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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-15-16, Stober, Pine Meadows Subdivision April 13, 2016 City Of Bozeman Department of Community Development APR 2016 P.O. Box 1230 GENAi;i i; Bozeman, MT 59771-1230 COMMA VITY DE i USI 11 RE: Pine Meadow Major Subdivision Preliminary Plat Application Number 16-041 Dear City Commissioners: I'm writing concerning the proposed Pine Meadow Subdivision that is barreling towards approval in the hope that my view, and that of my neighbors, will be heard by you. You should have received a letter from Greg and Cindy Kindschi, 505 Valley Drive, which I have also read. There's no need to repeat everything that they have said, as I essentially agree with them, but I would like to reiterate a few things. There are two issues here, and the first is the density of the proposed Pine Meadow. The covenants of the Smith Subdivision, in which I live, also apply to the Pine Meadow Subdivision, as Pine Meadow is a subset of Smith. The covenants state that development is required to be in a "beautiful and harmonious" manner for the benefit of all persons who construct dwellings within the subdivision. While one of the Planning Board members noted that our covenants do not specify a minimum lot size, which is true, he did say that perhaps the new houses planned for Pine Meadow could be "beautiful". That is also true, however, 18 houses facing an established neighborhood of 8 houses, is hardly "harmonious", and was clearly not the intent of the drafters of the covenants. Furthermore, while the Planning Board stated that their goal is a certain density of development, why have they approved this particular plan which calls for one lot in Pine Meadow , the developer's own, to be bigger than all the existing lots of the Smith Subdivision, which are one-half acre in size, and much bigger than all the other proposed lots in Pine Meadow? When the developer's representative was asked about this at the Planning Board meeting, he answered that "there is already a house there" which seemed to satisfy the questioner for some reason. Yes, there is a house there already, on a one-half acre lot, which the developer plans to demolish so he can build his dream house. So the Planning Board has approved a larger-size lot than already exists, and larger than all the current lots in the neighborhood. This certainly seems to be a contradictory position on the part of the Planning Board. The Planning Board also noted that the developer of Pine Meadow has not asked for a variance from the City to allow for a less dense plan. In several meetings the neighbors have had with the developer, some with City officials present and some one-on-one, the issue has come up, and the developer has said both that he'd like larger lots but the City wouldn't allow it, and that he needed the smaller lots to make things "pencil out" for him. I would like to go on record to ask that you not approve the current 18-lot plan, and ask the developer to request a variance to allow for only 12 lots, which is still more than the neighborhood should have, but is a reasonable compromise. As far as it working economically for the developer, one member of the Planning Board, who is a realtor, noted that larger lots are in high demand in Bozeman, and the developer would have no problem selling them. I can certainly understand the City's stance on density, but the difference between 18 houses and 12 houses would in reality make very little difference to the City, but it would make a huge difference to the existing neighborhood which has been here for many years. I respectfully ask you to consider this. The second issue is drainage. In my first contact with the developer, he told me that the road he planned to build would be higher than the existing road, and that flooding would probably be a problem for me. Having a working knowledge of gravity, and knowing that water flows downhill, this really got my attention. I imagine that having the road built higher in elevation than it currently is will cause two problems to the current, west-side residents of Valley Drive. First, run-off flowing down the street will exit the road on the west side at every low point, yards, driveways, etc. Second, run-off from the west-side properties, instead of being able to run into the street and flow downhill as it does now, will backup on our properties, the higher level street acting as a dam. The developer didn't seem too bothered by this, and why should he? His properties are on the east-side, and will be engineered and built to prevent any drainage issues. But those of us that have been living here on the west-side, in some cases for decades, face the prospect of being flooded every winter and spring, and every time we have a big rain storm. At the Planning Board meeting, Chris Mehl suggested that "if we don't want to be flooded out, maybe we should pay for curbs and gutters". Aside from the fact that curbs and gutters would only solve part of the problem, I feel that the developer should be responsible for not creating the problem in the first place, and to suggest otherwise goes against all of our collective ideas of fair-play. "You broke it, you buy it", which is really saying, "don't break it in the first place". How do you think you would react if someone bought the house next to yours, and then started a remodel project that damaged your property, and his attitude was, "Well, it's your problem now, even though I caused it, but you'll have to pay to get it fixed."? I'm not a civil engineer, so I can only speculate as to why the developer intends to raise the level of the existing roadbed, but I suspect it has to do, like so many things, with money. Maybe he can save money doing it that way, but shifting some of his costs onto his neighbors is, quite clearly, wrong. I would respectfully ask that, if you approve this plan, or any other plan for this parcel, you require that the construction will not have an adverse effect on the existing west- side properties, and that the developer will be held accountable if an adverse effect does occur. When a new building is constructed on Main Street, I'm sure that the builder is held responsible for any damage the new construction may cause to its neighbors. This situation should be no different. Thank you, t- V Gil Stober 395 Valley Drive Bozeman, MT 59718