HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-06-23 Public Comment - M. Wictor - Public Comment 4-4 & 4-6-2023 to City Comm., all Boards, Neighborhoods & App#22264 Jan GehlFrom:Mary Wictor
To:Agenda
Subject:Public Comment 4-4 & 4-6-2023 to City Comm., all Boards, Neighborhoods & App#22264 Jan Gehl
Date:Thursday, April 6, 2023 3:05:15 PM
Attachments:Public Comment 4-4 & 4-6-2023 Jan Gehl to City Commi, all Boards, Neighborhoods & App#22264.pdf
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Public Comment 4/4 - 4/6/2023 to City Commission, CDB, all Boards, officialNeighborhoods, & App 22264
From:Mary Wictor (mwictor@yahoo.com)
To:mwictor@yahoo.com
Date:Thursday, April 6, 2023 at 01:46 PM PDT
Dear City of Bozeman,
I spoke verbally to the City Commission on 4/4/2023, but am following up here so my comments & info will be more
widely shared.
[Please distribute this 4/4 - 4/6/2023 Public Comment and researched information as input to the City Commission,
Community Development Board, all Boards, and Official Neighborhoods, plus for the Canyon Gate development
Application #22264.]
My ASK is the following:
When looking at / reviewing Applications, and Designs for development in the meetings held for the City of Bozeman,
with the visual presentations, there are a lot of boxes and squares--with various colors.
It all looks neat and tidy with some green spots for trees filled in by landscape architects.
But when these developments and designs come before you, I hope and am ASKING you to really look--look harder at
them and deeper. Try to imagine and to see how people would really live there. How will they use the area being
designed, in all seasons and for a wide range of reasons?
+How would your friends, if they lived there or wanted to move there, might use them?
+How would you feel and what would you do to visit them or that area?
I think we need to do this more in examinations by staff and in review by Boards, and certainly listen to and incorporate
Public Comment views and key points made or questions needing to be asked/answered... BEFORE approvals.
B-2M is allowed by the Future Land Use Map (FLUM) in many areas, and a lot of developers are asking for it during
annexation and initial zoning requests.
With regard to just one aspect, for public safety and connectivity, if B-2M is not by an Arterial, or does not have access
points for it, or doesn't or provide a connection directly to the Arterial, then is the access and transportation really
supported for that area?
Whether or not you wish to consider my personal input as typed input here as written Public Comment...
I do hope you will read the following 2-pages which provide info and views from a person who is world renowned, Mr.
Jan Gehl !
Sincerely, Mary Wictor
1504 Boylan Rd
Jan Gehl - An architect and urban designer famous for refocusing design and
planning on the human scale. Author of Life Between Buildings ; Public Spaces,
Public Life ; and Cities for People , among other books.
Planetzien ~ 100 most influential urbanists
Jan Gehl Hon. FAIA (born 17 September 1936, Copenhagen) is a Danish architect and urban design consultant
based in Copenhagen whose career has focused on improving the quality of urban life by re-orienting city
design towards the pedestrian and cyclist. He is a founding partner of Gehl Architects
By Mary Wictor from TUE 4/4/2023 to the City Commission, timemark 10:50 – 13min.
This written input includes my verbally delivered message + provides more background.
City of Bozeman has chosen villages/centers or neighborhood area “nodes” in Districts
for development. A lot of B-2M zoning has been put with or into these places, which is
really not to “human scale”… but I think it could be… so I was inspired to research.
Thus, last year I researched more widely finding the quotation below from Jan Gehl*
relating to “human scale” and more particularly, via what is NOT human scale.
* [My apologies: I had realized this person is quite famous, but sorry I had not researched his background enough before I spoke.
Mr. Jan Gehl is pronounced like ‘yohn’ (sounds like ‘yawn’) & surname (sounds like ‘geeheel’ / one syllable) as he is Danish. ]
Jan Gehl—has visited some of the best public spaces in the world, noting a number of
aspects that make you feel comfortable; he writes plazas in Brasilia in Brazil have few
and ignore key points. Essentially, public life / public space make people’s quality of life.
“It’s as if Brasilia [in Brazil] was conceived from an airplane, where they just moved
around the various pieces and volumes on a model until they created a nice position.
There was no one on the ground, looking at how the spaces worked between these
volumes.
In the old cities, we have spaces; in the modernistic cities, we have left-over spaces.
They put down the buildings first. Then they asked landscape architects to tidy up, …
Then they looked out the window to see if there were any people enjoying these leftover
spaces, only to discover that there were none.”
—Jan Gehl … Not Human Scale
Similarly, further online research done 4/6/2023 for Jan Gehl confirms this—his quote:
“The modern movement … put an end to the human scale, where suddenly instead of
making places, we decided to make individual buildings and then the buildings got
bigger and bigger. We used to make places, now we make places with the space that is
left over in between the buildings … the notion of human scale is closer to disappearing
in its entirety.” Excerpt from archdaily/ArchDaily. [Underlining added for emphasis.]
During a visit to New York in 2016… per archdaily, Jan Gehl gave a lecture at the Van
Alen Institute, which takes a very similar approach to the importance of design in the
quality of life of people.
Jan Gehl explained tips for what he believes is the way to go about having a livable,
healthy, safe, and sustainable city / cities.
*Danish Architect Jan Gehl is a world renowned expert in all things related to urban
design and public spaces. He obtained this expertise by publishing numerous books,
and later, from his consulting firm Gehl Architects, he founded in his hometown of
Copenhagen, Denmark—to make cities for people. His firm celebrated it’s 50th anniversary in 2016.
~ See next page for City of Bozeman, MT references to Human Scale & Health ~
Human Scale does appear in the Bozeman 2020 Community Plan on pdf page 59 of
148, and a glossary definition appears on page 144 shown below as copy/paste FYI.
I ask that WE NEED TO LOOK HARDER, and more CLOSELY—at the LAND, from the
GROUND when making designs for development. Where do the people fit, what do they
do? What aspects make the public spaces livable and create a desirable quality of life?
Health + Human scale…