HomeMy WebLinkAbout09-28-23 Public Comment - A. Knaub - Please protect old neighborhoodsFrom:Andrew Knaub
To:Agenda
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Please protect old neighborhoods
Date:Wednesday, September 27, 2023 5:43:41 AM
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City Development Board,
The new zoning changes you're proposing aren't going to solve the housing crisis for middle
income residents of Bozeman. You will be incentivising developers to tear down existingfamily homes for luxury apartments with no one living in them. This is a gift to developers,
3rd and 4th homeowners, and Airbnb.
Here's some of the negative impacts of increased urban density that worry me:
-A more transient population. This leads to the destruction of community. When nobody
lives there, why should anyone care about anything.
-The loss of green space. You've set building coverage limits at 40% but much of
Bozeman's old neighborhoods have building coverage far less than this amount which gives us
currently more green space. When we lose this we lose our clean air! And we lose a beautifulenvironment to live in.
-Higher building mass leads to increase in heat island effect. Many residents don't
have air conditioning. And we just open our windows at night to cool our homes. If youincrease the building mass in these old neighborhoods you increase the heat in summer. Prettysoon we can't cool down our homes and we start using air conditioners that pump more heatinto the neighborhood. It's a vicious cycle.
-Car accidents will increase. Our intersections are mostly uncontrolled and we struggle
with car accidents anyway. If you put more people in here, especially transient people who
don't know how to drive in uncontrolled intersections you're going to get more accidents. Andif you think more people are going to use public transport you're fooling yourself. This is
Montana! Everyone has multiple cars and that's not going away. Especially among 3rd and4th homeowners who just come here to vacation.
-Can our infrastructure cope with this increase in use? We don't have any water now!
And you want to increase density in the center of town? Where are we going to get the water?
This proposed zoning change worries me also because of the height allowance. 45 feet tall istoo tall in most of these areas. If everyone is stealing the sky, then only the rich at the top get
to see it. This is not equitable.
I actually like form based zoning. Anything to stop the addition of more of those Black Olive
style buildings to our town is good. But you should combine R1 and R2 and leave the heightat 2 stories.
Andrew Knaub
14th Ave Bozeman