HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-13-26 Public Comment - J. Webster - Fw_ B3 height public comments for today's meeting. Sorry I can't attend in person From: Jim Webster
To: Emily Mason; Mark Camoanelli;Angie Kociolek;Patrick Moore;Zehra Osman; Kathy Rich; Kath Crumrine;Ann
Vinciguerra; Rick Kerin;Dick Bakker; Douglas Fischer;Takami Clark; Bozeman Public Comment; Beth Boyson
Cc: David Loseff
Subject: [EXTERNAL]Fw: 133 height public comments for today"s meeting.Sorry I can"t attend in person.
Date: Thursday,August 13,2026 3:56:12 PM
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FYI: David Loseff, owner of the Baxter asked me to send his comments to as many of
you as I could before today's INC meeting and I spoke with him briefly. He also asked
this to go to the city's public comment file for INC.
He also asked me to send to HPAB and I'll send that separate, as we'll cover one
organization at a time Sorry, that I could not coverall INC members here as not all the
names came up.
Jim
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From: David Loseff<dploseff@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, August 13, 2026 3:22 PM
To: Jim Webster<jwebster587@gmail.com>
Subject: 133 height public comments for today's meeting. Sorry I can't attend in person.
As a longtime resident in Bozeman Bon Ton District and also owner of the Baxter where we
have been making substantial efforts and investment in seeking to restore the Baxter back to
its original intent as our town's landmark boutique hotel property, I want to once again express
my strong opposition to the recent increase in B3 allowed heights from 70' to 90' due to both
its adverse impacts on our already strained public parking needs as well as the adverse impacts
on preserving our unique and beloved historical walkable downtown atmosphere and
viewshed. Adding more height to the current influx of big boxes without setbacks coming into
our community would damage our town's golden goose. Why ruin what has made our
downtown special and beloved.
While I recognize that the small sliver of downtown Main St. from Grand to Rouse falls in the
B3-C which will remain at 60' with a 45' setback,but the B3 where the 90' increased height
allowance exists directly surrounds and would strangle our narrow historic core. The dividing
line between B3-C and B3 near the Baxter is the alleway behind the Baxter. I own the
Baxter's Mendenhall parking lot which falls within the B3 and I am imploring the City to set
tighter height limits which would limit me directly as well as other B3 property owners from
building up to 90' excessive heights.
I just want to add the following points:
• The increased B3 height allowance to 90' can actually allow for even taller buildings
with the current Affordable Housing Bonus incentives which could add even more
height above this already massive 90' allowance. At a minimum, the city should set a
90' absolute cap on heights and not allow for further increases. My personal view is that
there should be an absolute ceiling cap at 70' or even 60'.
• We should be following the best practices followed by successful historic districts
across the country which set much lower building height limits. Charleston SC is at 50',
many other towns such as Burlington VT, Boulder CO, Aspen CO, Old Town
Alexandria VA, Old Town of Scottsdale, Vail, and even many historic parts of NYC
and Boston set much lower height limits and adjacency rules.
• At the recent city Design Review board meeting, one pro-height increase board member
argued that ......."Paris has the Eiffel Tower and that is much taller than 90' and Paris is a
wonderful city" but if he had bothered to do his homework he would have discovered
that Paris very rigidly imposes 6 story height limits on all of its downtown properties
along with other tight historic preservation standards to preserve the walkability and
ambience of the city and protect it from the imposition of massive tall boxes which we
see invading Bozeman.
• Another board member mentioned that "Missoula has a 100' tall building and they have
a nice downtown." First, Bozeman has a really great and beloved downtown so why ruin
it? Second, there is a huge difference between having the Baxter and Bozeman Hotel as
the two historic tall bookends of downtown with a separate tall Armory(with its setback
structure) and another historic First structure vs. having an entire wall of big tall boxes
lining up and down Mendenhall, West Main,North Central or South 19th. The B3
height of 90' simply adds at least two more floors to these existing box structures. It
doesn't require a lot of imagination to see Bozeman's ghost of Christmas future if the
City Commission perpetuates its 90'height allowance in the B3.
• We need to ask the City Commission and any of its paid out-of-town consultants
favoring the height increase.........what gives us the hubris to think that we can allow for
up to 2x the height allowances of all of these other successful historic areas such as
Charleston SC and elsewhere? Are we smarter or just hungrier for the increased tax
yields which will get generated by the increased building heights at substantial adverse
impacts on parking ,viewshed and the soul of our precious downtown?
• On parking impacts, if you add 2 more floors of height with its density but don't add any
more parking spaces, it exacerbates a already existing public parking issue....simple
math.
• Finally, another comment made by the Design Review Board was that we should just
keep the 90' height allowance intact and see what happens and if we like it? My
question----how do you unbuild a building if you don't like it? Personally, I thought that
the world of Design Review and Planning was to plan ahead and not allow for
irrevocable mistakes.
Hopefully the community will speak up and oppose the recent B3 height increase and not
allow for us to lose the precious asset we currently have.
david loseff