HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-13-25 Public Comment - K. Filipovich - Bozeman Landmark ProjectFrom:Karen Filipovich
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Bozeman Landmark Project
Date:Tuesday, May 13, 2025 12:00:10 PM
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Dear Commissioners and Planning Staff:
Thank you for moving forward on a new attempt to grapple with preserving our historic and
cultural heritage.
I appreciate that this begins to move toward policy recommendations with actual
enforcement provisions. The NCOD has been a laudable effort, but in this century, has not
been implemented in a way that protects historic properties, neighborhoods, or trees.
The COA idea and approach seems useful, at least in the outline shown in Phase 1.
I am disappointed to see that aligning this effort with code is not included in Phase 2. Without
that important step, I do not think this effort will make much difference to the destruction of
historic building and neighborhoods. Individual landmarks are all well and good, but it is a very
limited tool that largely ignores context without additional tools.
There are some things in the phase 1 recommendations that appear to be helpful to that
larger context that I support and am looking forward to further development:
Certificate of Appropriateness, if it is developed carefully with sufficient care, may be
helpful. I have been through the current design determination process, and find that it
is not sufficient to preserve historic characteristics if a landowner or developer is
determined to move forward with something out of context. The UDC rules over this.
Neighborhood Overlay. This is a good idea, if it has actual enforcement provisions build
into it that supercede other building decisions.
Zoning District: A zoning district for the current NCOD or a slightly modified set of
borders would be helpful, and would make it easier to specify code that supports
neighborhood character.
Having heritage trees would be a plus as this moves forward. England has some excellent
classifications for tree preservation.
Finally, there needs to be a mechanism to add new neighborhood overlays as neighborhoods
reach an average building age of 50 years or more.
Sincerely,
Karen Filipovich