HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-18-23 Public Comment - K. Filipovich - Community Development Board - comment on UDCFrom:Karen Filipovich
To:Agenda
Cc:Anna Bentley
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Community Development Board - comment on UDC
Date:Monday, September 18, 2023 10:01:40 AM
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Dear Community Development Board Members:
Thank you for taking the time to advise Bozeman on important development topics.
On September 18, you are taking up recommendations for the UDC updates.
Please consider changing the density and further defining infill relaxations in residentially
zoned areas.
While I agree that the current zoning is really complicated, especially in old neighborhoods in
the core of town, the proposed change in density would have impacts far beyond what
citizens are expecting or need.
I'm going to focus on your Residential A ("low density" proposal), since I know it the best, but
some of this applies to all residential areas.
First, it doesn't appear that your unit calculation specifies how many units can go on a lot,
aside from specifying that it needs to be a townhouse if the lot is 15' wide. This leaves a lot of
room for more teardowns and even larger houses, in direct conflict with the goals of the
Bozeman strategic plan.
In residential A, the maximum size of the built structures appears to be 10,000 square feet,
three stories high and with 40% coverage, outside of infill districts. In a 25' by 150' lot, the
maximum square footage house appears to be 6,000 square feet, since a basement is not
counted in the height envelope. On a 50' x 150' lot, similar in size to many of the lots in the
core area of Bozeman, a three story house with a basement can easily hit the 10,000 square
foot mark.
What we've seen in the redevelopment of neighborhoods is that people tear down and build
to the building envelope. You have to plan for that and this UDC opens to the door to more
mega mansions in infill and new districts of town.
The relief of 20% in infill units is way to high, without some significant restrictions. If you had a
50' 75' lot, the builder could then successfully apply for a one unit house that occupies 60% of
the lot, thus maxing out at 9,000 sqare feet. Currently, I don't see any way to prevent that - a
direct conflict with the idea that we want more, smaller houses and units that are financially
accessible to the citizens of this town
Second, the proposed move to up to eight units on a lot is way too dense in low density
residential. The current R-3 limit is 2 units. This is a four-fold increase. In a number of areas of
town, I think you'll mostly see some mega-mansions and some changes in density, but in some
areas, you'll see eight units and three stories and parking and public infrastructure is
completely inadequate and the parking formula in this document doesn't work if many lots on
block change to 4 to 8 units.
Please go back and revise the provisions in residential to encourage more small units at
something less dense than 4x the current maximum density.
Thank you,
Karen Filipovich