HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-10-24 Public Comment - D. Carty - Sustainability Board Meeting, Apr 10, 2024From:Daniel Carty
To:Bozeman Public Comment; Jon Henderson
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Sustainability Board Meeting, Apr 10, 2024
Date:Wednesday, April 10, 2024 10:26:11 AM
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Wed, Apr 10, 2024; 10:30am
To: Sustainability Advisory Board (SB); Jon Henderson, Director Strategic Services and City Staff Liaison to the
SB
Subject: SB Board Meeting. Apr 10, 2024: Agenda Action Item I.1: 2024-2025 Work Plan Approval
I am writing to comment on three of the SB's CYs '24 - '25 work plan items and to ask once again for the SB toadd Water Conservation as a work plan item for CYs '24 - '25 (as follows):
Work Plan Item 1: Local Food System
Given a property owner's permission, I suggest private-property fruit trees (e.g., apple and plum) and fruit shrubs
(e.g., raspberry) be mapped and considered part of the City's local food system.
Work Plan Item 2: Composting services and collection
Re the City's proposed mandatory tri-bundling of (1) garbage pickup, (2) recycling pickup, and (3) plant-based,food-waste, compost pickup (three totes per household!): I am not in favor of such a City-run program becausethe private sector already handles plant-based, food-waste, compost pickup for Bozeman residents who want or need
these services. Moreover, many residents (like me) already compost plant-based food waste at home for use in
flower and vegetable gardens and around trees (including fruit trees) and bushes (including raspberry bushes).
Re [common-sense] management of human-caused conflicts with bears: Residents living in areas of the City in
which human-caused conflicts with bears are known to occur should be required to use bear-proof totes for
garbage and plant-based, food waste (City and private sector). In addition, the details of how such totes are
stored, times for setting totes curbside, and times for tote pickup can be worked out with the City/private sector in
ways to minimize potential human-caused conflicts with bears.
Workplan Item 7: Urban Tree Equity The objectives listed under Urban Tree Equity are laudable but could be more extensive. For example: (1) In allareas of the City, the emphasis should be placed on keeping existing trees standing (especially mature, nativetrees) as opposed to cutting down existing trees for new developments and replacing a few of them with saplings,and (2) During the upcoming UDC update process, the SB could suggest strengthening existing tree-protection
codes and adding new tree-protection codes for trees on both public and private property. Please note that
keeping existing trees standing and strengthening UDC tree-protection codes can have positive implications for
Workplan Item 5: Extreme Heat and Wildfire Smoke and Work Plan Item 8: Engineering Design Standards.
Finally, I am asking once again for the SB to add Water Conservation as a work plan item for CYs '24 -'25. To my knowledge, no Citizen Advisory Board has Water Conservation as a work plan item, and yet waterconservation is crucial to the City's mid-term and long-term environmental sustainability. If the SB were to addWater Conservation as a work plan item, its input would be valuable with respect to the following issues:
(1) The City has a finite surface water supply that is likely to be exceeded within the next 5-10 years by demands
placed on it by ongoing residential and commercial development. Specifically, the City currently (a) has a total of
10,500 acre-feet of surface water rights/year (40% Hyalite Reservoir, 40% Bozeman Creek, and 20% Lyman
Creek); (b) uses 7,100 acre-feet of surface water rights/year to support existing development; (c) has already
allocated another 920 acre-feet of surface water rights/year for developments in the pipeline; which (d) leavesonly approximately 2,500 acre-feet of surface water rights/year to support future development (2,500 acre-feet/year is enough to supply 10,000 single family households or 20,000 multi-family households.)https://bozeman.granicus.com/player/clip/2253?view_id=1&redirect=true
(2) The City is currently pursuing 5,800 acre-feet of ground water/year via municipal wells to augment its supply of
surface water rights. However, the City has offered no information re potential adverse effects of this pursuit on
the City/County aquifer:
https://d2kbkoa27fdvtw.cloudfront.net/bozeman/a0969506b0a2119551e681162153d48f0.pdf
(3) The City will be updating its 2013 Integrated Water Resource Plan (not sure of timetable).
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Daniel Carty213 N. Third Ave.Bozeman, MT 59715dgc12@hotmail.com
406-548-2810
P.S. Apr 10, 2024: SB Action Item I.1 Detail memo:
https://d2kbkoa27fdvtw.cloudfront.net/bozeman/fe03b75274efb5a2c77e71d16fcf2a760.pdf
P.P.S. Apr 10, 2024: SB Proposed CYs 2024-2025 Work Plan: https://legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/2543903/Sustainability_Advisory_Board_Work_Plan_2024-2025.pdf