HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-30-19 Public Comment - C. Hartsog - HRDC Warming Center SiteFrom:Carolyn Hartsog
To:Sarah Rosenberg; Agenda
Cc:darren.schlepp@bsd7.org
Subject:Proposed HRDC housing at 3025 Westridge Drive
Date:Wednesday, October 30, 2019 4:44:10 PM
I am writing to you to oppose the proposed HRDC housing at 3025 Westridge Drive.
I have grandchildren that live within a few hundred feet of this address, and as you are verywell aware, it is less than 300 feet from the Morningstar school playground. It is directly in
the path of hundreds of children who walk to school at both Morningstar and Sacajaweamiddle school.
The shelter's residents will not be background checked and will have relative freedom to roam
the neighborhood, day and night. The potential for police presence at all hours of the day andnight is real.
If that isn't bad enough, it is right in the middle of homes for which families have mortgaged
themselves to the max. This facility, with the potential to house 36 transient people, will nodoubt lower the value of all the homes in the neighborhood. Those who have chosen to
mortgage their lives for 15 to 30 years did so with the belief they were buying in safe, familyoriented neighborhoods. Perhaps you should check with some of the local realtors to get their
opinion on the impact this will have on home values.
What is really baffling is that HRDC could somehow qualify for a 36-bed facility in an areathat is zoned R-1. This is the direct wording from your Zoning Districts and Land Uses
document and based on Montana Code Annotated 76-2-301.
The intent of the R-1 residential single-household low density district is to provide forprimarily single-household residential development and related uses within the city at urban
densities, and to provide for such community facilities and services as will serve the area'sresidents while respecting the residential character and quality of the area.
How can you possibly justify allowing HRDC to operate a 36-bed homeless shelter in a
single-household residential area? What good is zoning if an egregious bending of the rulessuch as this is allowed?
LASTLY, AND MAYBE THE MOST IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION YOU SHOULD
HAVE: Is the city prepared to pay for a lawsuit when a child is harmed in any way byone of the residents of this homeless shelter?
William and Carolyn Hartsog
Bozeman, Montana