HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-27-20 Public Comment - B. Fontenot - RE_ Pole Yard URDFrom:Brit Fontenot
To:Chandler Dayton
Cc:Cyndy Andrus; Michael Wallner; Terry Cunningham; I-Ho Pomeroy; Jennifer Madgic;
BOHPublicComment@gallatin.mt.gov; Jeff Mihelich; Dani Hess; Agenda
Subject:RE: Pole Yard URD
Date:Tuesday, October 27, 2020 9:38:48 AM
Attachments:EHS_IdahoPole_LTR_Oct2020.pdf
Dear Chandler,
Thank you for your message. Yesterday we learned that the legal notices section was not
published in Sunday’s issue of the Chronicle. The section included public notice of the Pole
Yard URD hearing at the City Commission meeting, among other City notices. The Pole Yard
URD public hearing scheduled for tonight’s Commission meeting must therefore be moved to
the November 10th City Commission meeting to ensure adequate public notice and
compliance with state requirements.
Regarding the summary from the Board of Health meeting, a brief update was shared with
City Commission that captured BoH’s general concerns on the URD creation process after the
meeting on September 24th. See below. One of the outcomes from the meeting was that the
BoH’s environmental subcommittee would compile a list of considerations and submit it to
City Commission before the hearing. That summary was received by staff on Saturday,
October 24th and will be entered in as public comment for Commission to review. It is also
attached here.
9/25/2020 Community engagement update: Pole Yard Urban Renewal District
Over the past two months, Economic Development staff have met with areabusiness owners, nearby residents, the Gallatin Local Water Quality District Board,and the Gallatin City-County Board of Health. The goal of engagement in thisprocess is to go beyond state noticing requirements and:· Provide the community with context and information on why a URD is beingconsidered;· Outline the process and timeline of URD creation;· Consult the public on whether the City Commission should enable thecreation of a URD to address infrastructure deficiencies in the Pole Yardarea.
What we’ve heard: A summary of the questions, concerns, and feedback
throughout the process.
· Meetings with area business owners:- Intensification of residential and commercial uses in this area ischallenging for operations of existing manufacturing and industrialbusinesses- Maintaining access to the rail spur is high priority · Meetings with taxing jurisdictions affected by the creation of a URD(Gallatin County, Bozeman School District)- Concern around the effect on tax revenue during the lifespan of theURD
· Sept 9th public info session; Sept 15th City Commission meeting adopting
Resolution 5145 Findings of Blight; and Sept 24th Gallatin City-CountyBoard of Health meeting:- Questions around the timing of the creation of a URD relative toaddressing environmental concerns- Desire to prevent a future development application from movingforward without clear determination of safety from the US EPA, MTDEQ, and consensus between local agencies on ensuring public healthand safety
Additionally, public record of the September 24th, 2020 BoH meeting is here:
https://media.avcaptureall.com/session.html?sessionid=f8a67605-a139-4f52-a749-
706be101cb22&prefilter=807,5797 The Pole Yard presentation and discussion begins at
54:30 and ends at 1:52:12.
Kind regards,
Brit
Brit Fontenot | Director of Economic DevelopmentCity of Bozeman | 121 North Rouse Avenue | P.O. Box 1230 | Bozeman, MT 59771M: 406.579.1302 | E: bfontenot@bozeman.net | W: www.bozeman.net
From: Chandler Dayton <chandler.dayton@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, October 26, 2020 4:39 PM
To: Brit Fontenot <bfontenot@BOZEMAN.NET>
Cc: Cyndy Andrus <CAndrus@BOZEMAN.NET>; Michael Wallner <mwallner@BOZEMAN.NET>; Terry
Cunningham <TCunningham@BOZEMAN.NET>; I-Ho Pomeroy <IPomeroy@BOZEMAN.NET>;
Jennifer Madgic <jmadgic@BOZEMAN.NET>; BOHPublicComment@gallatin.mt.gov
Subject: Pole Yard URD
Dear Brit, I applaud all your efforts on behalf of the Bozeman Economic Development Council. This isimportant work, to be sure. I have read the 2016 Economic Development Strategy, and Iunderstand the importance of this work to the community. In regard to the Poleyard URD, I would like to point out that the BOH comments were notincluded in the memo to Commissioners who will vote on this agenda item on Tuesday. It seems that more often than naught, the keepers of health are at odds with the keepers of aneconomic growth policy...The questions that BOH raised since the announcement of thepartial delisting in 2019, opening the way for redevelopment, are worthy of recording for theCity Commission to consider.
If individual Commissioners had the time, they could surely get up to speed by reading theattachments to the 2020 5 year review from EPA, which also were left off the memo for the
vote tomorrow night. Both documents can be found at https://cumulis.epa.gov/supercpad/SiteProfiles/index.cfm?
fuseaction=second.scs&id=0800379&doc=Y&colid=33015®ion=08&type=SC
The attachments for the 5th Five Year Review report contain all of the correspondence andquestions/answers from the Gallatin County Board of Health and EPA. The Board of Health is
the only government body dedicated to public health, and as such, should be given air time atthis Commission meeting, at minimum with a summary of their questions and comments.
I hope you can correct this issue so that the Commission is well informed going into this
public hearing. If possible, it would be acceptable to have a representative of the Board ofHealth give a presentation about the concerns that remain unanswered or speculative.
Thank you for your time and dedication to the economic, physical and spiritual health or our
community,
Chandler Dayton, 716 E Peach St.