HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-28-24 Public Comment - J. Goetz - FW_ Guthrie ProposalFrom:Myriam Jackson
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Cc:Jim Goetz
Subject:[EXTERNAL]FW: Guthrie Proposal
Date:Wednesday, June 26, 2024 3:46:35 PM
Attachments:2024-06-26 Goetz - City Commissioners.pdf
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Good afternoon,
I am forwarding this email to this new address per your automatic reply about“agenda@bozeman.net” – I apologize for any duplication. Thanks,
Myriam JacksonLegal Assistant Goetz, Geddes & Gardner, P.C.35 North Grand | P.O. Box 6580Bozeman, MT 59771-6580T: (406) 587.0618 | F: (406) 587.5144
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From: Myriam Jackson
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2024 3:44 PM
To: agenda@bozeman.net
Cc: Jim Goetz <jim@Goetzlawfirm.com>
Subject: Guthrie Proposal
Good afternoon, Please find attached a letter from Jim Goetz regarding the Guthrie proposal. Thank you. Best,Myriam Myriam JacksonLegal Assistant Goetz, Geddes & Gardner, P.C.35 North Grand | P.O. Box 6580Bozeman, MT 59771-6580T: (406) 587.0618 | F: (406) 587.5144 NOTICE: This electronic mail transmission may contain confidential or Attorney-Client privileged
communications. It is not intended for transmission to, or receipt by, any unauthorized persons. Ifyou have received this electronic mail transmission in error, please delete it from your systemwithout copying it and notify the sender by reply e-mail.
James H. Goetz
jim@goetzlawfirm.com
The Ketterer Building
35 North Grand
P.O. Box 6580
Bozeman, MT 59771
(406) 587-0618
goetzlawfirm.com
June 26, 2024
Via Email Only
Attn: City Commissioners
City of Bozeman
agenda@bozeman.net
Re: Proposal for the “Guthrie” Building
Dear Commissioners:
This letter is submitted in opposition to the proposal to build a project in mid-town
Bozeman referred to as the “Guthrie”.
The project is severely lacking in parking spaces and, as projected, will not put a dent in
the affordable housing problem. These deficiencies are well-documented by others so I will not
belabor them.
Most upsetting to me is the City’s development of the so-called “soft incentives”. In this
desperate search for solution to affordable housing, the City has become a shameless harlot.
Bozeman, particularly in the areas north and south of its vibrant downtown Main Street,
is rich with a diversity of architecture, tree-lined streets, and well-maintained single-family yards.
You must be very careful not to desecrate these long-established neighborhoods.
I have recently read A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles, Penguin Books, 2016.
Although a novel, this book effectively captures the greyness of soviet architecture. In the early
1950’s, Moscow experienced a severe housing crisis and called a convention of the City’s
architects to discuss its needs. As the author describes,
At the closing ceremony of the convention, the Mayor (Nikita
Kruschev)—a bald and brutish sort—thanked the attendees for
their artistry, their ingenuity, and their dedication to the Party. “It
is satisfying to see that we are all in agreement”, he concluded. “In
order to house our fellow comrades as quickly and economically as
possible, we must, indeed, pursue new steps. So, let us not get
bogged down with elaborate designs or bow to aesthetic vanities.
Let us apply ourselves instead to a universal ideal that is fitting for
our times.”
Thus, was born the golden age of the prefabricated, cement-walled,
five-story, apartment building—and the four-hundred-square-foot
Bozeman City Commissioners
June 26, 2024
Page 2
living spaces with ready access to communal bathrooms boasting
four foot tubs (after all, who has time to lie down in a bath when
your neighbors are knocking at the door).
So ingenious was the design of these new apartment buildings, so
intuitive their architecture, that they could be built from a single
page of specifications—regardless of which way the page was
orientated! Within six months, thousands of them had sprung up
on the outskirts of Moscow, like mushrooms after a rain. And so
systematic was their realization, you could mistakenly enter any
apartment on your block and feel immediately at home.
Id. at p. 30.
I had the opportunity to visit Moscow, the center of the then-Soviet Union, in the early
1980’s, and can personally attest to the drabness, the ugliness, and the monolithic nature of
Soviet housing.
Please, let’s not Sovietize Bozeman in the name of housing, which, by the way, will not be
affordable.
Also, please get rid of these so-called “soft incentives”, which are doing nothing to solve
the affordability problem, but which promise to line the pockets of a select group of developers.
Please say no to the Guthrie.
___________________________
James H. Goetz