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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-22-19 Public Comment - A. Ogle - AC Hotel by MarriottFrom:Ashley Ogle To:Danielle Garber; Agenda Cc:ashleyogle@kenyonnoble.com Subject:Application 19078 Date:Tuesday, October 22, 2019 2:14:45 PM Bozeman City Planning – This email is regarding the AC Hotel Site Plan, Application 19078. I am both a resident and property owner in Downtown Bozeman. All three of my properties are a block or less from the proposed development. I object to this application based on the following items: 1. According to the Public Notice the number of parking spaces is 0.   For a development of this size this cannot meet current code. 2. The Summary AC Traffic Study seems incomplete. First, the report is generated using the assumption that all peak hour trips would use the hotel valet service. Yet, in the same breath it says an unknown percentage of trips would self-park in the garage and in on street parking spots. So, what is the breakdown? There is concern in the central core area regarding both limited on street parking and Garage parking. Also, some of the data is being driven by a hotel in Billings. First, the Billings market is not the Bozeman market. Secondly, in order to get correct data you would have to know the occupancy of the hotel. Also the cost of the valet service versus the cost of the parking in the Bridger Park Garage are not apparent. This should be disclosed as it will influence where people park. In the report it also states the route that the outbound trips from the off-site parking lot to the hotel will utilize. That path is Willson Avenue, Beall Street, N Black Avenue, and Mendenhall to arrive at Tracy. However, in the tables evaluating traffic volume I do not see the Black Avenue and Mendenhall intersection listed. This has become a busy intersection for both vehicular and pedestrian traffic. Due to the potential increase in load this intersection should be evaluated for volume and a potential traffic light. 3. The designated parking area for the hotel seems nebulous for numerous reasons. There is a license agreement for the Medical Arts Lot on Willson. Which according to code, section 38.540.070.A.6 is supposed to be a long-term lease. The document also contradicts itself. An example of this would be it uses terms like “irrevocable” and then “revoked.” As for the off-site lot, is the lot going to be shared with Medical Arts or is the lot going to be dedicated to the AC Hotel? Has there been an adequate usage study done on the Medical Arts Building lots to see if it is feasible for this to be a shared lot? Have the parking calculations for the Medical Arts Building been verified? And if so, by whom? There is a list of employees associated with each business in that building. Those counts directly correlate to the parking calculations for that building. The other parking option that the applicant seems to be holding on to is the Letter of Intent issued by the City of Bozeman for 80 spaces in the Bridger Park Garage. This has its own challenges. In September 2019 the Bozeman Parking Commission passed Resolution 2019-05. Resolution 2019-05 states as of August 2019 the Bozeman Parking Commission does not accept new long term lease agreements, at the Bridger Park Downtown Garage, for the purpose of satisfying parking requirements in the Bozeman Unified Development Code. Therefore, a UDC lease in the Bridger Park Downtown Garage does not seem to be a viable option. However, there are numerous mentions of it in the Intent and Exhibits criteria that was provided by the Applicant. 4. The loading/unloading zones on Tracy seem to pose safety and traffic issues both at the site and throughout the neighborhood. Due to the lack of space pedestrians entering and exiting their cars will not only create issues for themselves but also for other motorists. You will have an increased number of pedestrians in the street due to this configuration. As for the traffic issues, there should be consideration for what guests will do if the loading zone is full assuming they are not using the valet service. They will either drop people off in the middle of the street or circle the block. A car stopping in the middle of Tracy will create a traffic issue for those turning off Mendenhall. Again, it will also endanger the individuals in the street and oncoming vehicular traffic. The second option guests will have if the loading zone is full is to circle the block. This would mean going down Tracy, turning right on Lamme, right on Black, right on Mendenhall then back on to Tracy to see if the loading/unloading zone is available. This would cause an increase in capacity on Lamme Street, Black Avenue and Mendenhall. The same would be true if the parking spots were in the Bridger Park Garage. In the Summary AC Traffic Study I do not see the intersections of Lamme Street and Tracy Avenue, Lamme Street and Black Avenue or Black Avenue and Mendenhall measured. 5. The development specifies a bar/lounge on the sixth floor. It has allocated part of its 3000 square foot exemption to this area along with an area on the first floor. However, per the code it is the first 3,000 gross square feet of a non-residential building within the B-3 district. The exemption is not meant to cherry pick areas to get out of parking requirements. 6. What about the neighborhood? It is already overloaded with people parking and walking into the core. How much capacity does the core have before saturation levels are met, if they haven’t been already. Under these circumstance, I respectively request that Application 19078 be denied. I appreciate your time and attention to these items. Thank You, Ashley Ogle Confidentiality Notice: This information is intended only for use by the individual or entity to which it is addressed and may contain information that is privileged, confidential and exempt from disclosure under applicable law. Any unauthorized review, use, distribution, or copy is prohibited. If you have received this communication in error, please inform the sender immediately by replying to this message and then destroy all copies of the original message.