HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-19-21 Public Comment - P. Hatfield - Bozeman CoHousingFrom:Hatfield, Patrick
To:Susana Montana
Cc:Brianne Rogers
Subject:CO-housing
Date:Tuesday, October 19, 2021 11:58:08 AM
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Good morning Susana
My name is Patrick Hatfield. I live at 418 Fieldstone dr. I am excited to have Co-housing as a new
neighbor but I do have some concerns.
I am recently retired from MSU. During my 25 years living on Fieldstone, I biked to work (I never
owned an MSU parking pass) almost every day including the winter months. While the new
development is receiving significant parking reductions due to their commitment to awalkable/bikeable lifestyle, no investments in multi-modal transportation (i.e. bike lanes,
sidewalks, or expanding bus service to the area) are being required of the development asidefrom a sidewalk island that will start and end at the edges of the cohousing property. Most
people are fair weather cyclist, typically in the summer when schools are not in session. Theconflict between cyclist, pedestrians and cars is definitely more of an issue during the late fall,
winter, and early spring months when schools are in session. When members of ourneighborhood met with folks from Co-housing it was clear to me that they had little
appreciation in what it takes to be a year-around bicycle commutator. Having the appropriatebike lanes would go far to expanding the use of bicycles for commuting by the increase
population in the neighborhood.
The new development is requiring fewer than 2 parking spaces per apartment; with 99 beds in
the development, only 79 parking spaces are being required - this means our community roads
and street frontage will become an overflow parking lot. According to the U.S. department oftransportation there are 1.88 vehicles per U.S. house hold. Further, Montana ranks highest in
the nation for vehicles per capita with 1594 vehicles/1000 people (USDT and the U.S. CensusBureau). Looking at our neighborhood I would estimate that most homes with a two car
garage can only park one car in the garage. A neighborhood covenants at CO-housing cannotlegally dictate how a private home owner uses the space they own. Even if restriction are
placed in the covenants it would take a civil court action to enforce, most likely at a largeexpense in legal fees with no successful outcome. All of this means that there is not enough
parking in the new development. To be blunt it is easy to say “we will bike, walk, and carshare and not use our parking spaces for storage”. But this is not realistic With well over 80
new vehicles entering/exiting this development, we will experience overflow parking inWestfield park, more traffic, increased wait times at the stop sign at S. 3rd, a large new four-
way intersection at Concord Dr, and – potential more dangerous interactions between vehiclesand pedestrian and cyclist.
My last point is the viewshed. Going from one single family home to 43 apartment buildingson this lot means large, dense, and tall buildings. This will forever change the character of our
neighborhood. I hope that the reduction in light pollution will be a serious concern in theplanning stage.
I appreciate your taking the time to review my comments. Again, I am for and excited to havea new paradigm of housing in our neighborhood – it just needs to be considerate of the impact
it will have on existing homes and the safety of all.
Thank you
Patrick Hatfield