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Home My WebLink About12-16-25 Public Comment - J. Amsden - FW_ UDC - Height Limits in Historic Downtown BozemanFrom:Greg Sullivan To:Mike Maas; Alex Newby Subject:FW: [EXTERNAL]FW: UDC - Height Limits in Historic Downtown Bozeman Date:Monday, December 15, 2025 4:35:33 PM Attachments:Height Limits in Bozeman.pdf Importance:High Please include in public comment to the City Commission. From: John Amsden <Amsden@becklawyers.com> Sent: Monday, December 15, 2025 2:34 PM To: Greg Sullivan <gsullivan@BOZEMAN.NET> Cc: Sarah Rosenberg <SRosenberg@BOZEMAN.NET> Subject: [EXTERNAL]FW: UDC - Height Limits in Historic Downtown Bozeman Importance: High 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, Greg: I’d like the attached to be forwarded on to the Historic Preservation Board members. Thank you, JLA From: John Amsden Sent: Monday, December 15, 2025 2:23 PM To: comments@bozeman.net Cc: David Loseff <dploseff@gmail.com> Subject: UDC - Height Limits in Historic Downtown Bozeman Importance: High Please see attached memorandum in favor of a 60’ height maximum in downtown Bozeman, Montana; and objecting to raising that height maximum to 90’. SERVICE OF DISCOVERY, PLEADINGS, MOTIONS, NOTICES OF DEPOSITIONS, ETC. MUST BE SERVED TO INFO@BECKLAWYERS.COM NOTICE: This e-mail may contain confidential or privileged material and is intended for use solely by the above-referenced recipient. Any review, copying, printing, disclosure, distribution or other use by any other person or entity is strictly prohibited. If you are not the named recipient or believe you have received this e-mail in error, please reply to the sender and delete the copy you received. Thank you. P a g e 1 | 7 Height Limits in Bozeman’s Historic Downtown Core (B-3 and B-3C) Submitted in support of maintaining a 60-foot maximum building height and opposing any reversion to 70–90 feet Submitted by: Bozeman Hotel Owners’ Associatfon December 15, 2025 I. Executfve Summary Bozeman’s historic downtown is successful precisely because it has remained human-scaled, walkable, and visually connected to sunlight, sky, and surrounding mountains. Proposals to increase allowable building heights to 70 or 90 feet threaten to irreversibly undermine those qualities by reallocating shared public resources—sunlight, views, pedestrian comfort—away from the street and into private upper floors. Height is not a neutral zoning metric. In a historic core, it is the single most consequential design control the City possesses. Once granted and built, height cannot be meaningfully undone. This letter addresses why a uniform 60-foot height cap across the B-3 and B-3C districts is the only policy consistent with: •Bozeman’s historic development pattern •The City’s stewardship obligations •The protection of the public realm •Long-term economic vitality of the downtown core II. Historic Downtown Bozeman Was Built at Human Scale — By Necessity The Baxter Hotel and the Bozeman Hotel define the historic downtown corridor. They were constructed long before cranes, elevators, steel framing, or modern façade systems. Their scale was constrained by: •Human labor and lifting capacity •Load-bearing masonry •Natural light and ventilation requirements P a g e 2 | 7 • Pedestrian-oriented commerce Those constraints produced buildings that remain tall enough to be urban, but small enough to be humane. They engage the street, admit sunlight, and preserve long view corridors. This is not nostalgia. It is evidence of how physical limits created a city scaled to human movement, vision, and comfort. III. Height Redistributes Scarce Public Resources Upward Allowing buildings to rise to 70–90 feet does not merely add square footage. It reallocates finite public resources: A. Pedestrian Comfort and Movement Excessive height produces predictable effects: • Wind tunneling and downdrafts P a g e 3 | 7 • Deep, persistent sidewalk shadows • Long, inactive façades at street level • Reduced visual relationship between occupants and the street The result is colder, darker, less inviting sidewalks—especially damaging in a high-latitude winter city. B. Sunlight Access as a Functfonal Public Asset In Bozeman, sunlight is not decorative. It affects: • Walkability • Ice and snow persistence • Retail vitality • Outdoor seating and gathering Tall buildings cast long shadows across public rights-of-way and neighboring historic façades, permanently degrading the public realm. C. Mountain and Sky Views Views of surrounding mountain ranges are a defining civic asset. Increased height: • Captures those views for private upper floors • Converts shared experience into exclusive luxury amenities • Permanently removes views from streets and sidewalks This is not density—it is vertfcal privatfzatfon of the skyline. IV. Height Benefits Private Returns, Not the Public There is no demonstrated public necessity for 70–90 foot heights in the historic core. The benefits accrue almost entirely to: • Upper-floor residential or hotel units • Luxury penthouses • Institutional or outside capital seeking marginal IRR increases Meanwhile, the costs—loss of light, views, pedestrian quality—are borne by: P a g e 4 | 7 • Existing businesses • Residents • Visitors • The City itself This is a classic case of private gain through public loss. V. Bozeman Is Threatened by Its Success As the owner of the Baxter Hotel correctly observes, Bozeman has been “discovered”—not only by residents and visitors, but by institutional and private equity capital. That capital is not inherently bad. It is useful when directed to appropriate corridors and redevelopment areas. But in the historic downtown core, its incentives are misaligned: • It seeks yield, not stewardship • It captures regulatory slack immediately • It externalizes long-term harm • It does not live with the consequences Without strict height limits, the result is predictable: fast, profitable, context-indifferent massing that permanently alters the character of the downtown. VI. Stewardship and Irreversibility Historic downtowns survive only because each generation restrains itself. Both private owners and City Commissioners are temporary stewards of assets that predate them and will outlast them. Height decisions are uniquely consequential because they are effectfvely irreversible. Once built: • Sunlight cannot be restored • Views cannot be reclaimed • Human scale cannot be retrofitted There is no “trial run” for a skyline. P a g e 5 | 7 VII. Comparatfve Citfes: Height Limits as Protectfon, Not Constraint Many cities have recognized that historic cores require stricter limits than growth districts: • Jackson, WY: ~30–39 feet • Boulder, CO: ~38 feet • Aspen, CO: ~42 feet (lower in core areas) • Scottsdale, AZ (Old Town): ~40–48 feet • Boston, Beacon Hill: 3–5 stories • Charleston, SC: 50 feet These cities did not cap heights because they feared growth. They did so because they understood what makes historic places irreplaceable. VIII. The “Ghost of Christmas Future”: What Happens When Height Wins The attached photo exhibits show contemporary buildings with additional stories sketched above them. These images are not speculative—they depict the foreseeable massing outcomes if height limits are loosened. P a g e 6 | 7 Once built, these forms become permanent features of the city. Historic value is not destroyed overnight. It is diluted incrementally until it disappears. IX. Findings the City Commission Can Adopt 1. Human Scale: The Commission finds that Bozeman’s historic downtown derives its vitality from human-scaled buildings that preserve sunlight, walkability, and visual connection to the surrounding landscape. 2. Public Resources: The Commission finds that excessive building height reallocates shared public resources to private upper floors. 3. Irreversibility: The Commission finds that increased height allowances create long-term, irreversible impacts on the public realm. P a g e 7 | 7 4. Consistency: The Commission finds that a uniform 60-foot cap across B-3 and B-3C is necessary to protect the historic core and prevent height arbitrage. 5. Stewardship: The Commission finds it has an obligation to safeguard the historic downtown for future generations. X. Conclusion Bozeman’s historic downtown is world-class because it has been protected, not exploited. The pressure to increase height is not evidence of good planning—it is evidence of success testing discipline. A 60-foot height limit is not anti-development. It is pro-Bozeman. Respectiully submitted, The Bozeman Hotel Owners’ Associatfon