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Home My WebLink About10-02-23 Public Comment - J. Pytka - Public Comment on New Development CodeFrom:bsb2013 To:Agenda Subject:[EXTERNAL]Public Comment on New Development Code Date:Monday, October 2, 2023 11:32:29 AM Attachments:Public Comment on New Development Code.pdf Attachment 1 to Public Comment.pdf Attachment 2 to Public Comment.pdf Attachment 3 to Public Comment.pdf Importance:High CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or openattachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Hello Alex, Attached please find my public comment regarding the new Development Code. This is for the Community Development Board meeting this evening. Thank you, Jonathan Pytka October 2, 2023 To Whom It May Concern, The area that is bounded by W Story St on the south, by W Koch St on the north, by S 4th Ave on the west, and by the alley between S Grand Ave and S Willson Ave on the east (an area which is currently zoned R-4 and which is proposed to be zoned R-B) is inappropriately and inconsistently zoned. See attached map. This area should be zoned R-A under the new Development Code. The R-A classiﬁcation (1) would be more in keeping with the current character of this area (historic single-family homes) and (2) would ensure that the area’s future development remains consistent with the adjacent areas that surround it (lowest density and lowest intensity of structures and usage). This area is in the heart of the Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District (NCOD) and therefore especially sensitive and vulnerable to inappropriate and non-contextual* development. In general, R-A is better aligned with the historic nature of the neighborhood. See attached map. The buildings and streetscape within this area do look like the picture for R-A (from the new Development Code) … but they do not look like the picture for R-B. I am also concerned that having a peninsula of R-B sticking out into the R-A zone (which is what the draft plan calls for) introduces three potentially frictional interfaces (R-A abutting R-B) along the east, south, and west sides of the peninsula. The number (and overall length) of zone-zone interfaces could be reduced from three to one by moving the zone boundary north to W Koch St (as I am proposing) … leaving just one zone-zone interface, which would be W Koch St. Note that the R-4/R-B zoning that surrounds the Artemis Apartments is bounded by W Koch St on the south. Therefore, establishing W Koch St as the southern boundary for that entire R-4/R- B zone would be more consistent. And the distance from Main Street would be the same. I appreciate your consideration of my comments and hope that you will use this opportunity to correct the inappropriately and inconsistently zoned area that I have identiﬁed. My comments are intended to be forward-looking and “preventative” - in the sense that correctly classifying this area now will reduce the risk of out-of-place, controversial development projects down the road. Thank you, Jonathan Pytka * I would like to incorporate, by reference, Steve Kirchhoff and Jeff Krauss’s guest column “Bozeman should hit pause, reassess housing approach,” which appeared in the June 3, 2022, edition of the Bozeman Daily Chronicle. In that article, the authors warned against “non- contextual” development - which is something that any good zoning plan should seek to avoid. https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/guest_columnists/guest-column- bozeman-should-hit-pause-reassess-housing-approach/article_5abc8a76-c2bc-5937- b5c3-7d8cb8cf4490.html https://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/opinions/guest_columnists/guest-column-bozeman-should-hit-pause-reassess-housing-approach/article_5abc8a76-c2bc-5937-b5c3-7d8cb8cf4490.html Guest column: Bozeman should hit pause, reassess housing approach By Steve Kirchho! and Je! Krauss Guest columnists Jun 3, 2022 We would like to pose a question to the city commission. Imagine we could wave a magic wand and dramatically increase Bozeman’s housing supply overnight. Let’s say we could wake up tomorrow to 1,000 new units of all kinds of housing. Do you think the average housing price would decrease? Our hunch is that most, if not all of you, believe the answer is yes. Your actions are those of people who believe una!ordability in housing is caused mostly by low supply in the market, and that we can build our way to a!ordability. But we suggest that is a false premise. We don’t have a supply problem in our market; instead, we have a market that caters to Wall Street instead of answering the needs of working Bozemanites. If we woke up tomorrow to 1,000 brand-new housing units, they would be snatched-up by same people who are snatching them up today: 20% would go to wealthy people from Bozeman who can a!ord to move up or invest; "#y percent would go to wealthy newcomers; and the remaining thirty percent would go to out-of-state investors. The fact is, without a magic wand, the local construction industry is already building plenty of housing—but the vast majority of it is priced above the reach of working Bozeman citizens. Wealthy investors have skewed Bozeman’s market prices upward to favor themselves while excluding local wage earners from the chance to purchase housing. And this perverse reward system distorts prices in other Montana cities and towns, too. A poll released this month by the UM Crown of the Continent and Greater Yellowstone Initiative found most Montanans resent the impacts of fast-paced growth they face today. Strong majorities of poll respondents believe that growth is happening too fast and has led to a decline in their quality of life in the past "ve years. A whopping 92% say the lack of a!ordable housing is a “very” or “extremely” serious problem. The same "st of the investment class is pounding down the gates and staging hostile takeovers of housing markets in larger cities across the U.S. Last August the Washington Post reported that investors purchased one-quarter of new housing in Phoenix, and nearly as much in Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte, and Las Vegas. If there is an invisible hand guiding the housing markets in “hot” U.S. cities and Montana towns, it’s studded with diamond rings, and it doesn’t care whether housing will be constructed for local working people or not. As Bozeman city commissioners, you have been frustrated "lling vacancies in city employment. The chief reason you cannot "ll positions is that potential employees cannot a!ord housing. Currently you cannot house your employees, nor will you be able to do so by speeding up construction and by throwing out regulations that protect historic neighborhoods from high-density in"ll. Well, then — what should you do? We suggest you adopt a six-month-long interim ordinance prohibiting the application for new development in all zoning districts that allow residential buildout — a temporary moratorium. You can use the six months to devise new zoning and other regulations that require the construction of truly a!ordable housing for Bozeman’s working people. Such measures might include new zone code that allows increases in building heights and density only when such increases provide long-term a!ordable housing for Bozeman’s workforce; new code that repeals or severely restricts Airbnb and VRBO properties; and new code that protects historic neighborhoods from inappropriate, non-contextual, in"ll developments. Of course, other suggestions might be as or more e!ective than these; the important thing is to take the time needed to devise a better overall housing strategy. Working residents deserve more attention than you are giving them. A#er all, it is their sweat and tears that created Montana’s beautiful cities and towns — the “equity” — that out-of-state investors are capturing for themselves. Truly successful cities do not exclude the very people who built the equity so attractive to investment; instead, they "nd ways to retain and encourage the people who make their cities work. Steve Kirchho! and Je! Krauss are former mayors of Bozeman. Kircho! served one term as mayor and was on the city commission from 1999 to 2007. Krauss served three terms as mayor and was on the commission from 2004 to 2020.