HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-22-26 Public Comment - R. Rydell - Opportunity ZonesFrom:Robert Rydell
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Opportunity Zones
Date:Monday, June 22, 2026 8:57:33 PM
Attachments:opportunity zones.docx
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We have attached our comments on the Opportunity Zones that are part of the consent agendafor the Commission meeting on 6/23/26,
Thanks you,Bob and Kiki Rydell
22 June 2026
Dear City Commissioners: We are writing about the meeting on June 23rd and the item on
your consent agenda concerning designations for two Opportunity Zones in Bozeman. We
are not at all clear about how this matter got on your consent agenda without public
discussion. Decisions of this magnitude surely merit public input. The point is to have a
discussion in public in front of the commission and to have city staff present for questions.
In the absence of public discussion, decisions about moving forward with these
designations will cast a shadow over these projects and over the credibility of the
commission to make decisions in the broad public interest. Please pull this item from the
consent agenda and put it on a subsequent agenda when full public discussion can take
place. As Andy Boyd, a Bozemanite who has thoroughly researched Opportunity Zones and
the two tracts under consideration here in Bozeman, puts it: “[A]pproving two sweeping
designations covering enormous swaths of the city, on the consent agenda, without public
input and without a single binding affordability requirement, is not a housing strategy. It is
an unguarded subsidy directed at one of the hottest real estate markets in Montana.” “The
teachers, nurses, tradespeople, and service workers being priced out of Bozeman deserve
genuine solutions, not aspirational language and a federal tax break for investors.”
Should you decide not to pull the item from the consent agenda and open designation of
the Opportunity Zones to public discussion, we want to voice our opposition to designation
of the two Opportunity Zones for two major reasons: First, Opportunity Zones deliver
benefits for the most part to the wealthy investors who receive the tax breaks associated
with those zones—not the distressed communities those zones are supposed to help.
Instead of benefits, communities suffer from two harmful results of Opportunity Zone
development—gentrification and displacement. Second, in the case of the two tracts
proposed to receive Opportunity Zone designations (Tract 11.02 and Tract 6), one tract
(11.02) is described as a thriving real estate market, where, according to Andy Boyd, “the
research most consistently predicts the worst OZ outcomes: appreciation, gentrification,
and tax windfalls to investors in projects that were going to happen regardless.
Development of the other tract (6) is well underway: “groundbreaking for Phase 1 is already
scheduled for 2026. [It} has a named development team, a signed engineering firm, active
anchor tenant leasing underway, and coordination completed with city, county, and state
officials.” As Andy Boyd puts it, “Phase 1 is alone will include 200 affordable housing units,
more than the OZ application itself envisions, committed entirely without any Opportunity
Zone incentive.” We agree with Boyd’s assessment: “A project already breaking ground
does not need a tax incentive to attract investment. It has already attracted investment.
Designating Tract 6 as an Opportunity Zone would not catalyze Bozeman Square. It would
simply hand a substantial federal tax benefit to investors in a project the market was
always going to deliver.” Please do not waste taxpayer funds to simply hand over tax breaks
to wealthy investors.
Please pull the items from the consent agenda and open the OZ issue to full public
discussion or deny designation of OZ status to the two tracts under consideration.
Sincerely,
Bob and Kiki Rydell
622 South Grand Ave