HomeMy WebLinkAbout07-16-26 Public Comment - D. Carty - Public Comment_ NCOD update and July 15, 2026, HPAB meetingFrom:Daniel Carty
To:Bozeman Public Comment
Cc:Alison Sweeney; Rebecca Harbage
Subject:[EXTERNAL]Public Comment: NCOD update and July 15, 2026, HPAB meeting
Date:Thursday, July 16, 2026 2:52:28 PM
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July 16, 2026; 2:50 p.m.
[Please distribute to all City Commissioners, all members of the City's Historic Preservation
Advisory Board, and the Lakota Group. Thank you.]
Dear Historic Preservation Advisory Board (HPAB) members, City Commissioner AlisonSweeney, and Deputy Director of Community Development Rebecca Harbage:
I attended the July 15, 2026, meeting of the HPAB, and I am writing to thank the HPAB
members for their probing questions, frank comments, and in-depth discussion about thecurrent status and direction of the NCOD update.
Especially, I appreciated that the HPAB was willing to emphasize that the City's
Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District (NCOD) standards (enforceable code) and
guidelines (advisory statements) should be focused on protecting neighborhood character
and the natural environment—a City Commission priority for '26 - '27—and not on theminutiae of architectural details per se.
Arguably, within the NCOD, protecting neighborhood character and protecting the natural
environment can best be achieved by writing NCOD standards that legally rein in theinappropriate-in-mass-and-scale development allowed in the NCOD under the City's
recently adopted Unified Development Code (UDC). And, arguably, achieving suchprotections will necessitate that NCOD standards are more restrictive than and superior in
law to UDC base zoning.
I note that, although the Lakota Group's suggestion of "narrowing the gap" between NCODstandards and UDC base zoning has some merit in theory, doing this in Bozeman would
still leave NCOD standards subordinate in law to UDC base zoning, which in turn wouldrender most, if not all, NCOD standards unenforceable.
Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Daniel Carty
213 N. 3rd Ave.
Bozeman, MT 59715