HomeMy WebLinkAbout5-14-2020 Public Comment - K. Thane - Bridger View RedevelopmentFrom:Kevin Thane
To:Agenda
Subject:Public Comment for May 18, 2020 City Commission Meeting
Date:Thursday, May 14, 2020 10:22:30 PM
Attachments:Public Comment on PUD Application 19464.pdf
Attached is public comment for Action Item 4, Bridger View Redevelopment Preliminary Planned
Unit Development (PUD), Application 19464 , on the Agenda for the May 18, 2020 City
Commission meeting.
Kevin Thane3432 S 29th Ave
Bozeman, MT 59718
May 14, 2020
Commissioners:
The Bridger View Redevelopment project meets the requirements of the Affordable Housing Ordinance.
I concur with the Staff recommendations although the application leaves many unanswered questions
which CAHAB would normally be able to clarify with the applicant and have the opportunity to suggest
ways to address the open issues. Given the covid environment in which we are operating, with the
City’s current prohibition of meetings by Advisory Boards, and the direction to submit comments
directly to the City Commission, these comments are submitted without consideration and discussion by
the full Community Affordable Housing Advisory Board.
The Bridger View project brings with it the benefit of being a valuable pilot project which can provide
useful data for future projects of this nature, the City, developers, builders, realtors and the financial
community. It is my hope that the Commission will strongly recommend, if not require as a part of the
approval for this PUD and Affordable Housing Plan, that data be collected and reported to the
Community Housing Program Manager in order to be able to inform decisions on future projects that
will be built on this model. Specifically, reporting back to the City should contain:
1. Reports detailing engineering challenges, including but not limited to utility connections and
right of way impediments and how they were addressed.
2. An analysis of the permitting process for the project detailing any hurdles and the methodology
used to overcome them.
3. Information on the marketing process for all units in the project including timing and rates of
sales, sales prices, and any relevant information that might guide the implementation of future
projects.
4. Composite data on the utility efficiency of the units in the project including reporting timeline
information showing the installation of solar panels and the benefit of those panels to residents.
5. Data on the resales of the units in the project to document turnover rates, sales pricing, return
of down payment and impact fee subsidies to the Community Affordable Housing Fund, and
reasons for selling.
6. HOA and Land Trust dues, fees, and collections along with data on violations of either
agreement.
7. Efficiency of the land trust model in attracting and retaining low and middle income
homeowners.
If data can be gathered from this project that will inform decisions down the road, it will to some degree
mitigate the fact that this project replaces 92 very low income housing units with 62 primarily middle to
higher end dwelling units. It bears noting that on page 2 of the Bozeman Community Housing Action
Plan (accepted by the Commission on November 18, 2019) a target is set that there should be, “…no net
loss of community housing stock below 80% AMI.” It is my hope that future similar projects can avoid
the front end load of this project that forces market rate sales of the vast majority of the units in this
project.
It is of concern that this project does not come close to matching the distribution of housing units
needed in Bozeman that was shown in the Bozeman Community Housing Action Plan Bridge found on
page 3 of the Action Plan, which, if followed, indicates 43% of the units (~27) should be priced below
80% AMI, 19% of the units (~12)should be priced between 80 and 120% of AMI, and 37% (~23) should
be priced above 120% AMI.
Several questions relating to the cost and the affordability of the Missing Middle and Market Rate
homes included in this project were posed to HRDC but answers provided did not yield the information
requested. As of the today, May 14, 2020, the Land Trust entity that will be used for this project has not
yet been incorporated and operation and leasing costs have not been determined. This leaves me to
make assumptions when trying to determine the actual affordability of the units.
In conclusion, given the fact that only 5 of the 62 units that make up this project are actually targeted to
be sold to low income individuals and given the holes in the information that has been provided, the
project is sufficient but disappointing, since the land for the project is being provided at no cost to the
project. In my view, the saving grace for this project lies in two things, first that it will be truly
considered a pilot project and the data outlined above can be of benefit to future projects; second that
as was demonstrated by the question asked twice during the Planning Commission consideration of this
project, “if this works, why is it so hard to do?”, alluding to the suggestion that the 10 relaxations
required for this project should be included in the UDC.
Respectfully Submitted,
Kevin Thane, Chair
Community Affordable Housing Advisory Board
3432 S 29th Ave, Bozeman, MT 59718