Bozeman City Commission Regular Meeting - January 27, 2026
Bozeman City Commission Regular Meeting - January 27, 2026
The Bozeman City Commission met on January 27, 2026, at 6:00 PM in the Commission Room at City Hall. Commissioners present: Joey Morrison (Mayor), Jennifer Madgic, Emma Bode, Alison Sweeney. Deputy Mayor Douglas Fischer was excused. The meeting covered consent items, a special presentation on child care, and an action item for the Bozeman Creek Vision Plan. Key decisions included approval of consent items and authorization of a professional services agreement for the vision plan, with direction to adjust project goals.
Consent Calendar
- Items F.1–F.8 approved unanimously (4-0). F.9 (Special Improvement Lighting District 795 for SRX II) was not included in the motion and was effectively deferred.
- F.2 (Hidden Creek Minor Subdivision final plat): 182 dwelling units, 100% permanently rent-restricted, 25% of units restricted to tenants earning 30% of Area Median Income (AMI), overall average 60% AMI. The project is a low-income housing tax credit project in partnership with Gallatin County, United Housing Partners, and HRDC.
- F.5 (2026 Urban Forest Management Plan with DJ&A): Public comment by Daniel Carty (resident) supported the plan, emphasizing a holistic forest management approach. Jeff Ball (resident) commented on tree maintenance funding and non-boulevard tree corridors.
- Other items included accounts payable, irrigation/landscape maintenance agreements, a change order for the WRF MCC project, and resolutions for special improvement lighting districts.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Jim Webster (South Third Avenue, HPAB member, speaking for himself) commented on the Preserve Historic Bozeman Coalition, urging a survey of best practices from other historic cities regarding height regulations (B-3, 90-foot zoning). He noted 309 signatures on the coalition petition.
- Mark Campanelli (Bogert Park neighbor) spoke about the importance of stay-at-home parents in economic data, cautioning against labeling them as "non-working."
Special Presentation: Child Connect
- Tori Sproles, Director of Early Learning at Greater Gallatin United Way, presented on child care affordability and accessibility. Key statistics: child care costs in Montana range from 13% to 36% of household income (Gallatin County ~23%–25%); 64,000 adult Montanans cannot fully engage in the workforce due to child care responsibilities. The Child Connect initiative launched Kinside, an online child care search platform, in September 2025. As of the presentation: 47 open slots across four counties, 822 page views, 210+ people engaged. The program also includes a business subsidy program and updated 45F tax credit for employer-provided child care.
Discussion Items
- Bozeman Creek Vision Plan (Action Item I.1): Assistant City Manager Jon Henderson, along with Jim Madden and Steve Noble of See Bozeman Creek (SBC), presented the proposal to authorize a $150,000 professional services agreement with PORT Architecture and Urbanism, LLC. The plan aims to enhance flood mitigation, improve water quality, increase access, support economic vitality, and strengthen community connection. Henderson clarified that the plan is not a watershed study and will not immediately solve the Main Street tunnel flood conveyance issue. SBC will serve as a community partner, not a decision-maker. Seven proposals were received; PORT was selected via a committee.
- Public Comment on I.1:
- Pete Geddes (resident) supported the plan.
- Angie Kociolek (INC Northeast Neighborhood rep, speaking personally) asked to delay approval to add explicit ecological health goals and clarify the role of SBC, noting a past instance where SBC letterhead supported a watercourse setback variance for a hotel.
- Mark Campanelli (Bogert Park neighbor) raised flood risk concerns for his neighborhood and urged economic analysis.
- Daniel Carty (resident) requested reinstating "increase ecological health" as a goal and adding an ecologist to the consultant team.
- Zera Osman (INC alternate, speaking personally) supported adding ecological function and an ecologist, and suggested including adjacent residents as stakeholders.
- Marcia Kaveney (resident, co-founder of Bozeman Tree Coalition) supported adjusting wording to "ecological health" and "economic vitality" and urged broader community engagement.
- Commission Discussion: Commissioners expressed support for the plan but raised concerns about missing ecological health as a goal and the term "economic development." Commissioner Sweeney proposed adding "ecological health" to the water quality goal and changing "economic development" to "economic vitality." The City Manager and Assistant City Manager agreed to incorporate these changes without amending the contract, as they would not affect the scope of work. The timeline was noted, with a flag that the November 2 presentation date conflicts with Election Day.
Key Outcomes
- Consent Calendar approved 4-0 (Items F.1–F.8).
- Action Item I.1 approved 4-0 to authorize the City Manager to sign the professional services agreement with PORT Architecture and Urbanism, LLC for the Bozeman Creek Vision Plan. The commission directed staff to add "increase ecological health" to the water quality goal and replace "economic development" with "economic vitality" in the project goals. The timeline will be adjusted to avoid Election Day.
- No other action items.
- FYI: Commissioner Bode announced the Streamline Bus app launch. Commissioner Sweeney updated on Historic Preservation Advisory Board projects (Local Landmark Program update, NCOD design guidelines). Mayor Morrison announced liaison changes and a trip to Washington, D.C. for transportation infrastructure funding discussions. City Manager Winn reaffirmed that the Bozeman Police Department does not enforce immigration laws, emphasizing community policing and civil dialogue.
Meeting Transcript
Good evening, everyone. We will call this meeting of the Bozeman City Commission to order. Um thank you for being here. Uh this is our meeting for Tuesday, January 27th. Um before we get started, we're just gonna run through a few items of how to participate this evening, um, and then I'll walk through a little run of show of what to expect for the rest of the evening. Um if you submitted public comments to us in advance, um those were distributed to us um at any time you submit anything to comments at Bozeman.net at noon before that meeting, we will get those distributed by our court um so that we can read those and be prepared for the meeting. We you can stream, of course, from uh cable channel one ninety, and at each item throughout our agenda tonight we will have public comment with each of those items. Um just to uh we're gonna try to continue to to broadcast this at the beginning of meetings, uh just that if anybody has hearing challenges, vision challenges that need to be accommodated in some way to let us know. We we don't know that, um, but we have the tools to be able to ensure that you can participate. Clerk over here is the person to to direct those requests to if we could get you situated. Um without further ado, we will start out with a pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence, I fled with us the fire of the United States of America. Thank you. Uh is our changes to our agenda, which we do have one. Um could one of my colleagues assist us in excusing the absence of Deputy Mayor Douglas Fisher. I move to accept the absence of Commissioner Fisher. Second. It has been moved and seconded. Mr. Newby. Commissioner Madden. Commissioner Sweeney. Mayor Morrison. Aye. Do we have any FYI from the Commission this evening? I have one. Commissioner Bodie. Thank you, Mayor. Um I wanna announce the launching of the Streamline bus app. It's officially downloadable on both Android and iPhone. Um right now, if you go on to the app, you can see the locations of all of our bus stops. By looking at the app, I can see that our closest stop to City Hall is the Mendenhall and Bozeman stop. And not only that, but that blue line will be arriving there in 26 minutes going north, 12 minutes going south, two minutes for brown line, and 40 minutes for the purple line. So um this is a really exciting tool for us to better understand how long we need to wait for the buses, where they go, if there's any delays, and I just really hope that it will make our transportation service more um approachable and accessible to our residents. So um go check it out and download the app. Thank you. Any other FYI from the commission this evening? Yeah, Commissioner Sweeney. One please. Um last week the historic preservation advisory board um met and got an update on two current projects. The local landmark program and historic preservation program update and also the NCOD design guidelines update. And I just have to say I'm really impressed with the members we have on the Historic Preservation Advisory Board. We have a historical architect. We have an AICP certified urban planner working for a national consulting firm. And we have members who live in national register properties and inside the NCOD. So they have great credentials, and I can't wait to watch this board work through these two projects and involve the community as we go. February 18th, HPAB Historic Preservation Advisory Board will be meeting the Lakota group, which is the consultant for the NCOD design guidelines rewrite. And that engagement plan will then come to this commission in sometime in March. And then because of spring break, the March HPAB meeting will be moved to March 31st. And we'll be having a discussion of code coming out of the landmark project. So just an update that those projects are moving forward.
openpublica.com