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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-20-24 Public Comment - Z. Osman - Fwd_ Affordable Housing Ordinance Public CommentFrom:Zehra Osman To:Bozeman Public Comment Subject:[EXTERNAL]Fwd: Affordable Housing Ordinance Public Comment Date:Tuesday, August 20, 2024 11:55:22 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. These comments are from Zehra Osman and not Friends of Fowler. I will send a correction Begin forwarded message: From: FFC <friendsoffowlerconnector@gmail.com> Subject: Fwd: Affordable Housing Ordinance Public Comment Date: August 20, 2024 at 11:53:12 AM MDTTo: Bozeman Public Comment <comments@bozeman.net> Begin forwarded message: From: Zehra Osman <zosman534@gmail.com>Subject: Affordable Housing Ordinance Public Comment Date: August 20, 2024 at 11:52:47 AM MDT To: TCunningham@bozeman.net, jmorrison@bozeman.net, Jennifer Madgic <jmadgic@bozeman.net>,dfischer@bozeman.net, ebode@bozeman.net, Emily Kiely <ekiely@bozeman.net>, Takami Clark <tclark@bozeman.net> (Please post in public comment record and please disseminate to City Staff who are working on this issue) Honorable Mayor Cunningham, Deputy Mayor Morrison, Commissioners Madgic, Fischer, and Bode, and City Staff, Thank you for elevating the need to re-evaluate the City's Affordable Housing Ordinance. I also want to extend my gratitude to the staff who have spent countless hours in determining a direction to what will certainly go down in history as one of the most significant issues facing our City, the crisis of the lack of affordable housing. I like history because we can see how people handled similar crises and we can evaluate the outcomes. Later in my comments I will present an example of what Eleanor Roosevelt and others created in Queens, New York back in the late 1920s when there was a housing crisis for the working class. An important thing we can learn from recent history is to look at and evaluate how the “invisible hand” of market forces has and is affecting Bozeman’s housing crisis. The fact that we continue to be in crisis despite increases in supply shows that market forces are not only about supply and demand, they are influenced by other factors. Rather than depending only on the “divine deity” of market forces, the City is correct in re-evaluating the Affordable Housing Ordinance. DO NO HARM: Commit to do no harm. Bozeman is lucky to have the NCOD to give it a legal basis for fending off those investors who don’t necessarily have Bozeman’s best interest at heart. We have to recognize that investors prefer building in sections of Bozeman that will bring the most profit, which often requires the mowing down of existing housing in historic buildings within the NCOD. Then we have to evaluate if this devouring of the NCOD is actually making a dent in Bozeman’s housing crisis. What I see is that these investors pit Bozemanites against each other by creating a false war between preserving historic buildings and providing affordable housing. Investors can build somewhere else where we don’t already have historic preservation protections. The NCOD is not the only place we can increase density. It’s the only place investors can make their best profit and they are OK with demolishing existing historic buildings to do so. PAUSE AND INTEGRATE EFFORTS: Repeal the Affordable Housing Ordinance, effective immediately, and redraft it in conjunction with the UDC rewrite. Better to repeal the Affordable Housing Ordinance than to simply tweak it. PROVIDE NOT ONLY DESIGN STANDARDS, BUT ALSO A VISION: As an example, let’s look at Eleanor Roosevelt ’s vision in Queens, New York where she and others creating a notable solution to the housing crisis back in the late 1920s. Sunnyside Gardens in Queens New York is a historic garden suburb and one of the first planned communities in the U.S. Developed in the early 20th century as an acclaimed experiment in affordable housing, with the goal of providing a mix of healthy home types for all working people. It included townhomes and apartment buildings - and all of them were and continue to be desirable places to live whether you’re single or have a family. You may not want to open links from external emails, so I can provide printed copies of the history of this development https://s- media.nyc.gov/agencies/lpc/lp/2258.pdf and https://sunnysidegardens.us/history/ . Nothing is perfect, however, we can learn a great deal through examining history. Thanks again for pausing at this critical juncture and allowing for more public engagement in the discussion. Respectfully, Zehra Osman312 Sanders Ave. 59718