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HomeMy WebLinkAbout10-26-25 Public Comment - A. Sweeney - NCOD consultants have NO Historic Preservation credentials!From:Alison Sweeney To:Jennifer Madgic; Chuck Winn; Terry Cunningham; Bozeman Public Comment Subject:[EXTERNAL]NCOD consultants have NO Historic Preservation credentials! Date:Sunday, October 26, 2025 2:52:12 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. Good afternoon Mayor Cunningham, Commissioner Madgic, and City Manager Winn, I am writing to you (Jen, as the Historic Preservation Advisory Board Liaison) in a state of disbelief and some desperation upon discovering that the staff listed on the Lakota Groupswebsite have zero credentials in historic preservation, historic architecture, or experience interpreting or applying the Secretary of the Interior's Design Standards! Bozeman must hire afirm with at least one historical architect who meets the SOI Professional Qualifications standards. This is unacceptable, and the wording in the scope of services is problematic. The communityhas made it clear time and time again through the nationwide community survey, to weekly public comments, to the participation in the Landmark Program engagement, that we wantstronger standards for historic preservation and design within the NCOD. These consultants are simply not qualified to deliver the outcome residents have asked for. I must ask that item F6 be removed from the consent agenda for Tuesday'smeeting. The scope of services is highly flawed. Under the objectives I take issue with the first bulletpoint: Update and refine the existing design guidelines to reflect contemporary preservationstandards and Bozeman’s evolving community character. The phrase "Bozeman's evolving community character" is majorly problematic. Because wehave now sufficiently damaged the character of the NCOD, this could be used to further weaken standards rather than strengthen them as the community has asked for in order to getus back on track. The final bullet point under objectives is also problematic: Ensure the guidelines align with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards whileaddressing local conditions and priorities. "Local conditions and priorities" is troubling because our Community Plan does notadequately articulate this community's value of historic places, and our desire for stronger historic preservation of all kinds of assets including neighborhoods. I don't actually know whether or not the letter from the Inter-Neighborhood Councilrequesting that the neighborhoods within the NCOD be included specifically in the engagement, but I would hope they would be considered "other relevant groups" andmeaningfully included. Again, please remove item F6 from the consent agenda, and do not hire this consultant unless they can demonstrate having adequate credentials. Thank you, Alison B. SweeneyBernadette's Handmade Jewelry Bozeman MT406-404-5740 alison-bernadettes.com From:Chuck Winn To:Alison Sweeney Cc:Erin George; Mike Maas; Bozeman Public Comment; Bozeman City Commission Subject:RE: NCOD consultants have NO Historic Preservation credentials! Date:Monday, October 27, 2025 3:24:24 PM Attachments:LakotaGroup_Qualifications.pdf Hi Alison, Thank you for your October 26 email expressing concerns with the Lakota Group. Following, please find Director Erin George's detailed description of that firm's qualifications and let us know if you have any additional questions. Also, please feel free to share this with any of your contacts with similar concerns. Thanks again, Chuck Chuck Winn | City Manager City of Bozeman 121 North Rouse Avenue - P.O. Box 1230 Bozeman, MT 59771-1230 P: 406.582.2307 C: 406.581.0020 From: Erin George <egeorge@BOZEMAN.NET> Sent: Monday, October 27, 2025 3:01 PM To: Chuck Winn <CWinn@BOZEMAN.NET> Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL]NCOD consultants have NO Historic Preservation credentials! Thank you for expressing your concerns and please allow us to reassure you that The Lakota Group team for this project does indeed include a qualified historic preservation architect with 25 years of relevant experience, Douglas E. Gilbert. He is principal and owner of his own practice, so you wouldn’t have found his information on Lakota’s website, but you will see his name is included in this project team listed on page 15 (“budget table”) of the Professional Services Agreement attached to the 10/28 Consent Agenda item. It is common practice for consulting firms to include independent contractors as part of their project team for certain projects. Additionally, The Lakota Group project team also includes two preservation planners, a project manager, and two graphic designers. I have attached information about the project team, including resumes for each assigned person (Douglas Gilbert’s resume has page no. 14 and 15 listed at the bottom) and a list of project examples from other cities for both Lakota and Douglas Gilbert. As you will see in these materials, The Lakota Group project team is highly qualified in historic preservation, architecture, design, and the Secretary of Interior’s Standards. They have prepared historic preservation design guidelines for numerous municipalities across the country, one of which was Anaconda, MT. Here is additional background on the procurement process we followed. The City’s official Procurement Process sets an $80K threshold for following a formal RFP process. As this project was under $80K, it was allowed to utilize the “two bid” method that is less formal. Under this process, staff started with a Montana-only process to contact firms with historic preservation and architecture experience in the state to ask them to submit proposals. We only received one proposal from a Montana firm, A&E. A panel of the CD Director, HP Officer, Planning Manager and HPAB Chair reviewed their proposal and interviewed A&E. Not being satisfied their experience was adequate for this project, we broadened our search nationally by contacting firms with known expertise through our HP Officer’s involvement in the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions. We received 2 additional proposals from The Lakota Group and Planning2Preserve. The same panel reviewed their proposals and interviewed both groups using the same questions. The Lakota Group interviewed the best and had the greatest depth of experience updating HP design guidelines, compared to the other two smaller groups. While it is not typically our practice to elaborate on a firm’s qualifications at City Commission outside of the procurement process, we know this project is of utmost concern to residents, so we are planning to have the City Manager share information about Lakota’s qualifications during the Consent Agenda intro on 10/28, unless it is pulled from Consent in which case staff will share the information. Regarding the comments about verbiage in the Scope of Services, staff drafted that language to be consistent with the Landmark Project scope, which also references contemporary preservation standards because we’re always wanting to ensure our projects to update codes and guidelines consider best practices in the relevant field. That certainly does not mean we disregard community feedback. Quite the opposite, in fact. You will see that we reference public engagement in the project schedule and the community engagement plan will more specifically outline the types of engagement events/meetings proposed. HPAB and City Commission will have an opportunity to discuss the proposed engagement plan when it’s brought to them early next year. Again thank you for your comments and please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have further questions. Erin George, AICPDirector | Community DevelopmentCity of Bozeman | 20 East Olive St. | P.O. Box 1230 | Bozeman, MT 59771P: 406.582.2262 | E: egeorge@bozeman.net | From: Alison Sweeney <a.bernadettes@gmail.com> Date: Sunday, October 26, 2025 at 2:52 PM To: Jennifer Madgic <jmadgic@BOZEMAN.NET>, Chuck Winn <CWinn@BOZEMAN.NET>, Terry Cunningham <TCunningham@BOZEMAN.NET>, Bozeman Public Comment <comments@BOZEMAN.NET> Subject: [EXTERNAL]NCOD consultants have NO Historic Preservation credentials! 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 afternoon Mayor Cunningham, Commissioner Madgic, and City Manager Winn, I am writing to you (Jen, as the Historic Preservation Advisory Board Liaison) in a state of disbelief and some desperation upon discovering that the staff listed on the Lakota Groups website have zero credentials in historic preservation, historic architecture, or experience interpreting or applying the Secretary of the Interior's Design Standards! Bozeman must hire a firm with at least one historical architect who meets the SOI Professional Qualifications standards. This is unacceptable, and the wording in the scope of services is problematic. The community has made it clear time and time again through the nationwide community survey, to weekly public comments, to the participation in the Landmark Program engagement, that we want stronger standards for historic preservation and design within the NCOD. These consultants are simply not qualified to deliver the outcome residents have asked for. I must ask that item F6 be removed from the consent agenda for Tuesday's meeting. The scope of services is highly flawed. Under the objectives I take issue with the first bullet point: Update and refine the existing design guidelines to reflect contemporary preservation standards and Bozeman’s evolving community character. The phrase "Bozeman's evolving community character" is majorly problematic. Because we have now sufficiently damaged the character of the NCOD, this could be used to further weaken standards rather than strengthen them as the community has asked for in order to get us back on track. The final bullet point under objectives is also problematic: Ensure the guidelines align with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards while addressing local conditions and priorities. "Local conditions and priorities" is troubling because our Community Plan does not adequately articulate this community's value of historic places, and our desire for stronger historic preservation of all kinds of assets including neighborhoods. I don't actually know whether or not the letter from the Inter-Neighborhood Council requesting that the neighborhoods within the NCOD be included specifically in the engagement, but I would hope they would be considered "other relevant groups" and meaningfully included. Again, please remove item F6 from the consent agenda, and do not hire this consultant unless they can demonstrate having adequate credentials. Thank you, Alison B. Sweeney Bernadette's Handmade Jewelry Bozeman MT 406-404-5740 alison-bernadettes.com From:Alison Sweeney To:Chuck Winn Cc:Erin George; Mike Maas; Bozeman Public Comment; Bozeman City Commission Subject:[EXTERNAL]Re: NCOD consultants have NO Historic Preservation credentials! Date:Monday, October 27, 2025 3:48:30 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. Thank you Chuck and Erin, This makes me feel a little bit better, thank you for the response. I will research the materialsyou have provided. I will share them with Zehra Osman and Jim Webster as well, since this project is of high interest to them. The wider community is very concerned that now that we have allowed this building (at 9thand Babcock) and others like it into the NCOD, the phrase "evolving community character" will be used to justify more of this. If our code, and the guidelines were properly applied bysomeone with Secretary of the Interior's Professional Qualifications we would not see development like this. Most people consider developments like this to be a scar on our community. How can we write code to BAN this type of project going forward. We need code to prevent this: This should never have been allowed to happen in the NCOD. As long as the consultants getthat message loud and clear we might be ok. Thank you, Alison B. Sweeney Bernadette's Handmade JewelryBozeman MT 406-404-5740alison-bernadettes.com On Mon, Oct 27, 2025 at 2:24 PM Chuck Winn <CWinn@bozeman.net> wrote: Hi Alison, Thank you for your October 26 email expressing concerns with the Lakota Group. Following, please find Director Erin George's detailed description of that firm's qualifications and let us know if you have any additional questions. Also, please feel free to share this with any of your contacts with similar concerns. Thanks again, Chuck Chuck Winn | City Manager City of Bozeman 121 North Rouse Avenue - P.O. Box 1230 Bozeman, MT 59771-1230 P: 406.582.2307 C: 406.581.0020 From: Erin George <egeorge@BOZEMAN.NET> Sent: Monday, October 27, 2025 3:01 PM To: Chuck Winn <CWinn@BOZEMAN.NET> Subject: RE: [EXTERNAL]NCOD consultants have NO Historic Preservation credentials! Thank you for expressing your concerns and please allow us to reassure you that The Lakota Group team for this project does indeed include a qualified historic preservation architect with 25 years of relevant experience, Douglas E. Gilbert. He is principal and owner of his own practice, so you wouldn’t have found his information on Lakota’s website, but you will see his name is included in this project team listed on page 15 (“budget table”) of the Professional Services Agreement attached to the 10/28 Consent Agenda item. It is common practice for consulting firms to include independent contractors as part of their project team for certain projects. Additionally, The Lakota Group project team also includes two preservation planners, a project manager, and two graphic designers. I have attached information about the project team, including resumes for each assigned person (Douglas Gilbert’s resume has page no. 14 and 15 listed at the bottom) and a list of project examples from other cities for both Lakota and Douglas Gilbert. As you will see in these materials, The Lakota Group project team is highly qualified in historic preservation, architecture, design, and the Secretary of Interior’s Standards. They have prepared historic preservation design guidelines for numerous municipalities across the country, one of which was Anaconda, MT. Here is additional background on the procurement process we followed. The City’s official Procurement Process sets an $80K threshold for following a formal RFP process. As this project was under $80K, it was allowed to utilize the “two bid” method that is less formal. Under this process, staff started with a Montana-only process to contact firms with historic preservation and architecture experience in the state to ask them to submit proposals. We only received one proposal from a Montana firm, A&E. A panel of the CD Director, HP Officer, Planning Manager and HPAB Chair reviewed their proposal and interviewed A&E. Not being satisfied their experience was adequate for this project, we broadened our search nationally by contacting firms with known expertise through our HP Officer’s involvement in the National Alliance of Preservation Commissions. We received 2 additional proposals from The Lakota Group and Planning2Preserve. The same panel reviewed their proposals and interviewed both groups using the same questions. The Lakota Group interviewed the best and had the greatest depth of experience updating HP design guidelines, compared to the other two smaller groups. While it is not typically our practice to elaborate on a firm’s qualifications at City Commission outside of the procurement process, we know this project is of utmost concern to residents, so we are planning to have the City Manager share information about Lakota’s qualifications during the Consent Agenda intro on 10/28, unless it is pulled from Consent in which case staff will share the information. Regarding the comments about verbiage in the Scope of Services, staff drafted that language to be consistent with the Landmark Project scope, which also references contemporary preservation standards because we’re always wanting to ensure our projects to update codes and guidelines consider best practices in the relevant field. That certainly does not mean we disregard community feedback. Quite the opposite, in fact. You will see that we reference public engagement in the project schedule and the community engagement plan will more specifically outline the types of engagement events/meetings proposed. HPAB and City Commission will have an opportunity to discuss the proposed engagement plan when it’s brought to them early next year. Again thank you for your comments and please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have further questions. Erin George, AICPDirector | Community DevelopmentCity of Bozeman | 20 East Olive St. | P.O. Box 1230 | Bozeman, MT 59771P: 406.582.2262 | E: egeorge@bozeman.net | From: Alison Sweeney <a.bernadettes@gmail.com> Date: Sunday, October 26, 2025 at 2:52 PM To: Jennifer Madgic <jmadgic@BOZEMAN.NET>, Chuck Winn <CWinn@BOZEMAN.NET>, Terry Cunningham <TCunningham@BOZEMAN.NET>, Bozeman Public Comment <comments@BOZEMAN.NET> Subject: [EXTERNAL]NCOD consultants have NO Historic Preservation credentials! 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 afternoon Mayor Cunningham, Commissioner Madgic, and City Manager Winn, I am writing to you (Jen, as the Historic Preservation Advisory Board Liaison) in a state of disbelief and some desperation upon discovering that the staff listed on the Lakota Groups website have zero credentials in historic preservation, historic architecture, or experience interpreting or applying the Secretary of the Interior's Design Standards! Bozeman must hire a firm with at least one historical architect who meets the SOI Professional Qualifications standards. This is unacceptable, and the wording in the scope of services is problematic. The community has made it clear time and time again through the nationwide community survey, to weekly public comments, to the participation in the Landmark Program engagement, that we want stronger standards for historic preservation and design within the NCOD. These consultants are simply not qualified to deliver the outcome residents have asked for. I must ask that item F6 be removed from the consent agenda for Tuesday's meeting. The scope of services is highly flawed. Under the objectives I take issue with the first bullet point: Update and refine the existing design guidelines to reflect contemporary preservation standards and Bozeman’s evolving community character. The phrase "Bozeman's evolving community character" is majorly problematic. Because we have now sufficiently damaged the character of the NCOD, this could be used to further weaken standards rather than strengthen them as the community has asked for in order to get us back on track. The final bullet point under objectives is also problematic: Ensure the guidelines align with the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards while addressing local conditions and priorities. "Local conditions and priorities" is troubling because our Community Plan does not adequately articulate this community's value of historic places, and our desire for stronger historic preservation of all kinds of assets including neighborhoods. I don't actually know whether or not the letter from the Inter-Neighborhood Council requesting that the neighborhoods within the NCOD be included specifically in the engagement, but I would hope they would be considered "other relevant groups" and meaningfully included. Again, please remove item F6 from the consent agenda, and do not hire this consultant unless they can demonstrate having adequate credentials. Thank you, Alison B. Sweeney Bernadette's Handmade Jewelry Bozeman MT 406-404-5740 alison-bernadettes.com 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. 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