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HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-01-26 Public Comment - M. Bateson - Height Limits in B-3 Zones – THANK YOU for planning to discussFrom:Mary Bateson To:Douglas Fischer; Jennifer Madgic; Alison Sweeney; Emma Bode; Joey Morrison; Joey Morrison;joseph.morrison@bozemanmt.gov; Chuck Winn; Chuck Winn; Erin George; Bozeman Public Comment; BozemanPublic Comment; Mike Maas Subject:[EXTERNAL]Height Limits in B-3 Zones – THANK YOU for planning to discuss Date:Friday, May 1, 2026 12:26:55 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. Dear City Commissioners, City Manager and Community Development Director, On April 28 at the city commission meeting, I was quite happy to hear that a discussion during a City Commission meeting of the height limit for buildings in the B-3 Zones will be scheduled for this summer. I would like to thank Deputy Mayor Douglas Fischer for taking the lead on this at the April 28 meeting. I appreciate that. I would also like to thank Commissioner Sweeney for suggesting that the city pay for producing a statistically valid survey on the issue to aid the Commission in making a decision on the appropriate height limit. I have created a transcript of these comments towards the end of meeting, which you may find at the end of this email. The parts specifically concerning the question of height limits (missing complete time markers) are these: 4:20 Deputy Mayor Fischer: I appreciate that. It's a helpful reminder of the goal -- go slow to go fast. I made a promise that we would look at the B3 height. I would love to see what's our strategy for how we do that. I agreed on December last year that making decisions from us, from the dais is unwise. I would love to have some strategy from the Commission on how we're going to make decision about whether 60ft, 90ft is the appropriate height? And to me that means getting our experts on our advisory panels involved from the business improvement District. I don't know what I don't know. Commissioner Madgic: The way that I am seeing our UDC update. The B3 height issue, that's a policy discussion that we're going to have to have versus what I see as line item edits. I don't see the dark sky as this new initiative coming in. We've got a policy already. We have to update little pieces of it. I see wetlands kind of the same way. I don't envision this--I see it more as fixes and edits. And if there is a big initiative, that's going to have to be pushed off for later time. Commissioner Sweeney: I would also like to add that the B3 90 foot height issue is onewhere I would feel comfortable forking over 15 grand for a statistically valid survey, because the downtown historic core belongs to everyone, not just the people who develop in it. 4:31plus City Manager Winn: … I'm anxious to have a detailed conversation with Erin and her team how we can talk about these UDC and B3, all of the things that are wrapped into the UDC and how we-- I know she has some ideas about bringing some of these things in three phases to you. The first one is going to come in June. And we have a lot of noticing requirements for all of these things, which we have to overlay over these conversations. Commissioner Sweeney: I would conclude, the questions for voters in the UDC, text andmap are my top three priorities. Once again, I thank all of you Commissioners for allowing this to proceed, and for the City staff to engage in the work needed to carry it out. To quote Rocky, from Project Hail Mary: THANK THANK THANK Sincerely, Mary Bateson, Bozeman Resident Priorities Transcript-end of April 28-2026 meeting 4:20 Deputy Mayor Fischer: I appreciate that. It's a helpful reminder of the goal -- go slow to go fast. I made a promise that we would look at the B3 height. I would love to see what's our strategy for how we do that. I agreed on December last year that making decisions from us, from the dais is unwise. I would love to have some strategy from the Commission on how we're going to make decision about whether 60ft, 90ft is the appropriate height? And to me that means getting our experts on our advisory panels involved from the business improvement District. I don't know what I don't know. I was taken by Miss Rice's, from the Sacajawea and Audubon, the invitation that they had done the analysis of the UDC. It would be nice to see that. And just have staff say this is a big lift, and we can deal with this in the first quarter of 2027. Or if there's just a few things that staff is like, we could actually put that in place and start to chip away at this. It's a balancing act. I get it. I would love to just look under the hood and see, what do we need to fix? What's possible? Where are the fires? Maybe SDR is one. B3 I would say is another big community concern, and transitions. We have heard these things from the community. I think we owe the community to say, we've been with this for six months, or we don't have enough information, or we have some suggestions. 4:22 Commissioner Sweeney: I would like to add to that and say that not only have we heard a lot of things from the community, the community has done a lot of work. Sacajawea and Audubon Society contracted with the dark skies and has actually recommendations. Then call watershed Council, they have templates in the ability to help create this manual with offsets that-- I understand that staff is really busy. I'd rather have us work with those staff, work with those groups to create these two initiatives, then have a citizens Academy. Because this is more important to deliver the work, than to have people come and learn about the city. I just think we squandered this amazing, public resource at our peril. Commissioner Madgic: The way that I am seeing our UDC update. The B3 height issue, that's a policy discussion that we're going to have to have versus what I see as line item edits. I don't see the dark sky as this new initiative coming in. We've got a policy already. We have to update little pieces of it. I see wetlands kind of the same way. I don't envision this--I see it more as fixes and edits. And if there is a big initiative, that's going to have to be pushed off for later time. 4:24:45 City Manager Winn: Thank you for that. So these conversations are happening right now inside. It's not on the sixth month agenda yet. We have that conversation about putting these things. If you will let me, I will work with Erin and her team to schedule these conversations, find out from them one of the best time is, where they are in their process. We do have amazing people in this community. And I think sometimes we have done the work for you. There's a lot more work to be done to put it into our code. Because everything is interconnected. What seems like a simple thing, I mean I go back and talk with the team, and, you need to consider this in this. I'm not saying this--I'm just saying we have to do the right thing the right way. That's my job. I would have these conversations with Erin. I would get with the mayor about calendaring, putting these work sessions that you've given direction to tonight through our conversations, and we will start to flesh this out. Exactly what my hope is with this document. That we would have these harder conversations and not get into the decisions tonight, let's get to the scheduling the work session where we can have those specific conversations and make decisions, give us direction, and we will carry it out. Commissioner Sweeney: I would also like to add that the B3 90 foot height issue is one where I would feel comfortable forking over 15 grand for a statistically valid survey, because the downtown historic core belongs to everyone, not just the people who develop in it. 4:26 Mayor Morrison: Are there any other items that folks want to make sure that we spend time on this evening? Deputy Mayor Fischer: So the support efforts for long term Watershed health. I'm concerned about what's not in here. I think we passed an ambitious water wetlands ordinance for the previous commission--or the previous commission did. That has a lot that still needs work on. And it has ongoing compliance monitoring to make sure we are enforcing that. Miss Barry was eloquent in the need that, how are we staffing that? And what is the guidance that we provide? I don't have specific language, but something of the wetlands I think is some unfinished code. And I would love to hear. Maybe it's a work session, maybe it's much later. How are we doing in living up to those ideals that we put out there? Commissioner Bode: I will note that I had a conversation with a constituent that said, the current way staff is interpreting this is a 1 to 1 ratio for replacement. That is just not scientifically supported ratio that is utilized across other communities. I think this is an important place for Revisitation. I don't think we missed the mark here. Think we have a lot to be proud of in this wetlands code. It just looks like it needs a quick Revisitation for those kind of line item edits. I think this manual would help inform that. Mayor Morrison: Anything else for tonight? 4:29 Deputy Mayor Fischer: It would be helpful to just have a quick-- it would be helpful if you're prepared, where do you see the work plans? Not when, but what are the top level work plans or work sessions you see us having as a commission that we need to schedule? Mayor Morrison: I was trying to track ones that I think were not intuitive that we're gonna have, transportation management plan, things like the three big ones that I identified. Housing programing, perhaps urgently one on questions for voters, things that we would want to put in front of voters, various UDC text and map in August, and then most of the others we were going through. I think we inserted more intuitively with an existing priority. They may not even be work sessions. Integrated Water resource plan, NCOD rework, a bunch of them were housing related. Some sort of conversation, I'm not sure exactly what that would look like for how we're talking about the storytelling element. I don't know if there were others that you were tracking that you want to lift up. 4:31 City Manager Winn: I think the bigger plans will all come back to the commission for your fingerprints. I'm not keeping track of those. Those are just automatic, and we will schedule them as the plans get done. Definitely the question to voters is really important that's going to inform what might happen this year. We've got a big public safety question, particularly with the fire department. I think we need to address that. And then housing. That might be two. I will ask the commission if you have any appetite to have some of these work sessions during the afternoon, during the day. I think that is more effective sometimes than going into the wee hours of the morning. A lot to digest here and a lot to keep track of. I'll have to get with Mike and make sure that we capture all of the edits. I'll get that to you as soon as we have that completed. I will create a list of ongoing work sessions, calendar with the mayor. I'm anxious to have a detailed conversation with Erin and her team how we can talk about these UDC and B3, all of the things that are wrapped into the UDC and how we-- I know she has some ideas about bringing some of these things in three phases to you. The first one is going to come in June. And we have a lot of noticing requirements for all of these things, which we have to overlay over these conversations. It might not seem like it's at ten at night, but I really very much appreciate the conversation that you have all had tonight. It's not easy, but it's really important to work. You have all shown up tonight in a real positive way. I appreciate it. 4:33 Mayor Morrison: Great. Deputy Mayor Fischer: We had mentioned advisory boards, potentially in June. It feels like those are less of an issue priority. Housing questions for voters, the UDC texts, the map. I don't know how others feel. But we could push the advisory board discussion a little later Commissioner Sweeney: I would conclude, the questions for voters in the UDC, text and map are my top three priorities. Mayor Morrison: I see mostly nods. Any final, any concluding remarks? Deputy Mayor Fischer: Just thank you for this work. It's really helpful. I really appreciate this, a chance to have this conversation. I'm thankful for all of you guys sitting through all of this. Commissioner Bode: I will add that it was challenging to keep the discussion part till later, and I think we did a decent job of that. I appreciate you all for the restraint and holding the conversation for another day. Commissioner Madgic: I would add just based on past participation in commissions priorities, this dives into so much more. We have already looked at it in the past. Been diving in in a comprehensive fashion. So I think it is a good exercise, and it was helpful to all of us. 4:34 Mayor Morrison: OK, that will conclude our work session on our priorities. Now on to FYI and discussion. Commissioner Sweeney: Thank you. I have a fun one. Starting Thursday night and going to Friday night please give big. This year, there are no fees. You donate to your charity of choice. You get to -- they get to keep all of the money. A really nonprofit that I like to lift up that is doing a slate of some fun activities on Friday is the Extreme History Project. They are doing short walking tours downtown from noon until 5 p.m.. A donation is encouraged but not required. They're going to take people on the back alley tours, looking at ghost signs, Bozeman's saloons, all of the beautiful brick we have downtown, and then minority communities focusing on Samuel Lewis and our historic Chinese communities. If anybody has an hour or two to kill on Friday afternoon, meet in front of Mocha Boutique at 122 East Main, make a donation and enjoy a tour. All of the donations are going to creating new walking tours through funding staff time to research, but also purchasing historic photographs and records. You will be supporting history in Bozeman and uncovering the past. 4:36 Thanks. Mayor Morrison: Any further FYI? I sometimes never know whether it's best to respond to public comments in the moment or to wait till the end. Often I think the advice I've internalized over two plus years of doing this is to never respond. As much as people say at times they want to hear a response. The night -- the night was tough. Hearing insinuations of things like because apartment complex have been built in Bozeman that people drive recklessly. To hear an insinuation that land use policies that this Commission has made minimize or simplify the complex conditions that lead to the tragedies of traffic fatalities. And I don't think this was being thrown in staff faces. I think it was being thrown in my face but I appreciate you coming to the defensive stuff. This commission sitting in front of you for the last two years, as well as the commissions in the past have been extremely productive on prioritizing transportation safety and a variety of different ways. So to have the insinuation that what's really making people drive recklessly is that they don't like how development is happening it's disturbing. So the piece that I think we responded to is a community sentiment from some that are given as public comments and that are showing up here, writing in saying we want you to have a conversation on interim zoning, but it's not really have a conversation. It's an act in terms of, it's do it. And the majority of this commission has made clear we don't want to do that. So the point of having the conversation, putting it on a meeting for the sake of just tension with the community for staff, a uncertainty in so many different parts of the community. But I was trying to illustrate, and I think a majority of you tried to illustrate was we need to see what is the five alarm fire that means harm is happening in terms of any needs to happen. To throw things, right to know, right to participate is just absurd. Nobody is entitled to come and tell the commission you have to have a work session on something, or you have to take this direction. And we are getting to chew on it here. And this is why I think the advice I often get to myself is to not respond to public comment. It is a tough part of this job where I think there's times where the implication from folks that are giving public comments, that are calling us and are coming here, is that we don't hear from anyone else, that we don't hear from folks that are saying they do think that things are going well, that Bozeman feels safe, that have disagreements, tensions. It's not a universal opinion that everything that's happening is terrible. It's an unprocessed response, but it's a frustrating part of-- not in a woe is what was us for this job, which trying to see where is the unifying path forward meaningfully on any of the things that we are chewing on here? When we are asked, give us your opinion and then we do it. And it is known that we're being reactive, we're being too late. I think it was just hard to sit through some of that public comment today. And there's just times where I feel like I need to say something back, even if it's incoherent babble. Any other FYI. OK, seeing no further business to come before the commission, this meeting is adjourned.