HomeMy WebLinkAbout9-22-14 Happel Public Comment re Norton September 22, 2014
To the Mayor and the City Commissioners
Subject: Appeal to NOT Extend Babcock to Conservation Easement Property Line
Statement by Logan Happel, 50% Owner, 4700 Gooch Hill Road
Thanks for this opportunity to comment on the development of Norton Phase 3 development and its possible
effect on adjacent Property such as ours.
When our family made the decision to place our 40 acres of farm land into a Conservation Easement with
GVLT we knew full well that development would be pushing west in short order. We also knew that placing
our property in a non-development easement would devalue the land considerably vs. making it available to
full residential and commercial development.
Our neighbors are today selling their land for millions without any such easement in place. And in fact a
recent assessment of our land's value by a major real estate firm told us that our land is generally un-
marketable and at best would sell for a few$100,000 vs. the millions now being gained by our neighbors.
But there is a huge personal benefit of seeing our land remain in its original farmland state forever even as the
surrounding land fills with commercial and residential housing. Again, this benefit comes at the cost of not
having a huge financial gain created by a sale to a developer.....a cost for which we were fully aware when we
signed the GVLT documents.
Our biggest hope then, as surrounding development takes its inevitable course, is that the developers and the
city planners will do what they can to respect adjacent conservation easements. In that vein, I must
congratulate and thank the developer of Norton 3 for demonstrating their respect for our and the Lein
properties by providing a minimum 50ft open space strip of land the entire length of the west property line.
This is a huge sacrifice for the developer as it means fewer homes being constructed and less money to their
investors.
In this spirit, I now ask the City Commissioners and Planners to also make a small exception to the "Master
Plan' by maintaining this same 50 foot open space created by the developer by not extending the pavement
and curbing for Babcock Street through this space to our property line. We are not asking the City to give up
their future rights and easement for a Babcock extension to be made some day, but only to NOT NOW pave
and curb through this 50 feet of open space.
There are many other good reasons to postpone this 50 ft street extension which will be stated by the others
at this meeting, but my appeal is to ask for the commissioners to understand our reasoning behind our
conservation easement and to make a small concession in respect for our decision to create this easement and
as a result, produce some much needed open space into perpetuity.
Respectively Submitted........
cttogan &apnel
77/-
Owner, 4700 Gooch Hill Road, Bozeman