HomeMy WebLinkAbout4-14-14 Story Street SID Public Comment from Bob and Margie Chase Bob and Margie Chase
433 South Black Ave, Bozeman, MT 59715
Owners of 17 and 25 East Story
406-599-0698
4/14/14
3 POINTS:
1. 1 would like to share my thoughts regarding the Special Improvement District #718
also known as the Story Street SID
a. Many of the neighborhoods that will be seeing road improvements are similar
to ours where there is a mix of high density housing i.e. apartments and
single family housing
b. According to the City Engineer the COB selected the best and fairest method
of assessment that is currently available by State Law
c. The law as it applies to SID #718 is discriminatory because it forces single-
family property owners to subsidize multi family high-density property
owners portion of their assessment by $3,500.00 for each single-family
property owner. These single family homeowners are young families and are
in some cases families on fixed incomes
d. Based on this I believe it is the responsibility of the City of Bozeman to
petition the Governor and the State Legislature to amend the SID law to
provide fair assessments before SID #718 and any future discriminatory
SID's are issued. Let me be clear I AM NOT SAYING all SID's are
discriminatory
2. We have the Story Mansion:
a. The Story Mansion has been reduced to an unsellable property through the
changing of lot lines and rezoning etc.
b. I believe the Story Mansion has become a manipulation of my charitable
giving to support a project and a non-profit organization that I would not
voluntarily contribute top
c. If the COB sold the Story Mansion at market value of 4.28 million and using
the 50% split like is happening on Story Street the city could reconstruct 3.9
miles of streets using the 50% split
d. So I am asking the city commission to honor the more that 4,000 signers of
the original informal petition to put the Story Mansion on the ballot and ask
the community if they want the Story Mansion road blocks removed so it can
be sold at a fair market value even if that includes, and if possible returning
the SAT grant money to the federal government
3. Obviously I am protesting out of SID #718 because if forces me by default to
support a discriminatory SID and forces me by default to indirectly give my tax
dollars to a non profit organization, "The Friends of Story" when I prefer to direct my
charitable giving elsewhere.
SUPPORTING/BACKGROUND INFORMATION
I think that the methodology being used by the City is not equitable. The calculation is
based on the number of property owners, but some property owners have multiple
dwellings. The costs would be fair if the assessment was based on the number of
Bob and Margie Chase
433 South Black Ave, Bozeman, MT 59715
Owners of 17 and 25 East Story
406-599-0698
dwellings on E Story. I did an informal Dwelling Count. If a property with an extra dwelling
was located on a corner I did not include the dwelling that faced a different street. My total
count of dwellings between Church and Tracy is 73. Fifty percent of the total projected
construction costs is $281,080.00, see the following:
Property Owners Owner/Dwellings Cost Each Savings for Single
Costs at 50% Dwellings
$281,080.00 39 Properties $7,207.18 -0-
$281,080.00 73 Dwellings $3,850.41 $3,356.00
How much reconstructed road can be rebuilt by selling the Story Mansion at market
value?
If the property owners are paying $207.40 per running foot for the reconstruction of East Story
Street and if the Story Mansion sold for$4.28 million dollars. Then how many running feet of
reconstructed roadway would the citizens of Bozeman benefit from the sale of the Story
Mansion? It would work like this: $4,280,000 divided by $207.40 (per running foot of street) _
20,636 feet or 3.9 miles of reconstructed streets.
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