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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08-16-13 InterNeighborhood Council Minutes, draft THE INTER-NEIGHBORHOOD COUNCIL (INC) MEETING OF BOZEMAN, MONTANA DRAFT MEETING MINUTES Thursday, Aug. 16, 2013 Attending: Jennifer Rockne (SCAN) moderator, Stephanie McDowell (NHVN), Kathy Powell (UNA), Sharon Glick (UNA), Jill Schaunaman (MarLin), Bob Wall (SENA), Chris Nixon (NENA), Allyson Brekke (Neighborhood Planner), Julia Frey (Up with Peo- ple), Courtney Kramer (City Historic Preservation Officer), Kate Hampton (State Historical Society Community Outreach Coordinator), Wendy Thomas (City Direc- tor of Community Development) 4:33 Jennifer convened the meeting Review of July minutes. Stephanie moved to approve, Jill seconded. Motion passed unan- imously. Public comment Julia Frey with Up with People described the program, which will be visiting Bozeman the end of the month. There are 100 young people from 20 different countries. Julia is part of the advance team, working with Eagle Mount, Haven, the Library, and other local organizations. Their event will be a fund raiser, with the Gallatin Valley Lions Club and First Security Bank helping to distribute the funds. The group will be here Aug. 26 – Sep. 2. The still need host families. 60 have places to stay, but 40 still need places. Each person needs a bed, breakfast, two dinners, and trans- portation (drop off at Willson School in the morning, pick up in the evening). Pass the in- formation on to neighborhood associations. No police report this month 4:40 Location & Time Change Discussed permanently moving meetings to 4:30, still on second Thursday of the month, and moving back to Madison Room in City Hall. More room there, better access to presentation resources. Bob moved to make the suggested change, Jill seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 4:40 Courtney Kramer – Demolition by Neglect Discussion State of the Neighborhoods list for 2011 included issues of neglect, neighborhood charac- ter, and failed projects. This was still a concern in 2012. Courtney Kramer is the City Historic Preservation officer. She is handling stakeholder outreach to discuss this issue. Stakeholders include SWMBIA, Gallatin Association of Realtors, Commissioners, the INC, and others. Since 2008, there were some high-profile historic buildings that have had problems – the armory, the brewery, the Story mill. Commissioners’ direction is to not make this effort specific to historic preservation. They want a city-wide approach. The working goal is to ensure that all buildings are weather- tight, secure, and not attracting nuisance behavior. The City already has municipal code, universal building code dealing with unsafe struc- tures. The City also has a nuisance code, although it hasn’t been enforced. The recom- mendations to date have been to empower staff to take action to resolve problems (e.g. board up windows). The City can do the work, send bills to owner. Unpaid bills can be recouped by placing liens on the property. The City needs to clarify definitions of nuisance property. The goal is to have draft lan- guage to the Commission by mid-Oct. Outreach will occur during Aug., and the draft proposal will be assembled during Sep. The proposal may include suggested civil fines, penalties, process, and time lines. Are there case studies/examples that neighborhoods can provide? Courtney has been dealing with Martin Johnson at HRDC to investigate rental property initiatives. Need to decide if rental issues will be folded into this initiative. It has been suggested that it would be helpful to explore the economics of routine maintenance vs. sporadic maintenance, to help motivate owners to avoid problems. The current nuisance code covers issues like noxious weeds. The City can do the work to address problems, send bill to property owner, then if it is not paid, place a lien on the property. Need to educate residents about the ordinances and available tools to handle problems. The City’s new code compliance officer, Paula Frojae, may be able to help. Butte has a community decay ordinance. Others have models of “mothballing” ordinanc- es, to be applied if buildings are not occupied (e.g. turning off gas, water, preparing building to be empty). Courtney Kramer can be reached at ckramer@bozeman.net. Wendy Thomas, the City’s new Director of Community Development, joined the discus-sion. There was a question about whether the City has considered bonding requirements for major projects. This has been discussed, and there may be some support for that. An- other approach that has been discussed is establishment of a low-interest revolving loan program to help property owners. At the next INC meeting, we will discuss the problem further and try to formulate rec-ommendations. Courtney will try to get us the draft language before the meeting. 5:52 FYI INC will partner with the League of Women Voters to help with a City Commission / Mayoral candidate forum on Tues. Oct. 22 at 7 PM in the City Commission Room in City Hall. Development review applications: property on the edge of NENA, a property in SCAN requesting addition of another dwelling unit, condos where Langohr’s was (all detached units) INC bylaw changes were accepted by the Commission on Aug. 12. Allyson will be out from Feb. to Apr. for maternity leave. Good Neighbor Committee will have a booth at Catapalooza. The City is continuing to work on outreach with MSU. Allyson is working on letters to CAN, BCNA. She will send out drafts for INC review. She will also be sending out a survey on neighborhood status soon. No update on Midtown North neighborhood association – they are working on draft by- laws. Next meeting will be Sep. 12 at 4:30 PM in the Madison Room. Wendy Lewis mentioned that she anticipates that the demolition by neglect plan will like- ly be more “carrot-based” than “stick-based”, so we shouldn’t expect a lot of new ordi-nances. A big component will probably be pushing public awareness efforts. She and Courtney reiterated that it would be helpful to get additional examples / case studies from neighborhoods. 6:10 Bob moved to adjourn. Jill seconded. Motion passed unanimously. Minutes recorded by Bob Wall.