HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-20-24 Public Comment - A. Sangroniz - Affordable Housing Ordinance Public CommentFrom:Amaia Sangroniz
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Affordable Housing Ordinance Public Comment
Date:Monday, August 19, 2024 2:24:31 PM
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Dear Commissioners,
My name is Amaia Sangroniz, I live at 215 S. 15th Avenue. I am a renter, educator, and an
organizer that deeply cares about our community here in Bozeman. I am writing today
regarding the affordable housing ordinance. The ordinance was passed in 2022 in
response to a housing crisis exacerbated by the covid-19 pandemic. The severity of the
housing problem at the time led the commission to pass this ordinance without community
engagement. Now, especially as we prepare to review the UDC next month, is an
opportune time to reevaluate the ordinance and conduct a thorough citizen engagement
process.
One of the major problems I see with the incentives is that there is no public oversight
process for developers that meet incentives. Instead, we have projects that are
automatically greenlit by meeting incentive requirements, as was seen with the Guthrie, a
project that was still unaffordable for the working class of Bozeman and would have
significantly impacted the character and quality of the existing neighborhood it was
proposed in. I would hope that new affordable housing developments could take place in a
planned developed zone type of process to ensure that the projects being green-lit are the
projects that the working class of Bozeman needs.
I appreciate the hard work that city staffers put into the AHO recommendations, and I agree
with some recommendations made to amend the deep and shallow incentives of the
ordinance. Affordability should be set at 60% AMI vs. 80% AMI. I also think increasing the
affordability limit makes sense, but it is unclear why the limit is set at 50 years, and the
affordability will not be maintained in perpetuity. After developers make their profits and
cash out the incentive, we lose that affordability, and that would be a shame and a
disservice to future generations of Bozeman residents. Bozeman will continue to need
affordable units in the future, so why not set ourselves up for an affordable housing future
the next generations can enjoy.
Another issue I have with the ordinance is that it exchanges community resources for far
fewer affordable units than are needed, all while increasing developer profits. Out of all the
proposed options, I think the silver option would be the most impactful and less damaging,
but I do see preferred options for addressing the affordable housing issue in Bozeman. I
believe an affordable housing overlay, added into the UDC rewrite, that will require added
density to be affordable when redeveloping existing units, will provide the density that we
need while requiring it to be affordable. If we only continue to incentivize developers to add
a handful of affordable units, or we continue giving away density without requiring it to be
affordable, this will only continue the trend of non-local developers building luxury housing
and displacing the working class of Bozeman.
Thank you for taking the time to read my comment and consider these suggestions.
-Amaia Sangroniz