HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-19-24 Public Comment - S. Montano - Public Comment on The GuthrieFrom:Sarah Montano
To:Agenda
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Public Comment
Date:Tuesday, March 19, 2024 8:47:39 AM
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.
Dear Committee Members;
My name is Sarah Montano. I have been a Bozeman resident for over fifteen years attending andgraduating from Montana State University to go into a career as a public-school teacher for nearly tenyears. I currently have come full circle to instruct at my alma mater. I have also been a small businessowner employing a few employees over the years. I take value and pride in living, working, and givingback to this community. I have seen the challenges of the ever-increasing rent, property values,taxes, and lack of affordable housing in the community. However, the proposed location for thisdevelopment is irresponsible.
I am writing to oppose the development of “The Guthrie” on N. 5th and Villard. I have been living on
N.6th Ave. for the past three years and have recently bought a property in the Northsideneighborhood, close to Whittier Elementary school where my kids attend and the neighborhoodwhere they play. I am concerned that commercial interest is becoming more of a priority than thecharacter and safety of the neighborhood. I have seen poor planning on roads such as North Wilsonwhere it is only wide enough for one car in the warmer months and barely wide enough in the winterfor even one car to drive through because of parking on both sides. There has also been an explosionof traffic and parking in this neighborhood to accommodate even the workers in the areas. Theconstruction of this building, although temporary, will create the same issues, but even much greaterbecause of school traffic and already lack of parking. The construction of these large developmentshas created a labyrinth to get through the neighborhoods and closing off access frequently.
In the past three years living in this neighborhood, I have seen an influx of traffic already around theelementary school because of surrounding businesses and homeowners that already accommodateshort-term rentals. The increase and lack of upkeep of the surrounding alley ways, dangerous drivingthrough school zones, more difficulty finding parking for teachers and parents, increase inneighborhood short-term rentals, trash and litter surrounding the school. The short-term rentals havebeen accommodating concertgoers at the Elm. Although, I love a great music venue and what theyare offering to the community, I have first-hand seen the consequences of having it by theneighborhood. The concert is not the problem, it is that the people who attend are not respectful inthe surrounding community where they are staying. There are people yelling and screaming after theconcert waking myself and my kids. There has been vandalism of surrounding properties, includingmy license plate being ripped off my car after one of the concerts. Cars are left on the streets and inthe parking lots. When there is an event, staff are parked along the street already limiting whereparents can park. Short-term rentals in the neighborhood are taking up multiple parking spaces withtheir cars and trash cans. The rental right next door to me hired someone to plow and shovel theirdriveway. They woke up my kids at 4:00am on multiple occasions.
The alley ways around the neighborhood and school are becoming more frequently used causingdegradation of the road. It is becoming more dangerous for the children of the neighborhood becauseof the increase in traffic and unaware drivers. I was walking my kids to school and people who are
traveling down 5th or 6th, to avoid the school traffic, are using the alleys, and were just shy of runningover my children on the sidewalk. Children are trying to get to school on time and have more andmore cars to dodge to be able to get there.
The proposal of “The Guthrie,” does not provide adequate parking for the amount of residence. The
parking will overflow into the neighborhood, especially on N. 5th Ave. School drop-off begins as earlyas 7:30am and the day starts at 8:15am. This is the same time many people will be going to work.
Only 30% of the units will have parking spots out of the 111 units, that leaves 78 units not beingaccounted for and this doesn’t even consider that these maybe double occupancy. That couldpossibly increase 222 cars, if these are double occupancy. So, at minimum, there would be 78
additional cars, and possibly over 200 cars on N. 5th Ave. It would be inevitable to not create morecongestion or traffic in a zone that should be protected for kids to safely go to school whether
traveling by bus, car, bike, or on foot. The residence would be using N. 5th Ave., which is whereWhittier Elementary School is located, to access Peach St.
Peach Street has already become increasingly busy and will continue to with the two new
developments already in the works, N. 3rd Ave. and 8 Aspen, the school zone is going to have anexponential increase amount of traffic, the school zone speed is hardly enforced as is.
We need to also think in the long term and what this can do to our community. Thirty years thedeveloper has to accommodate this, but after, then what? What would that do our property values oraffordable housing for these same children going to Whittier Elementary School? We are alreadykilling the character and history of the northside neighborhood by creating these monstrosities thatare taking over the views of the homeowners as well as their privacy while those in thesedevelopments can look into their homes and yards. We live in the Big Sky country to see the sky, not ahuge building in our backyard. We are not preserving the character of this area.
I also feel that we need to evaluate if this really will elevate affordable housing issue. Thisdevelopment seems extremely self-serving and not community oriented. Hollagran is using it tohouse his own workers, the majority come from out of state, that are part of this problem. He isdeveloping this “affordable housing” for his workers where they can be exploited and builddevelopments that aren’t bound by regulations and housing that is far from affordable. I see thisproject as taking advantage of the government incentives to personally benefit while claiming he’sdoing something positive for the community, when in reality we are hardly serving the residence thatalready live here, and this developer is creating more of an issue of housing and prices of housing inour community that is extremely short-sided and detrimental to the surrounding neighborhood.
I would please like you to consider my concerns of this development and that the safety of ourchildren should come first, and the quality of the neighborhood should come second.
Sincerely,
Sarah Montano