HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-28-25 Public Comment - K. Filipovich - Affordable housing ordinanceFrom:Karen Filipovich
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Affordable housing ordinance
Date:Tuesday, January 28, 2025 9:30:25 AM
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Dear Mayor and Commissioners:
I appreciate the work that the staff, committee and you have done to try to address the concerns raised with the first
iteration of the Affordable Housing Ordinance.
Unfortunately, this iteration introduces a number of unintended consequences. Please vote no. I would prefer we
continue to work on this and return to it after the current UDC is adopted.
The option replacing “shallow incentives” does include more housing types, but is only 5% of units. That means that
unless more than 20 units are built, an affordable unit will not be build on site.
The options to offer another parcel or cash in lieu of building have several problems and unintended effects:
1) The developer can build on one parcel and push “low-income” housing to less desirable, less connected parts of
town. This doesn’t meet the goal of mixed income neighborhoods. If this is going to work at all, these provisions
need to be much tighter.
Additionally, many developers, even in green field areas, may look at this option and decide it is easiest to give the
city cash or a parcel and put the onus for building affordable housing all on the city. It might work, but I don’t see
city capacity to administer that.
2) The city is on the hook to administer a complex in lieu fee program and some form of parcel development. We
need much more information about what administration this will take and how the net benefits are estimated for this
approach.
3) The most likely outcome appears to be that the older parts of the city will bear the brunt of tear-downs, current
resident displacement, and very high buildings with few to no affordable units on site, resulting in even fewer
available affordable units in the more walkable parts of Bozeman.
New greenfield areas will most likely be a mix of developers who create mixed units and concentrated “affordable”
parcels or even neighborhoods that segregate the “haves” from the “have-nots.”
I appreciate that you are trying to do a hard thing with few tools. However, this ordinance is not going to get
Bozeman where we want to go.
Sincerely,
Karen Filipovich
