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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-30-23 Public Comment - M. Rutkowski - Question about new STR regulationsFrom:M R To:Agenda Subject:Re: [EXTERNAL]Question about new STR regulations Date:Thursday, October 26, 2023 12:57:57 PM CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Hi Mike, Please go ahead and submit it to them with my information, thank you. On Thu, Oct 26, 2023 at 12:19 PM Agenda <agenda@bozeman.net> wrote: Good afternoon, As a matter of policy the City of Bozeman will not redact information from a publiccomment and the City Commission has requested that anonymous public comments not be distributed to them. Given both of those facts, I cannot accommodate your request aspresented related to this message to the City Commission. We can process the comment as written; we can identify that an anonymous comment on STR has been received (which will not include distributing the comment); or, you can reachout to the Commissioners individually outside of the formal comment process. Please let me know how you would like to proceed. Thank you, Mike Maas, MPA City of Bozeman | 121 N. Rouse Ave. | Bozeman, MT 59715 406.582.2321 Pronouns: he/him/his Have Questions? Ask BZN From: M R <mrutkowski111@gmail.com> Sent: Thursday, October 26, 2023 12:13 PMTo: Agenda <agenda@BOZEMAN.NET>Subject: [EXTERNAL]Question about new STR regulations CAUTION: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. *** I am hoping to not include my name publicly, as this has personal information in it, butwould like the Commission to know my name so that they can see I am a real person*** To the City Commission: My name is Michael Rutkowski, and I have been a Bozeman resident since the early 2000's.My wife and Meagan and I moved here in 2005, after working seasonally in Yellowstone foryears. We have 3 kids in the Bozeman school district, with our youngest at the CDC atMSU. I am writing this letter to ask for a few minutes of your time in considering a conundrum wehave been posed with by the City's new STR regulations. In those regulations, it states thatowners cannot use more than 1 unit in a multi-family as a STR. We have lived in our home since 2010, and purchased it in 2015, and finally got itrefinanced conventionally just a few years ago. There are many strategies to survive inBozeman, and ours is to rent our property out to tourists, which we have done since 2016.Our property is a full-time job, and we purposely purchased this property, as the bank couldfinance it with an FHA loan, since it is less than 4 units. So I want to emphasize that we arenot some out of state developers looking to cash in. This business is literally our livelihood. I am not opposed to more STR regulations, but with how they are currently written, it wouldforce us to sell our property. We currently occupy a 1250 sqft condo on our property, with 5people and we are not living in luxury. I don't feel as if we fit into the regulations with theway that they are written, as they seem to specifically punish us. I am asking the City Commission to consider a new provision for owners who live inBozeman 100% of the year, in which they can rent up to 2 units in a multi-family STR's. Myreasoning for this is that banks will start to classify "investment property" as units 4 and upin terms of loans. Realistically, that may help a few families like mine, while not reallyputting much of an impact on the rental situation. We feel that a provision like this would bea great mechanism to bring owners like ourselves "into the fold" and be registered properly.As this regulation is currently being hashed out, it seems like the time to do that would bevery soon. I would personally like to invite your Commission to come to my house, and look at ourbusiness, and read our reviews and the positive impact we had made on many touriststhroughout the years. We have brought millions of dollars into this community, giving outreferrals and recommendations on where these people can spend their money, and we feel asif we are being persecuted by our own community that we helped build. I look forward to hearing back from the Commission on this matter, please take me up onthe offer to come visit my property, meet my wife and 3 girls, and see that we just don't fitinto the new regulations. Thank you for your time. Sincerely, Michael Rutkowski City of Bozeman emails are subject to the Right to Know provisions of Montana’s Constitution (Art. II, Sect. 9) and may be considered a “public record” pursuant to Title 2, Chpt. 6, Montana Code Annotated. As such, this email, its sender and receiver, and the contents may be available for public disclosure and will be retained pursuant to the City’s record retention policies. Emails that contain confidential information such as information related to individual privacy may be protected from disclosure under law.