HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-10-23 Public Comment - A. Kociolek - Attn_ Community Development Advisory Board and City CommissionFrom:Angela Kociolek
To:Agenda
Cc:Jon Henderson; Anna Bentley
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Attn: Community Development Advisory Board and City Commission
Date:Monday, October 9, 2023 12:06:22 PM
Attachments:Comm Dev UDC 10.9.23.pdf
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Hello,
Attached please find my public comment for the Community Development Advisory Board (inanticipation of its October 10th meeting) and the City Commission.
Thank you,
Angie Kociolek
1
October 9, 2023
Dear Community Development Advisory Board,
As a fellow Citizen Advisory Board Chair, I thank you for your service and can appreciate the
important role you play in representing Bozeman for the greater good of the community. I write
this public comment as an individual and the sentiments herein are solely my own.
I’ll start by taking this moment to remind you that Bozeman is not an island. Our City rests within
the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem – “one of the largest nearly intact temperate zone
ecosystems on Earth.”1
Any decisions we, as a City, undertake must be made
within this context. Not to do so would be to squander
and abdicate our responsibility to conserve and protect
this remnant natural wonder to the detriment of its
wildlife, water, ecosystem processes and services, and
people across the globe.
Lately, conversations about how Bozeman “should” or
“could” grow have totally ignored the fact that
whatever we - as a City - do, will impact this vestige of
wildness. To make matters worse, the rallying cry for
affordable housing has only seemed to spur more
consumption and environmental impacts in the form of
luxury condo high rise investments or “crash pads” for
the wealthy.
This UDC overhaul proposal and its associated public engagement “missed the mark,” in the
words I heard Mayor Andrus state at a recent candidate forum. Some parts of which I am aware
that are truly concerning include:
1. The reported citizen engagement effort only accounts for .775% of the Bozeman
community as a whole.2
2. The UDC overhaul is not driven by water availability.
3. Environmental protections were not strengthened, for example 38.410.010 still includes a
loophole making it unenforced by City planning staff.
4. Article 6 entitled Natural Resource Protection does not have anything pertaining the
protection of trees.
5. Lumping R1-R3 into RA goes way beyond what is needed to comply with SB 382.
Public Domain/USGS
2
6. Turning R4 into RB is pure insanity. Did anyone do any ground truthing before suggesting
this radical change? Case in point, my street is included in drone footage as the inspiration
for Bridger View – a new development example actually welcomed by most, if not all, of
Bozeman. Yet this UDC proposal would allow my predominantly one- to two-family, one-
to two-story neighborhood to turn into four-floor 24-unit projects. It would fundamentally
change the character of my beloved neighborhood as to make it unrecognizable.
7. There is no data to support that this would create affordable housing, making this whole
exercise moot and a high-risk experiment affecting real people who already live here.
I beseech you NOT to recommend approval of the UDC proposal and, instead, advise the
Commission to stop, re-evaluate the direction of the UDC overhaul based on the overwhelming
feedback it has received in the past couple of weeks, and take the time to do it right.
This proposal is so drastic that any tweaking at this point is foolhardy and immediately puts
homeowners in a subordinate position. It’s time to take the time to truly look at Bozeman in
terms of what its taxpayers want, its carrying capacity, water resources, and most of all its
position as a leader through its work on the Sensitive Lands Protection Plan intended to protect
this “Last Best Place,” not open it up to being overbuilt, overrun and desecrated by short-
sightedness.
My ten-year old son, when considering the possibility of a four-story 24-unit project replacing the
existing single family house next door, lamented “I’d be sad because then I couldn’t see the moon
from our living room couch anymore.” Think of the next generation and the ones after them as
you make your decisions.
At the risk of being dismissed for not providing any real suggestions or alternatives, I give you
this:
1. Send surveys to ALL taxpayers in Bozeman to understand our needs and wants.
2. Study water resource availability and stay within those constraints.
3. Strengthen 38.410.010 and other environmental protection codes so that they are
enforced by City planning staff.
4. Implement all the City’s environmental protection plans (Community Plan 2020, Climate
Plan, Sensitive Lands Protection Draft Plan, etc.) to bolster Article 6 to protect all water
resources, trees, other native vegetation and soils. Any UDC “overhaul” that does not
address these fundamental resource protections is no way to “build a future together.”
5. Change R1 to R2 to comply with SB 382.
6. Keep R2, R3 and R4 as is because they already have a built-in potential for housing unit
expansion beyond what already physically exists in them.
3
7. Figure out how to guarantee affordability and do not approve any more luxury condos.
Please be the voice of reason in this process. Please listen to us, the people whom you represent.
Thank you,
Angie Kociolek
620 North Tracy Ave.
Bozeman, MT 59715
1. https://www.nps.gov/yell/learn/nature/greater-yellowstone-ecosystem.htm
2. https://ehq-production-us-california.s3.us-west-
1.amazonaws.com/f225cd52930dabd013b3496902fb13a45f7381e0/original/1690301782/49656f8748844019eff
b36974960fd09_Final_Engagment_Report_7-25-2023-c.pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-
Credential=AKIA4KKNQAKICO37GBEP%2F20231009%2Fus-west-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-
Date=20231009T175805Z&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&X-Amz-
Signature=e8c9c4bc125f21af51d49ca705eb3ee34b2c41b603dc1f12cb1e6a74a212ac51
CC:
abentley@bozeman.net - Community Development Department
jon.henderson@bozeman.net - Strategic Services Department
agenda@bozeman.net - City Commissioners