HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-16-16 Spinelli, 304 W Cleveland, Public CommentThank you for this opportunity to give you my opinion on this proposal.
I am a new resident of Bozeman having purchased a duplex at 1416 S 5th Ave. last June. My
wife, our daughter, and I enjoy living in Bozeman and like our neighborhood where we have gotten to know our longtime resident and student neighbors. I taught at MSU this past Spring
semester and appreciate being close to campus for me and close to the Streamline bus for our
special needs adult daughter who does not drive. We enjoy the students close by and knew that
they (and the possible parties and noise, crowds on football games, etc) might be challenging at
times but we figured that this "came with the territory".
It seems to me that short-term rentals, especially on a large scale in a small area, could really
change the neighborhood feel in many areas. Also, such a situation did not present itself when
the longer term residents purchased their homes and fear their presence. Perhaps in a three block
area of Main Street, the concentration of such arrangements would not be bad, but in many other areas, such as ours, I believe some kind of limitation on the number of these units (per block)
should be put in place. Perhaps the neighborhood association could be a sounding board for you
to get a feel for a more representative opinion rather than just my own if this would be necessary
or what limitation could be appropriate.
Related to this issue (and close to my heart as I am a retired economist), I feel that the city
should get an inventory of existing units that rent out property of any kind and make sure that all
appropriate regulations and requirements are being met at this time. A major issue in my mind is
whether these units are contributing to the city's tax base as they should. If not, they are
currently getting the wrong signal from the city by keeping such a "blind eye". If they are not paying their fair share of taxes, these units also return an inflated return and drive up the price of
houses in the neighborhood as prospective house buyers realize that they can do the same and
capture excessive profits. This distortion drives other prospective house buyers out of the market
entirely (adding to the affordable housing problem) and some other ones to locate in the county
where less artificial pressure is being applied to the house prices. This adds to a serious land-use issue that is very troublesome in my mind and will distract the environmental benefits of living
in our community. That would be a shame and needs to be addressed in another serious forum
across artificial political lines (city, county, state).
Again, I appreciate this opportunity to give you my opinion and if you need any additional information, I would gladly supply them to you. Unfortunately, I will not be able to make it to
the meeting tonight due to a previous commitment. Good luck in your deliberations and decision
process.
Sincerely, Felix Spinelli