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Home My WebLink About12-14-24 Public Comment - C. Stillwell - Guthrie application 24493From:Christy Stillwell To:Joey Morrison; Emma Bode; dfisher@bozeman.net; Terry Cunningham; Bozeman Public Comment; JenniferMadgic Subject:[EXTERNAL]Guthrie application 24493 Date:Saturday, December 14, 2024 11:13:40 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. I’m writing about application 24493 the Guthrie. It’s difficult to write you about this when you all fielded so many comments and voted againstthe development last summer. But if the developer brings it back, then we must all face it again. And by we, I include you. Reclaim authority on this. Do not leave it to an internaldecision. First: I don’t remember the last time commissioners voted against a downtown development. I think you made history. After that historical vote, city code (Section 38.340.090.D) restricts the issuance of ademolition permit for a period of two years to allow the applicant and city to explore alternatives. I’m unconvinced that this effort has been made. Certainly, neighborhoodrepresentatives have not been involved. Application 24493 still isn’t appropriate. The project needs to be denied again. It’s a high rise inside the NCOD, and it puts too much traffic on a quiet neighborhood street. Ninety-one unitsis going to overload the surrounding area, making it unsafe for elementary school traffic. At 47’ high, it simply does not fit the neighborhood. The deep incentives of the AHO made the developer greedy for a larger scale building.Lindsay Von Seggern, a HomeBase employee, stated at a public hearing last spring: “Without the deep incentives, there is no Guthrie.” This fact alone is evidence that there are issues withthe deep incentives. City staff is working to revise them . To allow this application (or any) to use deep incentives before that work is complete is simply not right. Do not use this neighborhood, or any neighborhood zoned outside B3 or B2M, as anexperiment. Residents have our lives in our properties. This “see how it goes” mentality is not only unfair, but also insulting. It means you value the developer and his profits more than youvalue residents of the city’s core, people who pay property taxes, send their kids to public schools, pay for city services and invest in the upkeep of the neighborhood. A personal example to illustrate the situation: this fall I discovered water seepage in ourbasement. Mold. Carpet had to go. We quickly realized we were facing a full remodel. The uncertainty surrounding this development application forced us to ask: why invest thousandsin our home if a high rise is going in next door? I don’t like viewing my house as an investment; I love my house. I love my neighborhood. Yet because a developer uses myneighborhood as part of a profit model, I must too. In land use parlance, I think I’m talking about “predictability.” Obviously, change is inevitable and no one can predict the future. But development can be limited. A city’s elected officials set boundaries on developers. I thought that was how this was supposed to work. Let the NCOD, already on the books, do its job. Enforce it. No high rises outside of B3 and B2M zoning. Keep the high rises along N. 7th Avenue where the traffic congestion is expected. Because I can hear the developer asking: What would satisfy these people? I offer a fewthoughts: Repurpose the existing building. With the right investment and creative thinking, this can be done. If he can’t make it pencil out, commissioners and city staff should restrict thenew structure to fit the same footprint, including height. This would make for fewer units, and less profit, yet that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a useful addition to the housing market. Thedeveloper can create a housing project that fits the neighborhood. His team can challenge themselves to draw a building no higher than the average height in the surrounding structures—the houses, the four plex next door and the motel behind the site. Note I am not including the church spire across the street. HomeBase can do this. And commissioners can use available tools to set limits. In this way,boundaries can be used to find a solution that satisfies all. -- Christy Stillwell, author of The Wolf Tone, a novel of classical music and medical marijuana set in Montana.