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Home My WebLink About04-22-25 Public Comment - Z. Osman - Fwd_ An Inspiring Approach to Compatible Affordable HousingFrom:Zehra Osman To:Bozeman Public Comment Cc:Alex Newby Subject:Re: [EXTERNAL]Fwd: An Inspiring Approach to Compatible Affordable Housing Date:Monday, April 21, 2025 3:22:58 PM 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. Hi Mike, Thank you for responding to my email. I usually look to see if my comments have been posted in the public record, however, I didn’trealize the comments were only processed twice/week. What I struggle with is finding the projects and the comments, and perhaps that will be fixed with a more intuitive user interface. I also look forward to when the City updates software to allow access to more than just 25individuals concurrently. I was just working on the GIS map showing the evaluated properties within the NCOD https://bozeman.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=e23fc824ee954e819268e744447d00bb and it stopped responding to my attempts to access the linked inventory documents. Thanks for all you do. It seems like you’re at every meeting I go to and I can’t imagine howmany hours you put in! I can imagine there is not enough staff to process all the many public comments that are submitted for all the many projects and meetings. I hope you/your officeget the necessary staffing and resources necessary to keep up with the sheer volume of projects, public meetings, and public comments. Respectfully, Zehra Osman On Apr 1, 2025, at 11:53 AM, Bozeman Public Comment <comments@BOZEMAN.NET> wrote: Good morning, I appreciate you bringing your concerns about your comments to our attention. Can you please let us know which comments you have sent that are not being processed? We aim to process comments twice a week; we will make any received before noon on the day of a meeting available to the City Commission and staff (as well as the public), and then we try for the end of the week (usually Thursdays). When there are holidays, vacations, or no Commission meetings, that will adjust our timeline as the priority of those becomes less pressing. As for access, our current software license allows access to 25 individuals concurrently. We are actively looking at options to expand that. Additionally, we are working with the vendor on creating a more intuitive user interface that will provide easier access to the comments, and other public documents. I am always willing to listen to concerns in the hopes of improving. Thank you, Mike Maas, MPA City of Bozeman | 121 N. Rouse Ave. | Bozeman, MT 59715 406.582.2321 Pronouns: he/him/his Have Questions? Ask BZN <image001.jpg> From: Zehra Osman <zosman534@gmail.com> Sent: Monday, March 31, 2025 10:22 PM To: Bozeman Public Comment <comments@BOZEMAN.NET> Subject: [EXTERNAL]Fwd: An Inspiring Approach to Compatible Affordable Housing 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 have noticed that my public comments have not been added to the public record. Further, the public comment page is very difficult to access; it too easily and too quickly becomes unavailable due to my repeated attempts to access it. I have tried the tips City staff as given me to rectify this. It should not be so difficult to use this important tool. Please add this email and all attachments to the public record for the (1) landmark study, (2) affordable housing ordinance, and the (3) UDC update. Begin forwarded message: From: Zehra Osman <zosman534@gmail.com>Subject: An Inspiring Approach to Compatible AffordableHousingDate: March 19, 2025 at 4:00:06 PM MDTTo: Elizabeth Darrow <elizabeth.darrow@gmail.com>,cnholling91@outlook.com, mike@arch118.com, lindasemones@hotmail.com, allycaroline@gmail.com,ashleyharville@yahoo.com, jwebster587@gmail.comCc: Sarah Rosenberg <SRosenberg@bozeman.net>, Jennifer Madgic<jmadgic@bozeman.net>, Bozeman Public Comment <comments@bozeman.net> Please add this email and all attachments to the public record for the (1) landmark study, (2) affordable housing ordinance, and the (3) UDC update. Honorable members of the Historic Preservation Advisory Board, Sarah Rosenberg, and HPAB liaison Commissioner Jennifer Madgic: Many Bozemanites, myself included, have urged the City to allow only compatible infill within the Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District (NCOD). I’d like to share a case study that exemplifies a brilliant approach of adding compatible affordable housing to an existing neighborhood without demolishing existing buildings and without squeezing a too-tall building onto every inch of a confined lot where it towers over existing smaller units. Here is information about a remarkable affordable housing project built between 1924 - 1935 in the borough of Queens, New York called SunnysideGardens. My 96-year old mother lives near this district and I’ve taken many walks under the shade of the 90-year-old Sycamore trees that line the streets within Sunnyside Gardens, where vegetation such as existing trees, shrubs, and gardens creates a sense of place. My goal in sharing this case study with you is to demonstrate how infill, in this case affordable housing, can: A. benefit our low-income neighbors with dignified and livable housing that is supportive for many types of families B. be architecturally compatible (scale, mass, materials, design, etc.) within our NCOD C. not require demolition of our existing historic buildings D. incorporate vegetation as an important unifying feature to be preserved Let’s be inspired by how the affordable housing crisis was tackled in Sunnyside back in the 1920s-1930s, where a “master-plan” provided a vision and framework that guided future developers. The architectural style of Sunnyside Gardens buildings fits compatibly within the surrounding architectural style that existed in 1920s Sunnyside. This example can fire our imaginations for how we in Bozeman can embrace the history of the architectural styles within the NCOD (see the attached pdf). The map below shows the context and extent of the Sunnyside Gardens development, which connects the existing subway station at the south end to the core of the development to the north. The varying housing types are arranged around landscaped open courtyards and tree-lined streets and include: 1. two-story row houses that easily and compatibly fit into the existing neighborhoods as infill since they could be flexibly organized into a variety of cluster arrangements. 2. taller 3-4-story apartment buildings that were built on undeveloped greenfield land to the north of the row houses. These were arranged around a central landscaped courtyard in a campus-type setting, which created its own neighborhood sense of place. This framework is much better than, for example, squeezing a tall incompatibleapartment building onto every inch of a confined lot where it towers over existing smaller units of the existing neighborhood. The cohesive architectural style of Sunnyside Gardens was not only compatible within the existing neighborhood architecture and setting, it unified the development and gave residents a sense of belonging that continues to exist today. For your convenience, I’ve created the attached summary pdf document (below), which contains photos and excerpts from the following sources: A. World Garden Cities webpage: https://www.worldgardencities.com/garden-cities/sunnyside-gardens,- queens-new-york-united-states . This contains a great historic aerial photo of the development early in its construction. B. Please peruse this neighborhood website for Sunnyside Preservation Alliance:https://sunnysidegardens.us/ , which has resources such as the development history and historic images and videos showing the construction of the development. The website is a lot of fun to explore and gives one a sense for how they feel about their neighborhood. You can see how Eleanor Roosevelt and other notable figures were involved. C. SUNNYSIDE GARDENS HISTORIC DISTRICT DESIGNATION REPORT: This is a Google Doc that contains history, maps, great descriptions and photos of each of the different types of units.https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TsEeM4ZCKqFtWwKQb7bya_aB rQCMaVMO/view?usp=sharing D. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunnyside_Gardens,_Queens Please consider the Sunnyside Gardens approach as a model to protect the NCOD. Additionally, I urge you to consider rethinking the 2017 Subchapter 4B of Bozeman’s Code of Ordinances, since it is the antithesis to historic preservation philosophy as prescribed in the National Historic Preservation Act, and has caused a lot of the conflict we’re currently experiencing. Thanks again for your time and consideration. I often travel to Sunnyside and am happy to take more photos and videos for you, if that is helpful. Respectfully, Zehra Osman 312 Sanders Ave. 59718 Please see the attached pdf that contains historic and current-day photos <image002.jpg> 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.