Can we develop a guide for our “livable” place that lasts?
Adapting Bozeman’s Community Growth Plan for 2020
By Lucia Stewart, 8-22-07
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The blueprint of Bozeman’s future is back on the drawing table after city commissioners listened to land-use & planning consultant’s advice on how to approach updating the plan Monday night.
Facing high rates of growth and development, Bozeman is revamping its 2020 Community Plan, originally adopted only six years ago.
“It’s great that planning and growth is a topic of discussion,” said Ben Herman, from Clarion Associates. “Ten years ago you didn’t read about planning and growth in the Wall Street Journal. Today you do.”
Previously, city planning focused mainly on building elevation and color, the number of traffic lanes and units per acre. But now, cities are discussing livable communities focused on land use, transportation, design and open space & trails.
Clarion Associates visited Bozeman in May this year, discussing with citizens what is vital to the community and the future of Bozeman that needed to be reflected its growth and land use guidelines.
Bozeman’s response: regional coordination; smart land-use development; maintaining and enhancing community livability; and making the 2020 community plan document more useable.
Commissioner Sean Becker asked if Bozeman was failing at anything.
“Maybe a C or a B-, but no F,” said Lesli Kunkle Ellis, of Clarion Associates.
She pointed to a few areas that could be focused on, such as infill policies and neighborhood centers, but “this is why Bozeman is revamping and updating their 2020 plan.”
The following recommendations were made to the City Commissioners:
Future Urban Boundary Revisions
Consider where the City of Bozeman may grow into the county and be sure to incorporate this area into the plan. If not, there may be areas that fall through the cracks of the planning framework and cause disjunction later.
Broadening the Way to Look at Transportation
A citywide vision is encouraged that encompasses multi-module transportation, including bike lanes, pedestrian-accessibility, public transit and other alternatives.
Address Current Community Issues and Trends
Focus on what economic development is important to Bozeman and then create a development plan and strategies to achieve this.
The community of Bozeman stressed in May that they wanted to see more emphasis on Arts & Culture to serve the locals, not just the visitor.
And to create links between land use and design in making sure to meld the current landscape with appropriate structures and community-based design. Bozeman echoed in May, “I don’t care about the uses, but it has to fit in.”
Incorporate Recent and Current Facilities and Sub-area Plans
Remember to focus on smaller areas of public amenities. Although public facilities on a citywide level are highly encouraged, don’t forget about neighborhood vitality. Implement neighborhood plans. And make updates through public outreach on what exists and what is desired.
Make the Vision Compelling and Accessible
The community needs to be aware of “mission” for everyone to envision. Work towards a packaged statement of the 2020 Community Plan. Get Bozeman to “buy into the concept,” by placing it around town and reminding the public.
Make the plan user-friendly
Create an executive summary, update images and develop new chapters to assist its attraction and navigation. Also, create a web-friendly version of the document with intelligible search engines and easy-to-use navigation, not just downloadable pdf’s.
Along with revamping and updating Bozeman’s 2020 Community Plan, the consultants stressed creating easy trackability methods with indicators of how effective the plan is once its implemented.
It was suggested to measure from the following indicators: public health, downtown vitality, affordable housing, land use, neighborhood “centers”, infill, air & water quality, economic development and growth patterns.
“But be sure to address the relationship of each of these indicators to each other, not focus only on them individually,” she reminded the city commissioners.
Another point she stressed: To make sure the county and the city work together. Collaboration and discussion between these to entities is something uniquely vital in the West and Rockies, where the “rural lifestyle near town” is an attraction.
“Draw lines jointly and make some decisions together,” they recommended.
The challenge now sits on the Bozeman Planning office to take these recommendations and overhaul the 2020 Community Plan, so that only minor “housekeeping” of updating statistics needs to be done over the next 12 years.
The plan is outlined to be complete by August ’08.
For more information on the subject, be sure to join the Gallatin Valley Speaker Series, as they host the first community and expert panel discussion: Shaping the Future of the Valley: Our Growing Challenge, Wed. September 12 at the Museum of the Rockies, 7pm
The 2020 Community Plan will be discussed in how it relates to and affects: agriculture; housing & real estate; community design & growth management; air & water quality; and economic vitality.
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Comments
For anyone who reads this article and gets the impression that the consultants gave us a c or a b minus overall, they didn't. They said, "maybe a "c" or "b minus" here or there, but no "f's, as they referred to the implementation of the particular parts of the plan.
Here's the direct quote, repeated by both consultants at least once. These are people who do this for a living and have visited similar towns, larger and smaller, all over the country.
"From what we see, you are doing pretty darn well".
They specifically gave high marks for building design, for urban design, for new subdivisions variety and design, for commercial design, and for newer road designs.
Their report states that most complaints they heard are about construction done under older regulations.
The lowest grade they mentioned, the biggest failing, was in the lack of follow through on the economic development chapter in the current version of the 2020 plan.
Infill is a contentious issue, here and in other New West cities. That is another place Bozeman can assume a leadership role. The issue is always how infill fits into the existing neighborhood. It's a good area for concentration.
The issue of city/county cooperation is a hard one. It's not hard to cooperate, and it's not that we don't cooperate, we do in many areas. The decision to consolidate solid waste is a good example. It's that too often the "cooperation" the city has insisted on is "we set the standards and you follow them". That isn't going to be acceptable to the county residents or their representatives.
The consultants also refused to get drawn into one commissoner's attempts to grind a personal axe. It was implied that the only reason for annexation was to protect the city's tax base. Nothing could be further from the truth. In addition to the tax base addition, annexation allows the city to subject the property to all it's standards and requirements which are far higher than the county imposes. We have parkland dedication requirements, affordable housing requirements, density requirements, impact fees, design standards for streets that require curb and gutter, sidewalks, boulevards, bike lanes, on street parking etc. We also require consideration of how the streets line up and work with the whole city street system.
Development within the city also protects the enviroment by putting development on stored water and treated sanitary sewer, iinstead of sucking up groundwater and them flushing the effluvia right back into the groundwater from whence it came.
The consultants also flat out told us, "growth is going to happen".
It's how that growth happens that is at stake now. Can we stay the community we envision ourselves to be, while dealing with people who see what we have and want to join us?