HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-28-19 Public Comment - J. Aaron - Growth Policy Update1
Lacie Kloosterhof
From:Jeremy Aaron <jeremysaaron@gmail.com>
Sent:Sunday, April 28, 2019 2:10 PM
To:Lacie Kloosterhof
Subject:Bozeman Growth Policy Comments
Hi,
I would like to offer my feedback to the Bozeman Community Growth Plan as a current resident of Bozeman
(Four Corners area).
Improve public trainsit options (more bus lines to connect outlying neighborhoods to central Bozeman).
Currently there is not a bus stop south of 4 corners on 191 that could make taking a bus a practical option in my
neighborhood.
-Add more dedicated bike paths. Although bike lanes are nice too, dedicated bike paths will greatly increase
the amount people choose to bike over driving. Right now I am not comfortable biking along the highway so
biking is not a viable option for me to commute to town. There is a path in Gallatin Gateway that could be
continued on to 4 corners, on to Belgrade and potentially to Bozeman too. I know this plan is specifically for
Bozeman but laying down the infrastructure to connect more communities and neighborhoods throughout the
Gallatin Valley would greatly increase bike transportation, minimize bike/automobile conflicts, and help
decrease our #1 cause of air pollution, vehicle traffic.
-Increase energy efficiency standards in new homes and commercial buildings. For the amount of wealth
and environmentally minded individuals in this community it is disappointing to see where this town currently
is in terms of sustainability. I know the city is working on encouraging this and there are many reasons for why
we are lagging behind on this issue but if the city can help improve efficiency in building codes and help
promote rebate and incentive options for efficiency upgrades and renewables on the residential and commercial
level we might have a chance at meeting the goals of our cities climate action plan while our population is still
growing.
-Offer a city wide recycling program. I have heard that only 5% of Gallatin county residents recycle. This is a
culture that needs to be changed in order to truly become an environmentally conscious city. Recycling needs to
be shifted from an added burden that residents need to take on their own shoulders to local drop sites or a
private company to a common sense service offered by the city that helps save on landfill costs, save on energy
use, and keep trash from overflowing dumpsters out of our natural areas. Organics recycling also could be
added as a city wide service. Where I grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis (Saint Louis Park) single stream
recycling and composting are now provided city-wide and the amount of waste generated and landfill costs have
been slashed significantly.
-Impose higher standards on construction companies that impact our water and air quality. I work in the
construction industry and regularly see diesel fuel spilled onto the ground, trash being blown off job sites into
our national forests, and immense quantities of runoff from disturbed soils flowing into waterways with no
holding ponds to decrease sediment. No one is there to enforce any standards and very few workers are aware of
ones that may exist. If we ramped up our cities enforcement, the money from fines could be used to help
cleanup the impacts the construction boom is having on our natural environment and help lead to higher
standards with the industry.
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Concentrate growth within the city and minimize sprawl while retaining affordable housing options. I know
this is a tough ask but whatever mechanisms can help push toward this goal I would support. Affordable
housing options are being created but not nearly at the pace required to provide options for all of those in need.
Whatever it takes to discourage more millionaires from coming in and planting mcmansions across our foothills
would be a good thing, but maybe since this is somewhat inevitable we could place a higher tax burden on these
sorts of properties to help fund the positive growth outcomes the rest of our community would like to see.
Thank you for taking my comments into consideration and for all the hard work the city is doing to help
improve the impacts of our rapid growth!
Sincerely,
-Jeremy Aaron