HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-13-23 Public Comment - S. Duncan - Comments on Final Draft Sensitive Lands PlanFrom:Jon Henderson
To:Agenda
Subject:FW: [EXTERNAL]Comments on Final Draft Sensitive Lands Plan
Date:Tuesday, November 7, 2023 10:29:07 AM
FYI – submitting the following comment, for the public record:
Jon Henderson | Strategic Services Director
City of Bozeman
406-582-2250
jon.henderson@bozeman.net
From: susan duncan <SduncanMT@outlook.com>
Sent: Saturday, November 4, 2023 3:29 PM
To: Jon Henderson <Jon.Henderson@BOZEMAN.NET>
Subject: [EXTERNAL]Comments on Final Draft Sensitive Lands Plan
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Dear Jon:
Here are my comments on the Sensitive Lands Plan. The Plan has assembled an impressive array of
the data on Gallatin Valley natural resources. I’m sure it will be useful. The interactive map is at a
level of complexity that would be hard for most people in ag to take in without training in arc/gis
including me.
Comments on Sensitive Lands Plan Draft
November 4, 2023 from Susan Duncan
My concerns:
How the data will be interpreted and used? Who controls that? Resident
landowners whose property rights could be impacted by the implementation of the
recommendations want to know. As my neighbor said: “ I just found out about this. What's
astounding to me is that landowners did not receive direct written notification about this
Land Draft Plan .And, they have been meeting on these issues since Summer 2022. This
seems to be Top Down Planning again.”
Lack of representation in the survey.. Thirty five hundred surveys were sent out to
a random selection of Gallatin Valley residents. Five hundred were returned. Thirty individuals
were interviewed. Who were these people? How many of them were resident landowners
whose property rights could be impacted by these recommendations?
a. Failure to engage these people in the goal setting process and failure to show thesepeople how plan recommendations will benefit them has doomed all previousattempts at zoning for the last 30 years. (I watched it happen.)
b. You NEED them to be successful. They are the only ones who can decide to puttheir land in a conservation easement. Irrigators decide whether or not to line the
ditch for efficiency, whether to continue to pull water from the river, whether to continue to maintain their ditch system. Ditches are self contained, self governing,self funded entities. You have no control. Water rights, prescriptive ditcheasements, and non-interference easements and maintenance clauses are a matterof State Water Law and not local control. Subdivision regulations and contractorsworking for developers can severely impact ditch operations, though, at platapproval and after construction.c. Consult and Engage with them. They like wildlife, water, connectivity and openspace. They just hate to “give up” control of their property rights to conform torecommendations promoted by urban/suburban residents (Bozeman) who haveno “skin in the game”.
Proposed solutions do not show what specific elements (wildlife,connectivity, ag, water) the proposed solution is intended to address
and how. How were the pieces/ processes shown on the map
integrated to create the proposed solution? What outcome is desiredfrom this solution?Susan Duncan
1050 Thorpe Road
Belgrade, MT 597141-406-388-1809sduncanmt@outlook.com