HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-18-21 Public Comment - D. Kaveney - Bridger MeadowsFrom:agenda@bozeman.net
To:Agenda
Subject:Thank you for your public comment.
Date:Sunday, July 18, 2021 12:38:28 PM
A new entry to a form/survey has been submitted.
Form Name:Public Comment Form
Date & Time:07/18/2021 12:38 PM
Response #:1155
Submitter ID:40510
IP address:98.127.251.100
Time to complete:7 min. , 22 sec.
Survey Details
Page 1
Public comment may be submitted via the form below, or by any of the following options.
Public comment may also be given at any public meeting.
Email:
agenda@bozeman.net
Mail to:
Attn: City Commission
PO Box 1230
Bozeman, MT 59771
First Name Dan
Last Name Kaveney
Email Address dan.kaveney@gmail.com
Phone Number 406.581.4362
Comments
Dear Commissioners,
I’m writing to encourage you to vote to DENY the Bridger Meadows Preliminary Plat at your next meeting.
The plan you’ll be reviewing requires SIX relaxations of important development guidelines, appears to lack
clear access (the right of way is in litigation), and will do nothing to advance Bozeman’s goals of increasing
affordable housing and struggling to maintain its position as a reasonably livable place. Instead, it will
create yet another enclave of high-end homes that will do nothing to address our affordable housing crisis
or maintain the tenuous quality of life that we still enjoy here in the Gallatin Valley. Please stand firm and
require new developments to adhere precisely to city development guidelines by denying this application.
The City of Bozeman has put guidelines in place for new developments precisely so that they can be built
without diminishing the neighbors’ lives’ and/or property values too egregiously. We must adhere to these
guidelines meticulously if we are to retain any chance of maintaining the quality of life that many of us have
enjoyed here for decades. The fact that the Bridger Meadows Preliminary Plat requires exemptions from
SIX of these rules – some of which are very important – tells you all you need to know about it; it doesn’t
conform to the city’s requirements and therefore needs to be absolutely and unequivocally denied. During
the Planning Board meeting the chair, Henry Happel rather poetically (and without evidence) demeaned
concerned Bozeman citizens by opining that the concerned parties wanted to maintain a place where
“soaring eagles and frolicking deer will remain that way forever” (Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Development
Near Glen Lake Rotary Park Under Review, July 4, 2021). I have a higher opinion of my fellow Bozeman
citizens than Mr. Happel does, and I don’t think they expect the city to maintain places where wildlife may
frolic at will. They do, however, have every right to expect the city to enforce its own rules and guidelines
when it comes to proposed new developments. Approve those developments that adhere to the standards
and deny those that do not. Don’t muddy the waters with exemptions and relaxations that will necessarily
differ from development to development. Doing so is arbitrary by definition and cannot be done in a fair
and consistent manner. People who have made critical investment decisions based on an expectation that
development rules will be followed are counting on you to enforce these requirements. If the City
Commission follows the Design Review Board and Planning Boards’ leads and elects to ignore the city’s own
rules, then it will have betrayed those citizens (and developers) who are rightly expecting the commission
to manage our growth in a fair, measured, and predictable manner. What do we say to those developers
who have spent time, money, and good faith putting together proposals for you that actually follow the
city’s development rules and guidelines when you relax or ignore those same rules for other developers?
The only way to do this fairly is to enforce all the guidelines, to the letter, every time. There may be
situations where compelling cases can be made for relaxations or exemptions. These situations should be
rare. If they are not, then the guidelines need revision.
The situation might color itself differently if this development offered something we needed, but it doesn’t.
The developer is planning on building a few more high-end houses that will most likely be sold to new
residents bringing their home equity and/or family money here from some other place. These homes will
not be accessible to most of our children as they try to begin their adult lives in Bozeman, to most of the
teachers, police officers, and small business owners we need to keep our community safe and vibrant, or to
most existing Bozeman residents working in the local economy who would like to buy their first home and
start a family. We need developments that address the community’s needs, not developments whose
primary purpose is to line the pockets of developers at the expense of all those of us who already live in the
city. Please don’t waste your time, or city staffs’ time, reviewing developments that don’t meet our basic
development guidelines, or that at least address some pressing community need.
We have elected most of you (Commissioners Madjic and Coburn excepted at the moment) to lead our city
through very difficult times. I’m very thankful to all of you for your service to the community – and I mean
that seriously, not as some empty platitude. You’ve all volunteered to carry heavy loads for the benefit of
us all. I suspect saying “no” to these sorts of things can be very difficult given what I imagine the
interpersonal dynamics of the whole situation to be, but we in the community are counting on you to do
this hard work. We don’t have a prayer of emerging intact from the thresher this explosive growth feeds us
into without a strong commission ready to deny – finally and unequivocally – any and all development
applications that stray from our development guidelines. Mr. Happel’s contempt for his fellow citizens
notwithstanding, most of us know and accept that development will happen,and we’re counting on you to
make sure it comes about in a predictable, measured fashion, guided by a firm adherence to all city
standards and zoning regulations.
Thanks for reading.
Dan Kaveney
If you would like to submit additional documents (.pdf, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .gif, .jpg, .png, .rtf, .txt)
along with your comment, you may alternately address agenda@bozeman.net directly to ensure
receipt of all information.
Thank you,
City Of Bozeman
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