HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-16-21 Public Comment - G. Chamberlain - Canyon GateFrom:Glen Chamberlain
To:Agenda
Cc:Jacob Miller
Subject:objection to the canyongate development
Date:Tuesday, November 16, 2021 12:03:51 PM
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To the Zoning Commission and, ultimately, the City Commission:
I write in opposition to HomeBase Partners’ CanyonGate, a development it plans for 24 acres
located at the corner of Bridger Drive and Story Mill Road. It is not the annexation and
development of the acres I object to; rather, it is the high density zoning it requests. Let me
list the reasons for my objection:
1) We live at 1821 Bridger Drive, and we have witnessed the heavy traffic on the road.
While it historically has been the heaviest in the winter when Bridger Bowl is
operating, we have noticed in the last two years a constant rush of vehicles: passenger,
construction, and emergency. Rouse, even with the widening of it that has taken place,
is congested, as is Bridger Drive. These arteries cannot accommodate the increase in
traffic such a development would incur.
2) Unless HomeBase Partners or Montana Rail Link or the State or the city solves the
problem of the two road-grade railroad crossings, one on Rouse and the other on
Wallace, the traffic situation created by such dense development is untenable and
dangerous. When a coal or grain train comes through Bozeman, both crossings can be
blocked for up to fifteen minutes. When a train stops mid-crossing (which happens
often), I have seen traffic on the north side backed up as far as North View Road, the
eastern border of this proposed development. And I have been in traffic on Oak when
it is piled up well past the Cannery District when there’s a train. I’m sure the
Commission is aware of possible lawsuits the city could face when emergency vehicles
are as entrapped as the rest of us, and because of it a person dies or a house burns
down.
3) Historically, HomeBase Partners’ residences are bought by those who can afford to
pay the median price of a home in Bozeman, currently reported by one local real
estate company at $819,000. When Andy Holloran of HomeBase Partners states (as he
has in newspaper articles) that he wants to help ease the housing crunch in the
community, he is being disingenuous. This development will encourage the second-
home syndrome, where houses are bought by wealthy out-of-staters who come in the
winter to ski for a month and in the summer to escape the heat. Until the city or the
county or the state is allowed or willing to tax second-home owners, these
developments do not drastically improve the revenue base. And they encourage more
affordable development out of city limits, thus abetting the sprawl the City
Commission claims it wants to mitigate.
4) Across from the proposed development is Bozeman’s wonderful new Story Mill
Community Park. The city should be applauded for making amends when it forced
residents out of an established and well-maintained trailer court so a developer (of
Blixeth family infamy) could create an up-scale subdivision, which never happened. I
can’t help but think that HomeBase Partners’ application proposes only two acres of
trail/open space because of the park across from it. This new park is already heavily
used, and it should not be viewed as a ‘fix’ to HomeBase Partners’ stinginess.
Furthermore, the City Commission recently seems enamored of the idea of developers
paying cash in lieu for open space and/or wetland encroachments. This is bad practice,
for while the city gains some revenue, those living in impacted areas lose much green
space.
5) I have lived in Bozeman since 1978, and during these decades I have watched
various commissions deal with the gnarly issue of aesthetics. Those city center
neighborhoods deemed ‘historical’ will all-of-a-sudden find a home inappropriate to
their mood plopped in their midst. I followed with interest the wrestling and wrangling
that went on when HomeBase Partners developed Black-Olive, which on its Olive side
(and once it was shortened a story) ‘fit in’ in terms of height because it faced the
apartments designed by Fred Wilson and the back of the federal building holding the
post office. However, for those poor homeowners on Black, the mood of their
neighborhood was forever wrecked. Furthermore, I’ve never heard any of the many
people I know rave about the quality of HomeBase Partners’ projects. Rather, they’re
described as ‘ugly’ and ‘cheap-looking’. While the first four reasons for my objection
are grounded in more easily measurable terms, what Bozeman residents will more
likely react to is what we see, and if you approve this development, what we will see is
ugly, and what we will think is that, once again, the City Commission has cow-towed to
a developer and ignored the many reasonable voices of individual citizens.
Glen Chamberlain
1821 Bridger Drive
Bozeman, MT 59715
(406) 539-0418