with
municipal water and sewer services with appropriate extensions of main lines. Any further
development within this area should be clustered to preserve functional open space. Individual
septic and well services are discouraged. If development is proposed within reasonable access
distances to waste water and water services, annexation to the City should be completed prior to
development.”
Example of area where Suburban Residential is next to the City limits. Light yellow is the Suburban
Residential area.
The designation has essentially been a placeholder recognizing an existing pattern but giving little
guidance for change in the future. As noted in the description above, the areas with this designation
can eventually be serviced with municipal water and sewer.
Question: When preparing the future land use map should be Suburban Residential designation be
used again?
Reference material: This link will take you to the Planning Coordinating Committee web map. This
map has key information on Bozeman and County information including planning and zoning maps,
roads, and water and sewer district boundaries.
http://gis.gallatin.mt.gov/webmaps/?map=pcc