Building our Future Together - Development Code Update

Thank you for your continued engagement on this project and to those who attended last week’s commission meeting. We have received lots of public comment on how you want to engage with this project, and we are updating the Community Engagement Plan to reflect those insights and what we heard from the Commission. Some things that we heard were to expand our partners list and to create an engagement toolkit that community members can use to lead conversations around this project.

You can review the draft engagement plan, posted in the Code Documents section. The plan will be presented to City Commission for adoption on Tuesday, October 1. Join us at City Hall at 5:00 p.m. or email your comments to comments@bozeman.net.

We’re now ready for a restart! Thanks for your patience throughout this time. The City will be discussing timing, the future scope of this project, and what the next engagement effort might look like at the Sept. 17 Commission meeting, held at 5 p.m. at City Hall. The meeting will not involve a public hearing or substantive code discussion and is intended only as the first step in “part two” of this project. All are encouraged to come out and have your voice heard on how the UDC moves forward.

The public can expect numerous opportunities to participate in a variety of ways over the coming months. We’ll provide an update on what the upcoming engagement looks like once we have more guidance from the work session.

Thanks to all who have given input on this project – we hope you continue to do so and help us engage with other members of the public as well. This project is made better with each person who gets involved.

Survey results are IN! Please see the links below for all responses in graph format and Excel. The Excel sheet also contains individual written responses to the questions asked about other ideas for reaching people (tab named 'Open Response (comms)'), other ideas for gathering input (titled 'Open Response (eng)'), and other times people can meet (titled 'Open Response (meet)').

The engagement plan is still being formed and we hope to share more information on that soon. For now, thank you for participating and giving so many great ideas on how to reach people. This has been truly helpful in generating new ideas and understanding what options work for people.

Survey Results PDF

Survey Results Excel

The next step of this project is to gather additional feedback from residents on the draft code. Before we develop the plan on how we'll gather input and start doing outreach, we want to know from you - what are YOUR preferences for communication channels and engagement techniques? Please help us shape how we implement this next communication and engagement effort and fill out the survey! It will remain open through the holidays and close on January 14th. Paper copies will be available for anyone to pick up and return to:

• City Hall on the front desk across from the Finance Office at 121 N. Rouse Ave.
• Community Development front counter on the second floor of the Alfred Stiff Professional Building at 20 E. Olive St.

Now that you all have heard the news about the UDC hearing process being delayed, what’s next? While much of this is still to be determined, we can say a few things with certainty:

• This isn’t a restart of the project. We have received lots of great feedback so far from the community to develop the draft code. We will continue to work with this draft and want to hear additional feedback on it from those who may not have had a chance to engage. We will use all of this information in editing the working draft and hope to present an updated draft ahead of the new hearing process. That means you won’t see revisions/an updated draft until after engagement occurs.
• We want your thoughts on how to design our engagement process. In November, we will launch a survey to collect your preferences for how we gather your input and communicate with you. We’ll list a number of achievable options and whichever techniques float to the top will be implemented, so please be sure to weigh in if this is of interest to you!
• Engagement won’t occur until the new year. Before the holidays, we will use results from the engagement and communication preferences survey to create an engagement plan. We want to make sure people have adequate notice and opportunities to participate, so we won’t start any activities until after the first of the year.
  
  

Thanks for your patience as we develop the next steps. We look forward to hearing your thoughts and hope we can design a process that our community feels good about. And as always, reach out if you have any questions or concerns!

The Oct. 30 Community Development Board meeting is CANCELLED! We are no longer having a meeting on this day and will have NO further public hearings on the UDC until after the first of the year.

If you’ve been following this issue closely, you may recall that Commission made an announcement on 10/16 pausing their hearings of the UDC. This pause did not impact the Community Development Board as they were in the middle of their hearing process and there was a desire to begin discussing some of what they’d heard from staff and in public comment.

However, after hearing concerns from the public about the Community Development Board continuing with the public hearing, we decided to pause and postpone this meeting as well. We’ll look to restart the discussion in the new year, and then finish this process after further engagement has occurred.

Stay tuned for more information on our engagement plans. We'll be in touch soon!

Many residents have spoken up about wanting more time to give feedback on the Unified Development Code (UDC) draft and proposed zoning map, and we want to let you know that we hear you. On Monday, 10/16, Mayor Andrus announced at a press conference that she and the Commission have decided to hit pause on the timeline. Here's what you need to know:

• We're now looking at a public review timeline that stretches into early 2024 to ensure everyone has their say.
• We'll provide an update in the coming months about additional public input opportunities.
• The City Commission will not consider this topic until next year.
• Community Development Board however will have a special meeting on October 30^th to consider the public comment already provided, discuss concerns and alternatives, and identify areas where they would like more information.

The development code update is an important part of addressing issues in our community, like housing and growth. We hope all can join us in helping to improve our code and our community. Read more in the press release here: bit.ly/udcpress

Curious about the outreach we’ve done on this effort so far? Check out our Engagement Report and list of events, meetings, and community spaces where we've gone to gather input from folks. We know that many people are getting engaged for the first time as this project moves into the public review process. We encourage you to dive in and learn more about the what, why, and how behind this effort.

There’s still plenty of opportunity to make your voice heard. Check out the key dates section on the right side of this page for upcoming meetings and as always, submit your public comment to agenda@bozeman.net where it will be reviewed by Community Development Board members, City Commissioners, and the staff and consultants on the project team.

We’ve been fielding lots of questions about what the draft development code and proposed zoning map might mean for Bozeman neighborhoods. The R-A district is the proposed district that may replace what is currently zoned R-1, R-2, R-3, and R-S.

The R-A district would allow up to 8 dwelling units in a single building subject to several limiting standards. That has been concerning for many, and we’ve been balancing that concern with what we’ve been hearing about the need to provide more housing options for Bozeman residents.

We understand that taller and larger buildings are alarming to some. Our city has changed over the last ten years of rapid growth. We recognize that it's important to think about our neighborhood character and reduce impacts on surrounding neighbors as best we can. That’s why we’ve included several of the requirements that maintain space for yards and open space, limit height, and provide parking for these additional units. Here are some specific requirements in the proposed R-A district:

• Yards: all the buildings (including garages) may only take up 40% of the total lot area (Building coverage standard)
• Open Space: not less than 100 sq. ft. of open space must be provided for each home (Amenity space standard)
• Height: 3 stories are allowed (as it already is today), and the roof must begin to taper at 25’ (Wall plate height for established neighborhoods)
• Parking: is required for each home, allowed with restrictions within any of the required setbacks (Parking location standards)

Find all the details on the proposed R-A district in the draft code and view where this district would exist as compared to existing districts on the proposed zoning map.

You can provide your comments all the way through the public review process by writing to agenda@bozeman.net, or attending any of the upcoming Community Development Board meetings and City Commission meetings in person or online! See the Key Dates section for upcoming meetings.