HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-09-25 Public Comment - W. Swearingen - AHO RevisitedFrom:Will Swearingen
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Subject:[EXTERNAL]AHO Revisited
Date:Sunday, February 9, 2025 5:32:05 PM
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Mayor Cunningham and City Commissioners,
I'm writing about David Fine's testimony on the AHO at the recent Commission meeting. I
think he made a couple of misleading statements that highly influenced the Yes votes of thethree commissioners voting in the affirmative. (1) When Mayor Cunningham asked him if the
AHO had been successful in generating affordable housing, Mr. Fine said he thought it hadbeen highly successful, citing the more-than-1,000 affordable housing units in the works.
However, I think he did acknowledge that, to date, very few actual affordable housing unitshave resulted. (2) He was also asked by Commissioner Fischer if the AHO could be amended
to apply only to greenfield developments. He acknowledged that it could but that doing sowould severely limit the potential for the AHO to create affordable housing.
Here's where I think these statements were misleading. The 1,000+ affordable units ostensibly
coming online are, I think, mostly greenfield developments. Also, I think almost all of themwould have happened without the AHO. In fact, where the AHO incentives were involved in
these projects, they were likely almost incidental. The main financial drivers facilitating theseprojects are substantial tax incentives such as LIHTC and TIF, not AHO incentives. Claiming
that the AHO has been "highly effective" in fostering these projects is very misleading, in myopinion. Also, relatively few affordable housing units have resulted or are projected to result
from infill developments in Bozeman. Instead, the AHO incentives in these infill projects haveresulted in developers fattening their profits while mainly building luxury housing units.
As the City Commission revisits the AHO at the upcoming meeting, it should reconsider these
points about the effectiveness of the AHO and whether it should best be applied to greenfielddevelopments. One thing is certain: if the AHO incentives were restricted to greenfield
developments, they would certainly generate less public pushback because they would not bedisrupting existing well-established neighborhoods and negatively impacting the quality of life
for long-time Bozeman residents.
Respectfully,
Will Swearingen