HomeMy WebLinkAbout01-28-25 Public Comment - Z. Osman - Public Comment_ Vote No and Appeal Affordable Housing OrdinanceFrom:Zehra Osman
To:Bozeman Public Comment; Terry Cunningham; Joey Morrison; Jennifer Madgic; Douglas Fischer
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Public Comment: Vote No and Appeal Affordable Housing Ordinance
Date:Monday, January 27, 2025 10:30:23 AM
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Please send this emailed public comment to each and all listed here (the staff directory did not reveal these
email addresses- it’s impossible to navigate). Also, please post this comment to the public record.
Honorable Mayor, Deputy Mayor, Commissioners, Chuck Winn, Erin George, Chris Saunders, David Fine,
Brit Fontinot, City Attorney, and City Clerk,
Do not fall for it. Somehow the current draft of the Affordable Housing Ordinance (AHO) has been
hijacked by the incorrect notion that in order to provide affordable housing, Bozeman has no other path
forward but to trade away zoning protections so the investors can further maximize profit. This is
unconscionable. Bozeman has become a target for what has become an extractive industry: real estate.
Google it. You’ll see real estate investment companies boast that Bozeman is a college town and a tourist
destination that creates high yields, especially within the rental market. They make their best profit in
Bozeman’s core area. They want to devour areas closest to the downtown where they can make the most
profit. They do no care about affordable housing. Google the Department of Justice’s investigation of
Yiedstar by Realpage, and you’ll see DOJ’s concern over price-fixing rental rates. Yieldstar exists in
Bozeman.
Like you, I care about affordable housing. However, this very lucrative investor class real estate
industry, which created the global housing crisis in the first place, has convinced the draft AHO’s
authors that the City’s only recourse is to provide this version of capitalism — vulture capitalism — with
even more incentives and by removing those codes that have protected Bozeman’s fundamental resources.
For over 40 years, Bozeman has had codes that protected our cultural resources (historic buildings) and
natural resources (trees and water). Don’t let them convince you that our nation’s laws that protect our
natural and cultural resources stand in the way of affordable housing. No, that is a lie. These resources stand
in the way of maximizing their profit.
Consider that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a paradise, is now seen as an opportunity for extractive
drilling for oil. Unfortunately, laws that have protected this wildlife refuge for decades are being considered
to be overturned to allow drilling rigs. In our country, we are now seeing 40+ year old laws that have
protected our country’s cultural and natural resources and social protections on the chopping block.
Consider the HUBRIS underlying the idea that governments now have the right to review the very laws that
have historically set a standard embraced by the entire world.
Do you, Commissioners and City staff, believe you have the right and expertise to “review and remove”
laws that have been influenced by these historic national laws? The 1966 National Historic Preservation Act
(NHPA) has influenced local governments by establishing a partnership with federal agencies, allowing
them to identify and protect historic properties within their jurisdictions. The NCOD then contains and
protects these historic properties. Do you, Commissioners and City staff, believe you have the right and the
expertise to essentially overturn the NHPA with respect to its accomplishments in Bozeman? Our country
decided in 1966 that historic properties are fundamental resources that deserve to be protected. Please be
aware that you do not have the expertise to dissolve the codes that emerged via the NHPA. It’s not a
“preference,” it’s code informed buy law.
By dissolving these zoning code protections, you are doing the same thing being proposed to the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge (described above). Do not put our water supply, trees, and historic buildings on
the chopping block. The so-called "deep" and "shallow" incentives in the AHO have already caused
heartache for residents living near proposed projects, because the deregulated projects that emerge from the
incentives program lack respect for the neighborhoods where they are to be constructed. The incentives
provided to developers include such things as exemptions from compatible materials and design; substantial
increases in building mass and scale and height; dramatic reductions in open space; increases in housing
density; and near-total forgiveness of parking requirements. In exchange, developers provide a certain
number of supposedly "affordable" rentals that are only required by ordinance to remain affordable for a
period of time, usually between 25-50 years. Thereafter, the apartments flip to the private market. The draft
AHO contains, among its many provisions, an incentive program that trades away zoning code protections
that we all rely on, for affordable housing. Developers can be exempted from certain requirements and in
return they provide affordable housing. That's the incentive program. In practice it encourages over-sized
housing developments that provide some temporary (not in perpetuity) quasi-"affordable" (sometimes
charging rents higher than median) rental housing units and damages neighborhood quality in the process.
By foregoing parking requirements, the additional cars of residents of these new units further clog the
already crowded parking on neighborhood streets, blocking snow plows and causing those with mobility
impairments to have to park far away. Our city does not yet have the mass transit system needed to allow
these developers to forego parking requirements. Until we have a better mass transit system, housing
security is dependent upon parking. We do not want Bozeman to be a company town where we bulldoze
historic buildings and build micro-units for only able-bodied workforce to live in dormitory-like conditions
within walking distance to where they have split shifts.
And if it wasn’t enough that the draft AHO removed all that our city has worked for over the years, the
AHO also proposes that citizens sit down and shut-up. One of the proposals in the new AHO is to remove
the right of aggrieved residents to appeal administrative approval, allowing the planning director to act
alone and review and approve a development project that never goes through a public hearing process
before the city commission. What hubris! Projects opting to take advantage of incentives are usually large,
impactful projects—single buildings of one hundred units, or entire blocks with multiple buildings of such
scale constructed in phases. They are typically projects that provide apartments for rent, no dwelling units
for purchase that provide equity-building potential.
I urge you to vote NO on the draft AHO. Vote NO on the draft proposals to modify the AHO. I urge you
instead to repeal the current AHO. And I urge you to begin a public process to rewrite the ordinance so
it better protects existing neighborhoods while accomplishing the goal of creating affordable housing.
Do not fall for the con. Hold the real estate investor class responsible for the global affordable housing crisis
they’ve created. Don’t pit community members against each other for bits and scraps of housing under the
condition that we allow developers/investors to devour Bozeman. Let’s find another way to make housing
affordable.
Respectfully,
Zehra Osman
312 Sanders Ave. 59718