HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-09-21 Public Comment - B. Parker - Buffalo RunFrom: Bruce Parker
To: Agenda
Subject: Buffalo Run Annexation
Date: Tuesday, February 9, 2021 11:10:46 AM
February 9, 2021
While I am the current president of Meadow Creek HOA, the views I am
expressing here are mine personally and are not being made on behalf
of the board. Our board member, David Parker, will make public
comments to the City Commission Tuesday evening on behalf of the
Meadow Creek HOA. My comments are much in alignment with those you
will hear from David.
It is unfortunate that Meadow Creek residents were not able to begin
to learn about the development until the formal annexation process
began. Our residents have literally been drinking from a fire hose
the past several weeks to educate ourselves about the proposed Buffalo
Run development, to understand the impacts it will have on our
neighborhood, to try to understand how this proposal fits with the
City’s growth plan and then to respond effectively and be heard.
No to R5: I am opposed to Buffalo Run being annexed into the city
with an R5 zoning designation. Period. R5 zoning for this parcel makes
no sense. R5 zoning will create an “R5 Island” on the outer edge of
the city - but adjacent to our neighborhood. It is not served by an
arterial street or even a collector street. There are no
complementary commercial businesses of any kind, no schools, no
employment, no services of any kind within any reasonable or practical
walking distance. Because of these deficiencies, any R5 development
on this tract will place an unreasonable and unsatisfactory burden on
Meadow Creek. That burden involves safety on our streets, dilution of
already stretched city services, probable loss of property values and
threatens the very character of a quiet, residential, family
neighborhood.
My larger picture perspective: As a Meadow Creek community, our
issues with this development have been centered around four primary
problems:
1. Access
2. Density
3. Zoning
4. Encroachment into our park.
Over the past couple weeks, the developer has proposed substantial
changes to present a development that is much more palatable to me, as
one Meadow Creek resident:
1. With the additional paved access via Fowler, they will
alleviate a large part of the access problem, big-time.
2. They have proposed a cap of 150 units vs. the 288 originally
proposed; this to me is also a game-changer with, regard to density.
3. The developer proposed the use of Restrictive Covenants for the
benefit of Meadow Creek residents that would mitigate a lot of the
risk we associate with R5 zoning. At the end of the day, this
approach to solve that problem does not work for Meadow Creek; I for
one appreciate that the developer did bring this to us in a good faith
effort to solve that problem. Long term, the use of Restrictive
Covenants is not an acceptable way to resolve the zoning issue. It
leaves Meadow Creek in the position of having to “police” those
covenants on our own and without the City’s enforcement capability to
do so. With five additional parcels that adjoin Meadow Creek that
will someday be developed, R5 zoning of this property would establish
bad precedent that would be available for each of those future
projects to follow. This is a zoning issue that needs to be
administered municipally, not enforced neighbor to neighbor.
4. Completion of Fowler virtually eliminates this (encroachment
into our park) as a problem, based on recent discussions.
In closing, your decision tonight is to consider the annexation of
Buffalo Run as an R5 property. I join my neighbors in imploring you to
listen to and uphold the recommendation from the Zoning Commission to
deny this request.
Sincerely,
Bruce Parker
3265 Parkway Ave.
Bozeman MT 59718