HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-04-26 Public Comment - B. Foreman - Public Comment on Fowler Avenue Housing DevelopmentFrom:Brad F
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Cc:contact@harvestcreekmt.org
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Public Comment on Fowler Avenue Housing Development
Date:Monday, May 4, 2026 1:18:41 AM
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I have owned my home in Harvest Creek for more than twenty years, and my backyard sitsright up against the parcel the City wants to rezone for the Fowler Housing Development. I am
not opposed to housing. I am opposed to this particular plan, in this particular configuration,on this particular piece of land.
The parcel is 150 feet wide. Once you account for setbacks and road right-of-way, the
buildable width is somewhere around 30 feet. The City's own revised numbers shrink setbacksto 20 feet and substitute a single-lane alleyway — and that alleyway dead-ends, which means
ladder trucks and emergency vehicles cannot reach most of the proposed units. That is not aminor design flaw. Eighty-four units generating 168 cars, and the only access points are
Farmall and Caterpillar Streets — residential roads that were never built for that volume.Nothing connects to Fowler Avenue itself, which is the arterial road the project is named after.
The units are priced at $450,000 to $650,000. That is not affordable housing by any standard
definition. No partnership with HRDC, Trust Montana, or any other nonprofit has beenmentioned. There are 160 acres of R-3 affordable development already moving forward at
Baxter and Cottonwood. The argument that this specific parcel must be high-density or thecity fails its housing goals does not hold up.
What concerns me most right now is process. In January 2026, the City Commission invited
Harvest Creek HOA into a consensus-based engagement process. Phase 2 starts in mid-May2026. Pushing a separate zoning action forward on the Hanson Lane parcel next door before
that process produces any results undermines exactly what the Commission agreed to do. TheCity's 2017 purchase agreement for this land committed to preserving existing trees, open
spaces, and the irrigation ditch. I walk past that ditch. I'd like it to still be there.
Before any vote, I am formally requesting a comprehensive environmental and traffic impactstudy, and an extended public comment period that gives more than a handful of homeowners
a real chance to weigh in.
Brad Foreman