Water Adequacy for Residential Development

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On November 4, Bozeman voters will see a ballot question related to water and residential development on their ballot. The WARD citizen special interest group initiative would change the city of Bozeman’s development code, requiring developers of three or more residential units to pay cash-in-lieu of water rights to the city only if the development designates 33% or more of the units as affordable. If the developer does not include 33% affordable units, they are responsible for securing water rights, which, because of state water rights processes, could take 5-8 years. The WARD initiative also removes the ability for developers to meet the water demand of their development through off-site water efficiency or conservation measures. Check out the full description of the initiative. The Initiative was not developed by the City of Bozeman. The City is, however, providing educational information on the Initiative.

Get the Facts on Our Water and Housing:

  • Since 2022, we have 1777 affordable units built, under construction, or in the pipeline

  • Since 2022, $120M has been spent in subsidies on those projects

  • Bozeman residents continue to excel in water conservation, using 188 gallons of water per household per day compared to 314 GPHD in other arid Western states

Get the Facts on Our Water:

Bozeman is not at risk of running out of water. When new housing is proposed, the city ensures there is enough water to support it. Based on the 2024 water use numbers, in a normal water year, the city only uses about 43% of its available supply, and even in a drought year, that number rises to just 60%. Bozeman’s water comes from three main sources—Lyman Spring, Bozeman Creek, and Hyalite Creek, with the Hyalite Reservoir. 

To carefully manage demand, the city uses a Water Supply & Optimization Tool that monitors current usage, projects future needs, and tracks available resources. This tool is critical to ensure the city continues to develop new supplies to meet the needs of our growing community. New water supplies are being developed as prioritized in the City’s Integrated Water Resources Plan. In addition, Bozeman continues to strengthen its long-term water sustainability by developing new conservation measures and following its 2023 Water Conservation Plan.

Get the Facts on Affordable Housing:

Building affordable housing is costly because of rising land, labor, material, and lending expenses. A city study found that developers can typically only make about 5% of their units affordable, as higher percentages aren’t financially viable. 

To address this, the city is partnering with public, private, and nonprofit organizations and shaping policies based on local data and community input to balance affordability, growth, and neighborhood character.

Get the Facts on the Impacts of the WARD Initiative:

The WARD Initiative’s requirement that housing developments of three or more units ensure 33% of units in new developments are affordable in order to access the city’s cash-in-lieu of water rights could limit housing supply. 

Even in housing projects that receive significant government subsidies, developers depend on a balance of market-rate and affordable units to cover construction costs. The result is that WARD’s high affordability requirement (33%) could make it harder for a developer to secure financing, resulting in less interest in building housing in the city. If developers choose not to build in Bozeman, demand for housing in the city may rise without the housing supply to match, driving up prices. Some may instead build in surrounding areas like the County, which could increase commuting and harm the environment.

Additional Information:

This website and related City efforts to educate voters on this initiative are not intended to advocate for or against the initiative; rather, the educational effort is to bring to light how the initiative will affect city operations, including how the City works to accommodate the development of new housing in our community and the City’s effort to provide our community the water it relies on.

We invite all to use our Question-and-Answer feature on this page to learn more.

On November 4, Bozeman voters will see a ballot question related to water and residential development on their ballot. The WARD citizen special interest group initiative would change the city of Bozeman’s development code, requiring developers of three or more residential units to pay cash-in-lieu of water rights to the city only if the development designates 33% or more of the units as affordable. If the developer does not include 33% affordable units, they are responsible for securing water rights, which, because of state water rights processes, could take 5-8 years. The WARD initiative also removes the ability for developers to meet the water demand of their development through off-site water efficiency or conservation measures. Check out the full description of the initiative. The Initiative was not developed by the City of Bozeman. The City is, however, providing educational information on the Initiative.

Get the Facts on Our Water and Housing:

  • Since 2022, we have 1777 affordable units built, under construction, or in the pipeline

  • Since 2022, $120M has been spent in subsidies on those projects

  • Bozeman residents continue to excel in water conservation, using 188 gallons of water per household per day compared to 314 GPHD in other arid Western states

Get the Facts on Our Water:

Bozeman is not at risk of running out of water. When new housing is proposed, the city ensures there is enough water to support it. Based on the 2024 water use numbers, in a normal water year, the city only uses about 43% of its available supply, and even in a drought year, that number rises to just 60%. Bozeman’s water comes from three main sources—Lyman Spring, Bozeman Creek, and Hyalite Creek, with the Hyalite Reservoir. 

To carefully manage demand, the city uses a Water Supply & Optimization Tool that monitors current usage, projects future needs, and tracks available resources. This tool is critical to ensure the city continues to develop new supplies to meet the needs of our growing community. New water supplies are being developed as prioritized in the City’s Integrated Water Resources Plan. In addition, Bozeman continues to strengthen its long-term water sustainability by developing new conservation measures and following its 2023 Water Conservation Plan.

Get the Facts on Affordable Housing:

Building affordable housing is costly because of rising land, labor, material, and lending expenses. A city study found that developers can typically only make about 5% of their units affordable, as higher percentages aren’t financially viable. 

To address this, the city is partnering with public, private, and nonprofit organizations and shaping policies based on local data and community input to balance affordability, growth, and neighborhood character.

Get the Facts on the Impacts of the WARD Initiative:

The WARD Initiative’s requirement that housing developments of three or more units ensure 33% of units in new developments are affordable in order to access the city’s cash-in-lieu of water rights could limit housing supply. 

Even in housing projects that receive significant government subsidies, developers depend on a balance of market-rate and affordable units to cover construction costs. The result is that WARD’s high affordability requirement (33%) could make it harder for a developer to secure financing, resulting in less interest in building housing in the city. If developers choose not to build in Bozeman, demand for housing in the city may rise without the housing supply to match, driving up prices. Some may instead build in surrounding areas like the County, which could increase commuting and harm the environment.

Additional Information:

This website and related City efforts to educate voters on this initiative are not intended to advocate for or against the initiative; rather, the educational effort is to bring to light how the initiative will affect city operations, including how the City works to accommodate the development of new housing in our community and the City’s effort to provide our community the water it relies on.

We invite all to use our Question-and-Answer feature on this page to learn more.

  • Affordable Housing Resource

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    Affordable housing is hard to build. And now you can see just how challenging it is by visiting this website and adjusting some of the levers: https://apps.urban.org/features/cost-of-affordable-housing/.

    This website reviews the major buckets adding to the cost of housing, including land, materials, labor, and lending. It also explains how important outside subsidy is - you can see how tax credits, which are limited and not given to every project, are incredibly impactful in making a building with affordable housing pencil out. This data is from Denver and has not been modeled for Bozeman, but we deal with similar funding challenges.

    This resource is a project of the Urban Institute, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization. Its goal in this effort is to provide fact-based analysis about public and assisted housing.

Page last updated: 10 Sep 2025, 12:53 PM