Building our Future Together - Development Code Update

We’ve been busy meeting with high school and university students, community members, city staff, advisory boards, and City Commission. Midway through our engagement efforts, here’s what we’ve done and who we’ve heard from so far. The stats below provide a high-level summary of where we've been, who we've talked to, and what we've heard so far.

• 7 mobile engagement station events
• More than 250 people spoken with
• 157 completed engagement surveys (click here to learn more and participate)
  • Most popular topics include Height Limits, Housing Diversity, Solar Power Generation and Urban Agriculture
• 2 neighborhood group meetings
• 2 development and design professionals focus groups
• Over 40 high school and college students during class visits and focus group conversations
• Major takeaways:
  • Interest in creating more connected neighborhoods where pedestrian and biker safety is prioritized
  • Increasing the amount of mixed-use land throughout the city was popular, tempered by concern about encroachment into existing neighborhoods
  • Widespread interest in creating a greater variety of housing types throughout Bozeman

Continue to stay involved as we continue our outreach efforts throughout the course of this project, and remember to come back to this site for the latest updates!

Last week the project team participated in a virtual work session with the Community Development Board. They discussed progress on the project so far, including some of the draft regulations for residential zoning districts and a summary of community engagement efforts conducted through the end of 2022. Check out the presentation and meeting recording at the links below to learn more!

Link to meeting video

Link to presentation

Happy New Year, Bozeman!

The MSU “Street Team” has been out and about the last semester with a mobile engagement station to gather input for the city’s development code update. You might have seen them at city parks, the Winter Farmer’s Market, HandMADE Fair, or most recently at the Christmas Stroll. Architecture students Rebecca Hennings and Krista Hunton have been leading the outreach efforts for the MSU Street Team and were joined by Daisy Parnell, Jenavieve Lynch, and City Planner Tom Rogers.

Your input on things like housing diversity, height limits, and sustainable design will help the consultant team, Community Development Board, and City Commission improve regulations around new development to help our community meet climate goals, achieve the vision in our Community Plan, and address housing supply and affordability in Bozeman.

Over the last few months, we’ve conducted in-person activities with informational pamphlets and surveys about topics related to the UDC update. These materials are now available online for you to review, interact with, and provide feedback on! The responses we gather both online and in-person will be used to inform the direction of our revisions to the UDC.

Follow the link below to go to our virtual library, available in English and Spanish, and provide your input. We look forward to hearing what you have to say!

UDC Engagement Library (link)

There are plenty of opportunities to get involved and engage with the project over the next few weeks both virtually and in-person. Keep an eye out for the following events and engagement opportunities, with even more to come after the holidays:

• Winter Farmers Market – Gallatin County Fairgrounds – date(s) tbd
• Online engagement surveys are live! Click here to learn more and provide your feedback (link)

The project team had a third UDC-focused work session with the City Commission this week, focused on sustainability. Here's what we discussed:

• The city's approach to regulating urban agriculture (both residential and larger-scale commercial operations)
• Requirements for EV charging in new developments
• The sale of home-grown and home-produced agricultural products

The City Commission provided the following guidance to the project team:

• Aim high for EV-charging requirements - pursue options that encourage more "EV-ready" and installed solutions, as opposed to "EV-capable"
• Allow for height encroachments for rooftop greenhouses
• Allow the development of context-sensitive urban agriculture in commercial zones
• Consider more thoroughly the impacts of allowing sales of home-based agricultural goods in residential zones

Visit the City Commission page here to view the meeting recording and minutes (link). The consultant team's presentation is available in the Presentation Materials section of this website (link).

The project team has their next work session with the City Commission tomorrow, Tuesday, November 15. The discussion will focus on how the new UDC will address issues related to sustainability. You can find the materials, an agenda, and the link to join the meeting online or in person on the city’s website.

We will post a summary of the meeting as well as presentation slides to this site shortly after the session.

The project team has their next work session with the City Commission on Tuesday, November 15. The discussion will focus on how the new UDC will address issues related to sustainability. You can find the materials, an agenda, and the link to join the meeting online or in person on the city’s website.

We will post a summary of the meeting as well as presentation slides to this site shortly after the session.

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The project team hosted the first Code Connect webinar last Thursday, Oct. 27th. About 20 community members tuned in to learn about our progress on the UDC rewrite, ask questions, and offer input. If you weren’t able to attend the session, you can view the recording of the meeting here (LINK), and find the presentation slides in the Documents section of this site.

Video: View the Oct. 27th meeting recording (external link)

Slideshow: View the Oct. 27th meeting slides

Follow along here on engage.bozeman.net/udc for future updates, and be sure to join our next Code Connect session on Thursday, Dec. 1st. Thank you!