HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-02-2020 Public Comment - S. Kirchhoff - Parking Benefit DistrictsFrom: Michael Wallner
To: Steve Kirchhoff
Cc: Michael Wallner; Agenda
Subject: Re: hey
Date: Sunday, February 2, 2020 3:52:00 PM
Steve,
Thank you for your perspective!
My City Commission e-mail is: mwallner@bozeman.net
It would be great if we could direct future inquiries to my City of Bozeman e-mail above!
I am CC'ing agenda on this to include my colleagues!
Best,
Michael Wallner
On Sun, Feb 2, 2020 at 9:55 AM Steve Kirchhoff <skirchhoff3@gmail.com> wrote:
Dear Commissioner,
Nice to see you at the movies yesterday. Hope you and your wife enjoyed. The
shorts I saw before I had to leave early were in a melancholy vein, right up my
alley.
I am writing to you about a downtown issue you will be discussing tomorrow night-
-potential changes to downtown parking policy and to the very structure for making
that policy. This morning I read Brian Leland's letter in the Chronicle, and I believe
he made some good points. Brian raised legitimate fears that current downtown
and near downtown residents could lose power in their voice when discussing
downtown development projects that directly affect them.
Actually, Brian's letter raised three disturbing points: First, the possibility that the
un-elected parking commission might enjoy expanded reach in policy-making that
directly affects downtown neighborhood quality of life. Second, the possibility that a
future parking commission might create downtown parking districts that allow
purchase of parking permits to people residing outside the districts, thus elbowing-
out district residents and letting developers off the hook for providing physical
parking spaces with their projects. And third, Brian suggests that current downtown
residents would likely become fed up with city government if these two changes
came to pass. Disgruntlement leads to apathy about, if not antipathy for, local
government. Disgruntlement undermines civic unity. Brian suggests that these
changes would compromise the city's ability to pass SIDs for future downtown
neighborhood infrastructure improvements. He could be right. Luckily, this
disgruntlement need never come to pass!
As you know, policy on parking will always be full of howling and teeth gnashing. I
just hope the political process of creating policy will not disproportionately favor
developers and people who have no stake (beyond convenience) in the quality of
life downtown. We need to keep talking with each other for things to work out. I
hope downtown residents will retain a strong voice as the downtown continues to
grow in projects and people.
Thanks for reading this. Good luck on this and all decisions you make.
Steve K