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Home My WebLink About04-15-25 Public Comment - SeeBozemanCreek - Boutique Hotel Mendenhall, App 24147From:Steve Nobel To:Bozeman Public Comment Subject:Re: [EXTERNAL]Fwd: *NEW SUBMISSION* Public Comment Form - City Clerk Date:Tuesday, April 15, 2025 11:58:58 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. Cheers, On 2025-04-15 10:54, Bozeman Public Comment wrote: Yes! Rest assured, this comment will be included in the Boutique Hotel folder and will go out to commissioners and staff in within the next couple of hours. Take care, Alex From: Steve Nobel <steve@seebozemancreek.org> Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2025 11:51 AM To: Bozeman Public Comment <comments@BOZEMAN.NET> Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL]Fwd: *NEW SUBMISSION* Public Comment Form - City Clerk 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. Here is a MSWord .doc. Let me know that this works, On 2025-04-15 10:39, Bozeman Public Comment wrote: Hi Steve, I will include your comment if I get one I can access. Please try attaching a word doc. The pdf I received from you is corrupted. When I try to open it, I get the attached prompt from Adobe. (See above) Other options would be to print the comment and scan it and send it to me. Barring that, you could print one and run it over here. Let's keep trying, Alex From: Steve Nobel <steve@seebozemancreek.org> Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2025 11:19 AM To: Bozeman Public Comment <comments@BOZEMAN.NET> Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL]Fwd: *NEW SUBMISSION* Public Comment Form - City Clerk 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. Thanks, Alex; I have attached the pdf version of our comment. Please confirm that it will be posted early this afternoon. Thanks, Steve On 2025-04-15 10:14, Bozeman Public Comment wrote: Hi again Steve, Comments will be posted this early this afternoon and will be emailed to Staff and Commissioners at about the same time. However, I don't have a comment from See Bozeman Creek. I just have links you have included that link back to the Boutique Hotel folder, or to a specific comment someone else has already sent in. If See Bozeman Creek has a comment you would like included, please attach a pdf or word doc, and I will include it in the folder. As of yet, I have not received any actual comment. Take care, Alex From: Steve Nobel <steve@seebozemancreek.org> Sent: Tuesday, April 15, 2025 9:43 AM To: Bozeman Public Comment <comments@BOZEMAN.NET> Subject: [EXTERNAL]Fwd: *NEW SUBMISSION* Public Comment Form - City Clerk 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. Good morning. I do not see our comment posted on the public comment list. May we expect it soon? -------- Original Message -------- Subject:*NEW SUBMISSION* Public Comment Form - City Clerk Date:2025-04-14 15:27 From:"City of Bozeman, MT" <webadmin@bozeman.net> To:steve@seebozemancreek.org Public Comment Form - City Clerk Submission #:3929118 IP Address:174.45.71.2 Submission Date:04/14/2025 4:27 PM Survey Time:1 minute, 22 seconds You have a new online form submission. Note: all answers displaying "*****" are marked as sensitive and can be viewed after you login. Read-Only Content Full Name Steve Nobel Email steve@seebozemancreek.org Phone Comments Please find our statement attached below If you would like to submit additional documents (.pdf, .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .gif, .jpg, .png, .rtf, .txt) along with your comment, you may alternately address comments@bozeman.net directly to ensure receipt of all information. SBC to City Commission Re App 24147.pdf Thank you, City Of Bozeman This is an automated message generated by Granicus. Please do not reply directly to this email. -- Steve Nobel 406 548 1217 City of Bozeman emails are subject to the Right to Know provisions of Montana's Constitution (Art. II, Sect. 9) and may be considered a "public record" pursuant to Title 2, Chpt. 6, Montana Code Annotated. As such, this email, its sender and receiver, and the contents may be available for public disclosure and will be retained pursuant to the City's record retention policies. Emails that contain confidential information such as information related to individual privacy may be protected from disclosure under law. -- April 14, 2025 To: Bozeman City Commission From: SeeBozemanCreek, prepared by Steve Nobel and Jim Madden Re: Boutique Hotel Mendenhall, App 24147: Application for Deviation SeeBozemanCreek is an ad-hoc advocacy group of citizens, designers, engineers, scientists, and conservation experts on a mission to achieve a big goal: to revitalize Bozeman Creek, specifically as it flows impaired through and under the Downtown Urban Renewal District (URD1). While advocating for a systematic approach to revitalization, SeeBozemanCreek has heretofore found no need to intercede with the city on regulatory matters, such as code compliance. However, in consideration of this application, and by the leadership vested in us, these comments represent views of SeeBozemanCreek: 1.Revitalization imagines the creek uncovered where possible and widened to reduce flood risk. Revitalization should include ecological landscaping, meandering flows, limited channels, and public engagement—all forms of amenity that replaces neglect. That mission has a multi-year horizon for accomplishing its goal in a strategic, systematic way, rather than attending to isolated incidents. This is the right long-term approach. 2.This privately owned segment is in shameful condition. This application for a setback deviation could be seen as testing or impeding the long term approach. It need not be. In fact, this application may indeed, point out the serious issues necessary to be resolved for revitalization to be congruent with improvements or development in the future. At a minimum, the new design improves conditions. SeeBozemanCreek is prepared to be a forum for resolutions. The request for setback deviation may appear to be a compromised outcome here, but we think it is in keeping with the long-term goals. Clear thinking should overcome poor timing. Inevitably, there is likely to be a long interim period from the time when the City Commission established the creek as a strategic priority to realizing the collective aspirations for Bozeman Creek. 3.In every segment of the creek, including this site, rigid concrete barriers channel the waterway. Under present circumstances, concrete walls have established the setback. Those circumstances need not 1 The URD … “invests in infrastructure projects that add long-term value to the district.” prevail. Until these walls can be replaced and the codes dependent on them are revised, revitalization will be stalled. Without dependency on the concrete walls, setback restrictions could be reconsidered, allowing room for a sloping grade. That evaluation would be part of the planned process with community engagement. 4. Looking ahead, consideration is being given to planning a conceptual vision for the creekside system and perhaps establishing an overlay district so that development within the district is designed to be respectful of the system. Pursuing the mission in a systematic way will likely require over several years deviations, from the current UDC, in all or most of the segments. But if designed within the system’s parameters and an overlay to ensure it, deviations may be limited. That approach provides a foundation for what are likely to be incremental steps toward the vision. This project appears to be consistent with an incremental step toward that vision, even under the limitations it faces. Indeed, this design appears to respect the creek as an amenity, rather than as a liability to be dismissed. 5. Bearing in mind, approval of the application should not foreclose future options to realize the full potential for revitalizing the creek. Concern has been raised that decisions today could establish precedent for tomorrow, perpetuating constraints on the creek. However, while precedent does not necessarily prejudice future decisions, it could distract and further constrict preferable options from being considered favorably. This concern could be assuaged by establishing an overlay district with standards uniquely appropriate to the creek segments and system. 6. This systematic approach is practical for the times. It relies on sound engineering, innovative design, and community engagement with the process. SeeBozemanCreek is prepared to ensure that all three strategies are reliable. Collaboration with city leaders has been, continues to be, and will be strategically mission-driven in the future. This approach has established a foundation for addressing development along the creek downtown for generations to come. And that long-term horizon should be considered by the Commission. 7. Further, with respect to this strategic approach, SeeBozemanCreek recommends forming a Bozeman Creek Overlay District—a discrete forum that would provide guidelines/standards/code or some other regulatory mechanisms—that can be established to better illustrate options for Bozeman Creek revitalization in the future. That would be a systematic approach to a system problem, and a successful one that the community can support. For these and other reasons, SeeBozemanCreek supports the reasonableness of this application. Fundamentally, the result will be better than it is now. + + +