HomeMy WebLinkAbout02-25-15 Boylan Mr. Murphy's Request for Eminent Domain from Boylan RoadFrom: paul f boylan
To: Agenda
Cc: Jeff Krauss; Carson Taylor; Chris Mehl; Cyndy Andrus; I-Ho Pomeroy; pb8348@gmail.com
Subject: Mr. Murphy"s Request for Eminent Domain from Boylan Road
Date: Wednesday, February 25, 2015 4:29:44 PM
Good afternoon Mayor Krause, Deputy Mayor Taylor, Commissioner Mehl,
Commissioner Andrus and Commissioner Pomeroy,
My name is Paul Boylan and I live at 1037 Boylan Road, #4, Bozeman, Montana.
I am writing to voice my opposition to Mr. Murphy’s request for the City of Bozeman
(“City”) to pursue Eminent Domain in order to provide Mr. Murphy’s property with
emergency access and utility easement from Boylan Road for the following reasons:
1. Mr. Murphy has stated that he is unable to access City utilities and is, therefore,
unable to annex into the City. That is not a true statement since Mr. Murphy can
annex to the City and obtain utilities already available to his property through
Commercial Drive.
2. M.C.A. 70-30-101 defines Eminent Domain as “… the right of the state to take
private property for public use…” (Emphasis Added) Since there is no public benefit
if the property is taken through Eminent Domain, the City should not incur any
expense on behalf of the taxpayers.
The public would have greater benefit if the park and public trails were kept intact,
along with the open space and neighboring wetlands.
3. This particular section of land is sensitive to development as was learned first-
hand with the substantial ground water issues experienced by the Village Green
Townhomes and Links Condominium developments. As you may know, significant
costs were incurred by residents of the Village Green Townhomes, the Bridger Creek
Subdivision Community Association, and the Golf Course Partners to address the
ground water issues. Mr. Murphy’s property contains a mitigation wetland, which
was created for the wetlands that were previously destroyed. Any development of
this property would affect those wetlands and there is no way of predicting what
other ground and water issues will be affected in the future.
Thank you for reading and considering the reasons which I have given why the City
should not pursue Eminent Domain and I look forward to hearing the
discussion/comments at the Commissioner’s Meeting on Monday, March 2nd.
Paul Boylan