Water Adequacy for Residential Development

This November, Bozeman voters will see a question related to water and residential development on their ballot. This question is looking to change our city code to allow development to pay cash-in-lieu of water rights only if the development provides 33% or more of the dwelling units as restricted by deed for 99 years or as long as the law allows and sold at 120% or less of area median income (AMI) or rented at 60% or less of AMI.

This applies to all residential development of three units or more. The initiative also repeals the ability of residential development to satisfy its water adequacy requirements by implementing off-site water efficiency or conservation measures. Check out the full description of the initiative here.

The WARD initiative will have a significant effect on the City’s ability to provide water for future residents and businesses and will lead to a lower overall production of all types of housing.

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 will continually update this website in the coming weeks and invite all to use our Question and Answer feature on this page to learn more.