HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-15-21 Public Comment - D. Parker - Buffalo Run App. 21076From:David Parker
To:Agenda
Subject:Comment on Buffalo Run
Date:Thursday, April 15, 2021 4:29:28 PM
Attachments:Buffalo Run_April15_2021.docx
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Dear Chris Saunders,
Please find attached my letter in opposition to an R-4 designation for Buffalo Run and mysupport FOR R-3 designation.
Regards,
Dave Parker
3301 S 27th Avenue
April 15, 2021
Re: Buffalo Run Subdivision
Dear City Commission:
I ask respectfully that you decline to annex the Buffalo Run Subdivision with a R-4 designation.
Instead, I ask that you annex Buffalo Run into the City with an R-3 designation—as this
designation would best achieve the city’s objectives of higher density housing that is more
affordable while remaining consistent with a smart growth plan. I detail why I believe R-3 to be
more appropriate and consistent with the city’s growth plan below.
In May 2008, my family and I moved to Bozeman from South Bend, Indiana. Even 13 years ago,
the cost of housing was a shock for my family. We found it difficult to afford anything within the
city limits that was consistent with our own desire to reduce our carbon footprint while providing
space for our growing family. While we desired to live in a single-family home with a yard, we
settled for a town home—a town home which became our home for the next 11 years. Yes, it
took us 11 years and another child before we were ready and able to afford the single-family
home we had planned on buying in 2008.
So, I understand that the cost of housing within Bozeman has long been unsustainable and
recognize both need for more and more dense development. Indeed, I support and laud the city
commission for doing what it can to ensure more families and individuals can move and
live in the community we love.
At the same time, however, the City Commission needs to proceed carefully and in alignment
with the City Growth plan it has adopted and outlined. A large factor in leaving our town
home—in addition to the need for more space when our second child was born—was a desire to
live in a detached dwelling after a series of problem neighbors who were loud, unkind, and
threatening to us and our children. We worked hard to find a home that we could afford and
provide space while not replicating the experience we had living in our town home. Not
everyone wants to live in high density housing with shared walls, which is why Bozeman should
offer a mix of housing densities and stock as it develops.
We believe we found a wonderful home in Meadow Creek, the subdivision immediately to the
east of the proposed development action at Buffalo Run. My issue with a high density, R-4
development along Fowler and Kurk is that it is not consistent with the vision for high density
growth as articulated in City’s Growth Plan—representing, in my view, a zoning designation that
a reasonable person would not expect when choosing to purchase a home in Meadow Creek. In
this respect, the adoption of such a designation might be considered capacious and arbitrary
because it does not substantially adhere to the city’s own plan.
R-4 zoning of the Buffalo Run property does not meet any of these four criteria as listed
expressly in the City’s growth plan:
1) The parcel is not adjacent to mixed-use districts, instead, it is adjacent to County farmland on three sides and a detached single-family home neighborhood on the other;
2) There are no close commercial districts; the nearest commercial district is a
small commercial park located between Discovery Drive and Enterprise
Boulevard, which is over a 1-mile walk from the nearest corner of the parcel;
3) The parcel is not served by transit, nor is there any plan to expand transit to
this area; and
4) There is no close proximity to jobs and services; the closest business park is
over 1 mile away and at least a 30 minute walk, the closest grocery store is Town
and Country, 2.4 miles away and a 45 minute walk, and the closest restaurants are
on the MSU campus, 2 miles away, and at least a 40 minute walk.
Even the nearest PLANNED commercial development, along Blackwood Lane, is not
within a 1-mile radius of the Buffalo Run subdivision. In fact, the walkability score as of
today for Buffalo Run would be a ZERO. How is this island high density development
appropriate? Any reasonable person would conclude that it is not. Indeed, the zoning
commission struck down an R-5 high density designation and the zoning commission’s
own decision in favor of R-5 was not unanimous.
High density development, in short, is not appropriate—particularly given that Kurk
Road would primarily provide egress and ingress for the development even if Fowler is
paved. Kurk is neither an arterial nor a collector street—it is simply a small city street
that will not be able to handle the volume of traffic from Buffalo Run.
It is incumbent upon the city commission to remain true to all the elements of the City
Growth Plan and the criteria for specific zoning designations if only to provide some
certainty to families and individuals when they purchase property. Our family wished it
could have remained closer to the university and downtown in a mature neighborhood
where development was complete, but the costs were simply astronomical for a family of
four in 2019 and have only gotten worse. With this proposal, you are potentially pushing
middle class families who wish to live in single-family detached homes even further
away from Bozeman—which only to serves to undermine the city’s carbon emission
reduction goals. Development should be smart, it should be careful, and it should
represent the varied needs of a diverse community.
The ONLY reason to approve this plan is because the city simply wants more high
density housing irrespective of the actual criteria laid out in the Growth Plan. And that’s
simply not good enough—at least according to the Montana Supreme Court which
indicated in Hefferman v. Missoula (2011) that cities should at least “substantially
comply with the growth policy”. An R-4 designation would not substantially comply. An
R-3 designation surely would.
To summarize, I support more development. I support more density. But I also support
complying with the City’s own zoning designations. Please annex Buffalo Run, but with
an R-3—and not an R-4—designation.
Sincerely,
David C.W. Parker
3301 S 27th Avenue
Bozeman, MT 59718