HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-01-22 Public Comment - M. Kaveney - Vacancy TaxFrom:Marcia Kaveney
To:Agenda; Julie Hunter
Subject:Stand strong- raise the vacancy tax and stop the subsidies to luxury condo developments
Date:Tuesday, March 1, 2022 12:01:34 PM
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Dear Mayor Andrus and City Commissioners-
I understand you will be working on incentives for affordable housing this evening and in the
future . I have some ideas along these lines that I hope you will take under seriousconsideration.
1) I think a bold increase in vacancy and/or second home taxes in our city is overdue and
essential for both cutting down on vacancy in general which would result in less sprawl andmore sale or rental inventory as well increase funding to the city. The taxes raised from a
vacancy tax could be earmarked specifically for affordable housing subsidies. This is alreadyhappening in Vancouver, BC and many other places. We might not be a huge city but we have
big city problems. And as one of your memos for tonight's meeting states- it has been shownthat we cannot expect to build our way out of the housing crisis with new development,
existing inventory needs to be preserved. This is one way to do that.
Please see this article for more ideas:https://coda.io/@joe-dimento/san-francisco-residential-vacancy-tax#_luaaD
2) Since luxury condominiums and apartments are not helping the housing crisis and there is
seemingly an inexhaustible demand for them, I urge you to ban all future subsidizing ofluxury condos- anything that will be expected to sell for over the attainable level of 120-150
% AMI. No TIF dollars and no relaxation in codes. A recent example of wasted tax dollarsis the gift of $500K to the Wildlands to build 12 luxury condos- many of which may sit
empty for most of the year. Saying no to the Wildlands request would have made sense toBozeman citizens and quite possibly opened the door for other developers with
better intentions for city housing. Please do not waste our tax dollars on these kinds of ill-suited projects.
3) Tonight you will also vote to consent to the final annexation and zoning of Canyon Gate
with special conditions. I am very concerned that any relaxation in UDC codes for affordablehousing or incentives using less parking and extra height bonuses will derail the covenants that
have just been agreed to by HomeBase/ Canyon Gate. All wording should includeprotection for the restrictions that were agreed to by the owner of the Canyon Gate parcel
and the wording should be such that the covenants will be protected into the futureindefinitely.
Thank you for taking these ideas into consideration. I value the hard work you do and hope
that you continue to try and set a very high bar for developers in order to follow the goals thatBozemanites asked for in the 2020 BCP- maintaining a sense of place and a neighborhood
character, and sensitive development.
Thank you,
Marcia Kaveney1496 Boylan Rd.
Bozeman