Fowler Avenue Connection

Happy Fall from the Fowler project team! We've updated the background section of this project and are chiming in here with a brief update.

The city is continuing to plan for this project as we refine cost estimates and begin to develop more detailed designs for this new connection based on public input and direction from the City Commission.

One of the ways we’re doing this is through the city’s Capital Improvement Plan (CIP). This is a five year financial planning tool that the city updates every year. It ensures that we are looking ahead to provide schedules and cost estimates to improve and maintain city facilities, parks, and transportation infrastructure. The Fowler Avenue Connection Project will be a major component of the CIP this year.

The CIP goes through the typical public meeting process and will be presented to the Transportation Advisory Board at their meeting on October 25th, and City Commission at their meeting on December 5th. Head to bozeman.net/meetings where meeting agendas, materials, and links to join virtually will be posted 3 days before the meeting.

You can find the Pre-Design Report in the documents section to the right! This report captures all of the background on the project, analysis of existing conditions, future traffic models, and what we've heard from the community so far.

The tools on the project page are currently closed, and you can provide your public comment to the project team and City Commission by emailing agenda@bozeman.net.

We will continue to keep you informed throughout the design stage and let you know about additional engagement opportunities and ways to provide your input here on the Engage Bozeman project page.

If you haven't yet done so, please sign up for email newsletters by clicking "Subscribe" in the lower right hand side of this page!

Hello all,

Please find the agenda and meeting materials for the Transportation Board meeting on Wednesday 7/27 on the city's website at www.bozeman.net/meetings. The Fowler Ave Connection will be the first action item on the agenda after the general public comment period. There will also be public comment on this action item specifically after the project team presentation and questions from the board members.

Thank you!

Thanks to all who came out to the open houses! We appreciated the good dialogue, questions, and input. The survey has been closed with over 140 responses including those that were submitted at the open houses. There will be two more meetings before the project goes to design phase.

• Transportation Board on Wednesday, July 27^th at 6pm
• City Commission on Tuesday, August 2^nd at 6pm

Both meetings will cover the full pre-design report and recommendations for moving into design phase. Board members and commissioners will hear public comment, ask questions, and make a recommendation on moving forward to design phase. Links to join and agendas will be posted on the city website the week prior to the meetings.

You can join the meetings in person or online or write to agenda@bozeman.net to provide written public comment at any time. All of the submissions on this project page will be included in the pre-design report and provided to decision makers in the pre-design report. We'll post a copy of that here as soon as its finalized!

Join us at the upcoming Fowler Connector Open House events to learn more and provide feedback about the preliminary design ideas. The project team will be providing overviews of the various corridor configurations for street layout, intersection types, and multimodal amenities. Both events will be held at Fire Station #3 (1705 Vaquero Pkwy, Bozeman, MT 59718) with parking at the Dinosaur Park.

• 4:00-6:00 pm Tuesday June 14^th
• 4:00-6:00 pm WEDNESDAY JUNE 29^th

The project team recently hosted three “Field Trip” walk audits with neighbors and decision-makers to look at streets and intersections similar to the design options for the Fowler Avenue connection. Summary notes highlighting the observations, preferences, and discussions from each Field Trip are available in the Document section on this webpage.

Two Open Houses will be hosted in June to provide additional opportunities for all to engage! We'll bring the snacks and fun ways for you to provide your input so bring the family, ideas, or just curiosity and stop by to learn more!

When:

• June 14th from 4-6pm
• CHANGED TO WEDNESDAY JUNE 29th from 4-6pm

Where: Fire Station 3 @ 1705 Vaquero Pkwy

What: Please join us for...

• Summaries of what we've heard from community members so far during the engagement process.
• Information on the design alternatives and decision making criteria that will influence final design
• High level conceptual designs of what the corridor might look like and traffic modeling for each
• Activities for all ages and abilities to share their perspective on how the future Fowler Avenue should look and function
• Opportunities to ask questions and explore answers with the project team

Join us for a great opportunity to get off the zoom screen and bring together professional expertise and lived experience. City staff, project engineers, mobility advisors (folks with low vision, hearing, or who use mobility devices), neighbors, and decision makers will have a chance to learn about the intricacies of potential design alternatives for the future Fowler Avenue Corridor.

• Each field trip is limited to 15 attendees.
• Be prepared to walk for about 90 minutes and adhere to the safety guidelines we will set for the group.
• Please wear good walking shoes and bring clothing appropriate to the weather forecast.

We will meet at the identified “parking locations” and then walk from there, stopping often to observe transportation behavior and design features along the way. For each location we will explore and experience different lane configurations, intersection designs, multimodal facilities, and landscaping/amenities from all of these different perspectives.

DATE SUBJECT AREA PARKING LOCATION

3:00pm Thursday May 5^th Ferguson & Durston Christ the King Lutheran Church, 4383 Durston Road

3:00pm Tuesday May 10^th Graf & 3^rd Alder Creek Park, South 11^th Ave (just south of Brookdale Dr)

8:00am Tuesday May 17^th Oak & Fowler Dinosaur Park, 1707 Vaquero Pkwy

SIGN UP FOR A FIELD TRIP HERE:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0C4CAFAE2CA7FFC43-fowler

The project team is conducting eight Focus Group meetings to discuss the design criteria and to gather input on the Fowler connector project. The groups that were met with are:

• a Neighborhood group
• the InterNeighborhood Council
• a Community Services group
• a Schools group
• a Natural Resources group
• an HOA group
• a Transportation group
• the Transportation Board

There were many great discussions and the team received much thoughtful input. The summaries of the meetings can be found in the documents section on the lower right-hand side of this page or by clicking on each group above.

A copy of the presentation slides can also be found in the document section or by clicking here.

The project team presented an overview of the Fowler Avenue Connection project to the Bozeman City Commission on February 15, 2022. The presentation slides are available for download here and the video of the presentation is available online and included below.