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HomeMy WebLinkAbout11-18-25 Public Comment - L. Semones - The Draft UDC. Attention Mayor Cunningham, Deputy Mayor Morrison, and Commissioners Madgic, Fischer, and BodeFrom:Linda Semones To:Bozeman Public Comment Subject:[EXTERNAL]The Draft UDC. Attention Mayor Cunningham, Deputy Mayor Morrison, and Commissioners Madgic, Fischer, and Bode Date:Tuesday, November 18, 2025 8:44:45 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. Dear Mayor Cunningham, Deputy Mayor Morrison, and Commissioners Fischer, Bode and Madgic, I am writing you today to ask you to recognize your own success at engaging the entire population of Bozeman in the redrafting of the UDC. In the last two years, it is hard to see how any segment of our population could have been excluded from giving input. The list of concerned residents consulted according to the plan for public engagement phase 2 includes renters (listed first), Inter-neighborhood Council, Neighborhood Associations, HOA’s, property management companies, university students, K-12 students, churches and the Interfaith Association, Special interest groups (lighting, people with disabilities, environmental groups, active transportation, housing), the Development Community (Landscape architects, subdividers, Site Developers, Land Planners, Builders, Realtors, Real Estate Professional, Lenders) Bozeman Health, Billings Clinic, MSU, local businesses and the Downtown Bozeman Partnership, Chamber of Commerce, Gallatin County (staff and elected), and nonprofit housing organizations (HRDC, Family Promise, Haven). This extensive list is on page 3 of the Community Engagement Plan Phase 2 as available on the Engage Bozeman website. I would say that nearly every segment of Bozeman’s population was recognized and indeed each made extensive comment over the last 2 years on multiple topics. Every group was given options to attend events at different times of day, in different locations across town, in venues easily reached by car, bike, or on foot. There was an option to create your own UDC discussion in a venue of your choice at a time of your choice, using the packets provided by the city. To say that any one group had overwhelming influence on the current draft plan is to deny that this huge successful engagement process was made at all. Congratulations on an inclusive, well-balanced and fair engagement process. The resulting draft UDC required all the opinions of all these groups to be weighted, and a compromise to be reached. And the draft as it reads today is indeed a balanced compromise. This is the nature of a democracy in action. No one group writes the ordinances to benefit themselves alone, and every group receives a healthy measure of their requests, but not all. This draft has taken two years to hammer out, with heated discussions on every topic, and concluding with the City Commission giving city staff guidance as to how to balance the needs of all the residents of the city. Not an easy job, but this draft seems to have managed the impossible. I am writing you to request that you honor the inclusive nature of this draft as it stands. Please do not change the very fair and balanced nature of our future UDC. The time for extreme alterations has long passed. Now is the time for minor adjustments. Specifically, I support the report compiled by the Better Bozeman Coalition. This report suggests easily made minor changes to the draft, not a major shift in focus. R-A should be left as is in the draft. We should keep the Existing Building Alternative which would allow an older building to subdivide internally. Increasing the by right densification to 4 units simply incentivizes demolition and expensive redevelopment which will never lead to affordable housing. R-B should be left at 8 units. The Community Plan guarantees gradual development and densification. Increasing the units to 12 would defeat the goal stated in the Community Plan. It would encourage rapid unaffordable development. R-C needs to keep the cap of 24 units in a building. This is a compromise needed to make sure that on street parking is available to all the residents of a neighborhood, since our State Law now says that no parking need be supplied for small units. To remove the cap on units would disadvantage renters, who are provided limited to no parking. The Neighborhood rezoning proposals for Centennial Park and the Bon Ton need to be honored as community based, complete and thoughtful plans. They were written according to the guidelines provided by the Community Development Department, they are inclusive of multiple housing types and suggestions for densification, and they are a well-balanced compromise that support the Community Plan. The new zone edge transitions code should be kept as is. I want to thank the city for adding transition requirements on the higher, denser development when the dividing street is less than 60 feet wide. This is crucial to insure that development occurs gradually and appropriately. Zone edge transitions also are a way to conserve our historical resources. Not a single mention has been made of historical preservation in the discussions so far. There is no need to simplify the transition code. It isi already simple and understandable, with a very clear chart of requirements. Landscaping should not be eliminated from this section for many reasons: plantings are a sound buffer, a vision buffer, a way to create green space, a way to provide for soil retention in the presence of run off. If anything, trees should be added to the alley zone edge transition requirements. Under no circumstances should developers be able to buy back the right to eliminate transitions by buying street right of way footage. Why have a zone edge transition ordinance that allows developers to avoid their obligations to the neighboring district? The code section concerning Greek houses should specify that a Greek house is a special use, and should be allowed in the zones where music and entertainment are found. Greek houses are venues for events. Greek houses are not compatible with residential areas. The suggested draft revisions provided by UNA should be adopted. The draft revisions suggested by the Bozeman Tree Coalition should be added to the UDC draft. And finally, there should be no expansion of the B3 into the historic residential areas of the downtown. In the proposed B-3 expansion, historic homes would be compromised. Several of the homes across the street from the proposed expansion have been restored and renovated. They all contribute to the historic character of the district. Once these historic resources are compromised there is no way to recover their value to the community. Please consider historic preservation as an important element in the development of our city. We are at the end of the process of creating the new UDC. The current draft is a COMMUNITY COLLABORATION that has taken 2 years to complete. Please do not pull the rug out from under the faith in the city processes that has taken 2 years to rebuild. With thanks for your dedication to our community, Linda Semones. 404 S Church Ave.