HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-23-24 Public Comment - T. Ladd - City Commission PrioritiesFrom:Taylor Ladd
To:Agenda
Subject:[EXTERNAL]City Commission Priorities
Date:Monday, January 22, 2024 12:35:58 PM
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Hello!
Please consider the following as priorities for the City Commission for the next 2 years:
IMPROVE THE UDC THROUGH MORE EFFECTIVE CIVIC ENGAGEMENT
Conduct informal workshops with residents to answer questions and better
understand resident priorities. Invite all Bozeman residents to the workshops through
a dedicated direct mailing. Rewrite the code to align with the priorities of Bozeman
residents over those of developers. Give us a draft Unified Development Code (UDC)
that has wide public support.
STRENGTHEN AND ENFORCE HISTORIC PRESERVATION REGULATIONS
Preserve existing housing and neighborhood character. Remodeling is less likely to
result in the destruction of the character of our existing neighborhoods and our urban
forests. Renovation rather than tear down prevents 100’s of tons of material going to
our landfill. The Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District is already in place; let’s
reinvigorate its protections rather than starting from scratch. Give the Historic
Preservation Advisory Board its judiciary powers back as the review board for
projects within historic districts.
IMPLEMENT A MUNICIPAL HOUSING PROGRAM
Thousands of cities across the country have municipally owned housing to meet part
of their housing needs. It’s time Bozeman did the same. We cannot build our way
back to affordability. And the state government has taken away many of the tools
other cities have at their disposal. Most new jobs created in Bozeman pay less than
$50K/year and the market is unable to build housing for these residents. Municipal
Housing schemes take time to implement and mature. It’s time to get the ball rolling
so that future low and middle income generations can still call Bozeman home.
ADOPT STRONGER RESOURCE CONSERVATION MEASURES
Adopt mandatory regulations as opposed to optional incentives when it comes to
water conservation in new construction. Move up the timeline for replacing cash-in-
lieu of water with the Mandatory Water Efficiency Offsets from 2033 to 2025. We don’t
have time to phase this in over 10 years. It needs to happen now. Codify protections
for Bozeman’s urban forest, and implement hefty fines for developers who cut down
trees without permission. Integrate the sensitive lands plan into the UDC update
before adoption. Institute a solar protection ordinance to protect existing residential
solar energy generation. If we’re serious about our climate goals we need to protect
the solar energy generation that we already have in our built environment. This will
give more homeowners the comfort of knowing that when they invest in solar energy
generation their investment is protected from shading by future development.