Good evening and welcome to the Tuesday, February third, twenty twenty six City of Bozeman City Commission meeting.

So any time somebody submits public comment virtually, um, as written public comment to Commons of Bozeman dot net or to any of us individually, if you get that to us by noon, the day of the commission meeting, those are distributed to us, we'll have time today on each of our agenda items for public comment in person, and we have the option for um virtual public comments as well.

Um those will be associated with each of our agenda items will also have public comment on our um general public comment for non-agenda um non-agenda concerns um for that fall under the purview of the city commission.

Um most of what we are going to be focusing on today, we just have one action item on our Gooch Hill sub area plan.

Um, otherwise we have a typical consent agenda and we'll get underway.

Um, if you would please join us in a pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence.

We know of one.

Um, we need to authorize the absence of our deputy mayor.

There are any other changes to our agenda this evening.

There are no other changes, Mayor.

Thank you.

Um, would anybody be able to help me out in authorizing the absence of our deputy mayor?

I live to authorize the absence of commissioner fit.

Thank you.

Commissioner Magic.

Commissioner Sweeney.

I.

Commissioner Bodie.

I mayor Morrison.

I the Deputy Mayor's absence is authorized.

And then we will move on to our FYI.

Any FYI from the Commission this evening.

I have one.

Just as a as an announcement.

There's some press release that went out about this yesterday, but just wanted to also echo this sentiment from the from the commission.

We have launched a podcast, the City of Bozeman.

I, as the mayor will be the host, the Bozeman Beat.

We had our first episode drop yesterday.

This episode was just a conversation between me and the former mayor Terry Cunningham about legacies and impact and vision and how do we know what we're doing and why we're doing it.

This is going to be basically the idea is hosted by the mayor, so I'll host the next two seasons of this podcast.

And if it seems like something worth pursuing, then we'll continue it with the next mayor.

There's a variety of reasons why this is in our consideration.

A lot of people listen to podcasts.

Not a lot of people can come to City Hall and sit through a commission meeting or participate in in that way.

And also there's a lot of conversations that we don't get to have in our findings on a decision here.

So this will cover really anything that falls under the you know the interest of the citizens of this community.

We've talked about talking of interviewing authors or business leaders or or otherwise.

So there's really that's any anything's on the table in these conversations.

So if anybody ever has either to my colleagues or anybody from the public a consideration for a topic or someone we should interview, or even if you would like to be interviewed and you think you've got a great story to tell to this community that that has an impact here, um reach out to us at podcast at Bozeman MT.gov.

That's where we're just going to be collecting all this information about where we want to go with it.

Um we've got a few ideas for the next couple, but nothing is immutable.

Um if anything comes up, we want to be nimble and being able to react and swarm as things come up.

Um really excited to try a new strategy for um communicating and getting getting some stories out about what the city's up to.

That is the only FYI from me.

Any FYI from staff this evening?

Thank you, Mayor.

A couple.

Um we have a new traffic calming program out there.

I just want to give a shout out to our director Nick Ross and his staff for launching this.

And it's to respond to residents' requests for seasonal neighborhood traffic calming measures.

And these are installations like traffic circles and curve bulb extensions that help drivers slow down and keep an eye out for people walking, biking, and rolling through our neighborhoods.

Um if you live in the city and you know a spot in your neighborhood that could benefit from traffic calming, please submit an application to us.

Uh now through March 6, you can apply online by visiting Bozeman.net and clicking on the front page banner.

Uh we'll the approved projects will be installed in late spring and be in place until early October.

Second but not least is the new uh year for the Citizens Bozeman Police Academy.

And this uh is our 19th Citizen Bozeman Police Academy, and it gives uh participants a uh chance to learn what it's like to be a Bozeman police officer.

And I know some of our commissioners, particularly Commissioner Sweeney has taken this.

Um you really get an opportunity to um really walk in the shoes of a patrol officer.

You'll spend eight weeks exploring our team's work, including SWAT gear and techniques, crime scene investigations, and the daily experiences of our patrol officers and detectives, and this hands-on program gets um participants into the into the thick of the action and connects our officers with the community, I think in a pretty cool and unique way.

So uh Citizens Police Academy meets from 6 to 9 on Thursday nights, and it starts March 26th, goes through May 14th, and you can apply it.

You can apply today at Bozempolice.com, CPA for Citizens Police Academy, and that's it for tonight.

Thanks, Mayor.

Okay, moving on from FYI to commission disclosures.

Are there any disclosures from any commissioners as it relates to any items in front of us this evening?

Yeah, Commissioner Sweeney.

Thank you.

Um so I did just want to disclose that um our action item tonight, the um concerning the Gooch Hill area plan, sub-area plan.

Um my father and stepmother do live in this area, uh, which is in the county mostly at this point.

Um so just wanted to disclose that uh family lives there, and maybe I have a little elevated interest.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Any other disclosures?

Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to we have some minutes to approve.

Commissioner Sweeney, would you be able to help us out with approving our minutes?

Yes.

I move to approve the regular city commission meeting minutes from December 17th, 2024.

Second.

It's been moved and sent seconded, Mr.

Newby.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Aye.

Commissioner Bodie.

Aye.

Mayor Morrison.

Aye.

Commissioner Magic.

Aye.

Our minutes are approved from a long time ago, seemingly another era.

Um now we will move on to our consent agenda.

City manager, are there any items you'd like to highlight for us this evening?

Yes, there is one, and it is item.

I thought I had it here.

Oh, H4.

And that is regarding Bozeman's first ever splash pad.

And we're pretty excited about this.

It is in the story mill park.

We've never had a splash pad before, and this is a pretty cool one.

Um ode to Bozeman's uh history and its charm, and this change order is to install a fence around the splash pad.

We love our dogs, not when they're running around with young children in splash pads.

So that's a design to keep our four-legged friends out, and then there was a change in state law that talked specifically about that it that system uses um UV, uh ultraviolet to clean the water.

It's a remote recycling and new water system to be water smart.

And uh that's that the location of that um UV system got changed for state law.

So it's gonna we have to move it in the system to a better place and be compliant with state law, and we are super excited um to have the mayor cut the ribbon on the splash pad this spring.

Thank you.

I've been counting down the days until we can we can open that bad boy up.

We could almost open it up right now with the weather we've been having.

Um to we'll open up this for public comment.

Any public comment on our consent agenda this evening?

One more request in the room.

Mr.

Newby, are we seeing any public comment requests online?

Mayor Morrison, we need seeing no request for public comment online.

Okay, we will bring it back up here for a motion and vote.

Commissioner Bodie.

Yeah, thank you, Mayor.

I move to approve consent items H1 through H6 as submitted.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

Mr.

Newby.

Commissioner Bodie.

Aye.

Commissioner Magic.

Aye.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Aye.

Mayor Morrison.

Aye.

Our consent agenda is approved.

And now we'll move it on to general public comment on non-agenda items falling within the purview of the Bozeman City Commission.

Um, so we'll start with public comment that's in the room this evening.

Uh you'll step up to the podium, tell us a little bit about yourself, why you have an interest in this topic.

Do you are you resident of the city?

Do you own property in the city?

Do you rent here?

Do you work here?

Um, then you have three minutes to give your public comment.

Uh as the lights will cascade, uh, they'll start green, get that means you're starting out with your full three minutes.

It'll switch to yellow when you've got a minute left, and they'll go red and they'll beep at you very uh gently to say time to time to wrap it up.

Um the the same rules will apply for folks that are in the room as well as online.

Um any general public comment in the room on non-agenda items.

Good evening.

Uh Daniel Cardi, Bozeman resident.

I'm commenting tonight to ask the commission to reconsider its December 16th 2025 decision to increase the maximum allowable building height in B3 from 70 feet to 90 feet by right.

To that end, I'm also asking the commission to place this issue on the commission's calendar as an action item within the next four months.

Here are three of the many reasons for the commission to reconsider its December 16th decision.

One, returning to 73 in B3 will give the city the opportunity to use the AHO to collect millions of dollars in cash and lie of affordable housing from developers if they want to build 290 feet.

Two, returning to 70 feet in B3 will help maintain Bozeman's overall historical character and sense of place, a process that involves managing change in a neighborhood respectful and environmentally sustainable manner.

And number three, returning to 70 feet in B3 provides a gradual transition away from the maximum 60-foot building height allowed in B3C, which is Bozem's historic Main Street.

To reiterate, I asked the commission to place the B3 90-foot building height issue on the commission calendar within the next four months.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other public comment on non-agenda items in the room this evening?

Do one more request in the room.

Mr.

Newby, are we seeing any public comment requests online?

Mayor Morrison, I see no request for public comment online.

Okay.

Seeing no further public comment requests, we will close the public comment for non-agenda items for this evening.

And we'll move it on to our one and only action item for this evening.

City manager.

Thank you, Mayor.

There this is to authorize me to sign a professional service agreement with Sandbell, Rocky Mountain, for the Gooch Hill Area Plan and adopt a resolution.

Adopt the resolution for the community engagement plan.

So there's there's two parts of this.

A quick shout out to staff.

So during our CIP program, our CIP presentation to the commission last year, there was some really great input from the uh commission about wanting to know specifically more about this lift station, the area it would serve, how this might change potential zoning, and including neighborhood commercial nodes within that area.

Those neighborhood plans or sub-area plans are typically done by developers or owners.

That area is largely outside of the city right now, but this lift station that is in the CIP would open up a pretty large section of the west end, which is growing to city services.

So got to hand it to Sean.

Um worked with Aaron, and we did something that's pretty non-standard in the industry.

And our utilities director started working on the sub-area plan.

That's just how Bozeman operates.

We kind of tear down the walls and we get the work done, the community's work done.

So tonight uh Sean is here to uh talk about what he's doing with that in cooperation with um Aaron George over in community development.

It's really a team effort.

I'm proud of our team.

Director Coates.

Uh good evening, Mayor and Commissioners.

Uh for the record, Sean Coates Utilities Director.

Uh so the Gooch Hill Sanitary Sewer lift station, I'll talk about that in a little bit more detail, but to give a brief overview uh of what we'll talk about tonight.

I'll give a background of the lift station and then I'll hand this off to our uh consultant uh Sandbell, uh Chris Nauman, uh, to talk about um the scope and fee for the work as well as the community engagement plan.

And then we'll follow that with questions and then uh we'll post the proposed motions uh for consideration.

So the proposed sewer lift station essentially would be located somewhere near the intersection of uh Harper Puckett Road in the East Valley Center.

So you can see that roughly estimated the location here in the circle, and then there would be a pressure sewer line where we would pump the raw sewage all the way back to our gravity sewer system, uh, dump that into a manhole at the intersection of Davis Land and East Valley Center.

So fairly long pressure sewer line there.

And if you look at the service area for that lift station, that's roughly bounded by the red boundary shown here on this graphic.

So a few things that you can see here.

One is the dotted black line is our community plan boundary.

Uh the red area, the sub-area plan boundary, we're showing that as 3,166 acres.

And I'll talk about why that's a little bit larger than the actual sizing of the list station in a moment.

Um, and then you can see here in a few other highlighted areas that this service area overlaps a couple of of sewer drainage basins and basically sewer drainage basins is just another uh way of saying that we can get sewage to places by gravity.

So uh the first phase of the lift station would provide sanitary sewer service for about 2,000 acres of municipal uh service.

And the reason that we are looking at a larger uh acreage than that is typically when we assign sewer capacity, it's it's assigned on a first come, first serve basis.

So basically, when a development project comes in the door and they get their development approval, we put a placeholder on the capacity of our sewer system for that project.

So we don't know which property is gonna come in first.

Uh and so that's why this service area is a little bit larger in this study than the actual service area for the lift station uh when we get that done.

The other thing that I'll highlight here is uh that this is just the first phase of the lift station.

In the long term, the build-out capacity of the list station would actually be about 5,000 acres.

It would continue to extend uh the service area down that uh west side uh community plan boundary all the way south of Huffline.

So in the long run, this will be a pretty large sewer service area.

Um so of course uh uh city manager you know noted, you know, why we're bringing this here uh tonight.

And and this is our first go at this.

We've not done this before, so uh it's new to all of us.

Uh there is no legal requirement for the area plan uh to design and construct the lift station, but it's good planning.

So it's it's it's pretty exciting to see this go forward.

And I was having a conversation with one of our planners right before, and he said, yeah, this is pretty cool.

It's it's neat that we're doing this.

Um what I would highlight just from a big picture standpoint is you know that if you look at the community plan, we're kind of looking at a 30,000 foot elevation uh version of the of planning.

But then this area plan kind of brings that down to a lower elevation.

We're looking at more of a 10,000 foot elevation uh look from a planning standpoint.

Uh and one clarification I want to make, uh you you saw this in your commission packet, but in some cases the plan is referred to as an area plan, and in some cases it's referred to as a sub-area plan.

And the reason we've got both in there is the sub-area plan is actually uh a term of the planning industry.

So that's it's pretty common to use that that terminology.

The Montana Land Use Planning Act or MLUPA uh specifically calls this an area plan.

So when we drafted the resolution, we wanted to be very specific to what MLUP actually calls it.

So that's why you're seeing some difference in the language there, but actually, sub-area plan is the exact same thing as the area plan uh as you read through that in your packet.

Um, just to give a quick heads up on where we're at with the lift station planning and design.

Uh, we there was a prior contract that was approved by the city commission just for the easement acquisition for the lift station.

So we got a consultant started to start talking to property owners in the area to see if we could get an easement for the for the lift station.

We don't have that lined up yet, uh, but those discussions are ongoing.

Uh we did go through a request for proposals uh process to select a design consultant for the lift station.

We've selected the design consultant, but we have not yet brought that contract to the city commission.

So that will come at a future date.

Uh what you see before you tonight uh is a result of a request for proposals process to bring Sandbell on board.

They were the highest qualified consultant selected by the committee to do this sub-area/slash area plan work.

Uh so that's what you see on the agenda tonight is is the scope and fee for that work and the contract associated with that.

Uh and the other thing that I will highlight here is that Sandbell has completed the old only other adopted sub-area plan in the city, and that's the Bozeman Health sub-area plan.

So, with that, I'll hand this off to Chris Nauman and he can talk about scope and fee on the community engagement plan.

Thanks, John.

Mayor Morrison, members of the commission, Chris Nauman.

Um I'm a senior planner, senior project manager for Sandbell um multidisciplinary consulting firm with an office here in Bozeman.

And so we took a pretty standard approach to this scope of work at the at the foundation is um as has already been mentioned tonight, the Montana Land Use and Planning Act.

We obviously must comply with state law in that regard.

And then also similarly, um any area plan must um support and further the themes, goals, and objectives of the community plan.

So that helps um frame frame in what we're gonna be doing.

And then lastly, which is just Sandbell's overall approach to planning and design projects is really to take a people-focused approach.

The only reason um planners and even civil engineers do what they do is to provide um vibrant places for people to live, work, and play.

So that sets the ground the groundwork.

Um that the framework is all the other elements that just have to be in incorporated into this plan.

So um the process generally starts by referring to a variety of other adopted city plans.

And probably most notable, but not exclusively, we will start by taking this planning area which you saw and laying out the collector and artillery arterial road grid, which has already been proposed in the Transportation Master Plan.

And then we'll layer on top of that the trails and shared use plans that have been identified in the Pratt plan.

And then add yet another layer of all the natural resources existing in the plan area from the Gallum Valley Sensitive Lands Plan.

And those would include water courses, whether they be creeks or irrigation ditches, known riparian areas, associated wetlands.

And you essentially create your base map for this plan.

And the way we think about it is then all of that is netted out of that acreage.

And what's left with is then you plan around the these framework elements.

Just for reference, you all are very familiar, but I mentioned those themes to the community plan.

So the this area plan will speak to each of those seven themes as it relates to the project area.

Again, a pretty standard public community planning process and the elements that go into it, sort of an iterative process by working with stakeholder meetings and staff to identify key elements.

That's the basis of a plan outline and some initial maps.

Those then are the materials we use to do the larger public engagement process.

Incorporating that feedback leads to a draft plan, work sessions back up here with the community development board and the city commission, incorporate their feedback and the public comment offered in those those proceedings, prepare a final plan, and then move into the adoption process.

Moving on to the community engagement plan, just again, um this is all based on the engaged boseman um framework and guidelines.

So it's the same same guidelines that every city project utilizes.

Um over on the right, we've identified decision makers, um, folks that will be involved internally to the organization, external organizations and community members, and a variety of um events and and materials and platforms are are in the plan in terms of um providing a variety of opportunities to engage with a diverse um group of of the community and the citizenry, not only in Bozeman, but as has been noted, most of this land is outside of the city, so um also engaging at the at the county level.

Uh and we'll um employ a variety of methods that I think the community is very familiar with now across all the other um projects that the city has done that includes engaged boseman.

So a webpage at EngageBoseman.net, social media, direct mail, um, e-newsletters and mail emails, um, online surveys and in-person events.

That's a whirlwind tour of the scope of work and community engagement plan.

Okay, thank you for that presentation.

Um I'll open it up to the to the city commission for any questions.

Commissioner Magic.

So we have about two hours set aside for this when I can take it out.

That was only the first part of their presentation.

They've got another 80 slides, I think.

Okay.

I'll I'll start with my hour of questions.

Um I only have one.

Well, maybe two.

Uh just I I can kind of speculate that engaging the public here might be tough, particularly private property owners.

So Chris, maybe a question for you.

How do you anticipate um reaching out to somebody who's folks who live in the vicinity?

Yeah, great question.

Um I mean, we'll use a variety of methods.

One will obviously access all the property owner information, you know, via via cadastral and reach out to them directly via via mail.

Um I think that this hopefully um will generate some you know some attention in the community and perhaps even the press.

So we hope for it to be you know well known.

Uh I think the other option, you know, we have a lot of we have a lot of flexibility within the engaged Bozeman um guidelines.

And we've done other projects where we weren't getting the type of engagement that we wanted and can pivot pretty quickly, create yard signs, um, place those in appropriate um locations in in-city right-of-way.

Um I think that um also just engaging with the community organizations that that we will be.

For instance, I'm sure Gotham Valley Land Trust, who will engage, maybe knows of and has worked with some of those property owners.

Um so I think we'll just um yeah, use a variety of methods and and give our best effort to reach everyone.

Great.

This might be a question for the other, Chris.

Uh just with the institutional knowledge you have.

Um the uh one other area plan of recent times was the Bozeman Hospital.

But there are others out there, they're just older.

Um, but I think there's five, six other area plans.

Yes.

Um the others uh that are still active are the downtown plan and the Bozeman Creek neighborhood, which is roughly um I think about Story Street to Kage in the Bozeman corridor.

So we've had others that have lived their life and moved on.

Like midtown.

Um there was there's been multiple midtowns, so some have retired, some have continued forward.

Um and then there was one that we did um late 90s around the uh 19th Avenue Oak Street area.

And that I think that was repealed in about 2018.

Uh all of the, you know, it had a series of action steps and all of those things have been done.

So it's like, okay, we'll put that one to bed and move forward.

Yeah.

Okay, great.

Just wanted to set the record straight.

Thanks.

Sure.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Okay.

Um I have to say I was really impressed with the um hospital sub area plan.

So um that gives me confidence in the organization, and thank you for your work on that.

Um I guess okay, clarifying questions.

So I I apologize, I did ask this question in an email ahead of time, but I didn't quite get the answer I was, or an answer that addressed what I was asking, so I'm gonna ask it again.

Um are we going into this project?

Um, you know, setting out, laying out money through impact fees for you know, adding capacity for growth, sewer capacity is based on household usage, right?

Um, not acreage necessarily.

And so are we going into this with a predetermined number of doors we need to serve or densities that we need to get out of this area, or is it completely open?

Um I don't know who that question is for the yeah.

Yeah, no, that's it's fair question.

So typically when we build sewer infrastructure, um we don't know the day we build it, how quickly um that will that capacity will get used up.

So you're you're paying for the capacity basically when you build those.

So yeah, you know, and unfortunately we don't control the spigot on how quickly you know those homes come in to use up that capacity.

So we're we're doing our best to figure out how much we know we should build up front and then how much we can delay.

So you know, one of the points that that I had in the presentation was that you know we're phasing the lift station construction.

So starting with 2,000 acres was basically our rough estimate of getting us maybe 20 years down the road, but who knows really?

Uh just because it's entirely dependent on how fast that area builds out.

So it's it's difficult to predict just what that growth rate will be.

And then I'll I might ask Chris to kind of weigh in on that too.

So one of the components as was mentioned is that any area plan needs to be consistent with the dominant land use plan.

Land use plan lays out future development in the area, but it does so within a range of zoning districts, as Sean said.

Uh there's a lot of yet-to-be-made decisions on both timing and location.

So we can look at it, go through the analysis that Chris described, and then look at some ranges of all right.

We know there's a minimum density in RA, we know there's minimum densities and other things.

So it's not completely, we don't know anything, but we do have a range where we can reasonably expect if it goes this way, if it goes that way.

What we normally expect is something down the middle, because there's a mix of things, and so you can navigate in a reasonable approximation, but it's not a it must be exactly this.

Thank you.

And if I can add one thing, um all annexations, all zoning decisions are made by this body.

The city does not force annex any, we don't initiate annexation.

It's all um landowner and developer initiated.

So nothing is uh is decided on this.

Um and that will those are all decisions that will end up in front of this body.

All right.

Um and then okay, so the sensitive lands plan.

It's a it's a lot of data that's been pulled together, and you can do these different layers, and then it's community values, right?

So we haven't really taken it that next step further and incorporated it into a growth policy or community plan update.

So you know, we're we're kind of using this sub-area plan as like a dry run of how we incorporate this information, this amazing amount of data that we have about our environment and what how our community wants to respect that.

So Mr.

Nauman, I was wondering if you could speak a little bit about how you plan to include the data and the values from that plan.

Um you did speak a little bit about ditches and um creeks and wetlands, but um there are a lot of other layers of environmental data in that plan.

Right.

It's um an amazing GIS database.

Um I think I've crashed my computer a couple of times trying to turn all the layers on at once, see what the map looks like.

Um so I think we'll definitely start with you know the inventory physical natural resources.

Um and then again, layer on all the required setbacks from those resources.

Uh I think the you know how we apply and and where, to be honest, this is largely going to be a mapping exercise.

Um again, we'll depend on a lot of the community engagement.

I know that um the Gallatin Valley Sensitive Lands Plan got input from people from all over Gallanton County and beyond.

And then we're you know, zooming in on this much smaller geography.

So I think that's what we will come in through the community engagement process, and and we do not have the answers.

Um we we try to arrive at um what the plan reflects by asking questions and listening.

Um and so I think that'll be a major component of the community engagement.

Uh because at least it was my understanding that you're right, this hasn't been applied yet, but that um and I might be proven wrong, but that you wouldn't again turn on all the layers and and apply that to to your plan and say, you know, okay, well, everything's got some color over it, so there's there's nothing left.

So I think it'll have to be um strategically implemented and applied because again, we also need to meet the themes of the community plan, and and some of that definitely does include providing areas for for new neighborhoods and and and incorporating gum commercial and mixed-use nodes so people can have um walkable level livable communities.

So um I think all that it's just a big balancing act.

Yeah, okay.

So maybe after like a round of community engagement, you could do like a hotspot analysis where people say, okay, this layer of you know, wildlife corridor, which there is one running right through there, um, that's really important to this community, or um, you know, the I did have a question about the surface water level.

And thank you, um Director Coates for suggesting the Department of Mines has that information.

I did not have time to go look at that, but I did notice a layer in the sensitive lands plan that talks about um an area for water recharge suitability investigation.

I'm assuming that means groundwater recharge.

And if we're looking at it for groundwater recharge, does that mean that the existing level of groundwater is somewhat low because we need that to be able to recharge?

And if that's the case, maybe it is more suitable for urban development.

I would love to see us move away from dewatering within the city limits.

That's a lot of questions.

I'm sorry.

Bear with me.

There's a lot to unpack there.

So the if you look at a lot of the wetlands in the area, so it's it's pretty wet there already.

Uh so it's we've got water that's definitely going to be close to the to the surface from a groundwater standpoint.

Um the soils out there tend not to be highly conductive.

And so maybe not the best area for groundwater recharge.

I mean, you definitely get some there.

Um but as you get basically closer to Belgrade, then you start to get more transmissive soils.

So you you tend to have areas you know over there that are a little bit more conducive to the groundwater recharge piece.

Um of the things that we will do when we get into the design contract for the Lyft station is we'll do geotechnical analysis on the lift station site itself as well as the pipeline.

Um then we'll get very detailed groundwater you know information out of that work.

Um but you know, like you noted, we can pull data from Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology.

Uh they've got you know, basically all of the wells that have been constructed in the area and all the well logs associated with it, and then the groundwater that was you know measured with those well logs.

So a lot of data to be able to pull from.

Um hopefully that kind of gets at what you're doing.

Yeah, yeah.

Um you know, full disclosure, my father's well has dropped 20 feet in 20 years.

So um, we are seeing groundwater impacts, and you know, I know I realize the idea is for this whole area to come on to municipal water and sewer, but that's gonna happen really gradually, and what do people do in the main time?

So um and then I did so I did notice just to play devil's advocate here.

Um this is a lot of this area is covered in the layer prime farmland.

So, say we go out in the community, we do engagement in this area with residents, and they say, you know, actually we really like agriculture.

Can we keep some farmland?

Is that off the table because our community plan says we're gonna make this an urban area?

Yeah.

Well, I individual landowners get to make that choice.

And that's that's how it works, and that's individual property rights.

Um this there's a lot of questions that we don't know, but that's why we're doing this plan.

Yeah.

So hopefully we'll it'll give the commission and the community uh answers to questions so they can decide about what we want to do.

And I think it's too early to presuppose something one way or another.

I think this is a real really legitimate effort to do the kind of planning that sometimes the city gets criticized for not doing.

So we don't have answers to all the questions everyone has.

We won't after this is done for sure, but we'll have a lot more information that we can use to make those kind of informed decisions.

Okay.

Um and then I did notice um maybe this is for Mr.

Nauman.

Um a thousand dollars budgeted for direct mailing postcards.

Um and then there wasn't really a delineated time of when that direct mailing was going to go out.

Is that ahead of the stakeholder meetings or is that ahead of the open houses?

Yeah, I my thought would be we would do those mailings as soon as possible back to the question of it's uh not your typical area that we're trying to engage.

So to make sure they're aware of the project, aware of the the planning process, um, direct them and and everyone we're always directing to the website because that's where the information is current and updated and all the resources are.

So I I think that drug mailing would be uh an initial advertisement that that the commission's uh hopefully um approves, approves this uh professional service agreement or launching this planning process, and you know, here's where you can find everything you're looking for, and we hope to see you at you know the variety of engagement activities.

Awesome.

Um and then did you have um ideas for venues for the open house?

Um we have not gotten gotten that far yet.

Um and I think we will work with city staff and and some of the community organizations to to do um some some strategic thinking about when and where to have those in addition to what would be the most appropriate, the most productive um pop-up events.

You know, usually when you're doing something in the city, you might pick a music on Maine or a or a farmers market at Lindley, but those might not be the best uh events for for the the population and the geography we're trying to engage with this project.

Excellent.

Thank you.

I think that was all the upfront questions that I have.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Commissioner Bode.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, and yeah, thank you for this presentation staff.

I am also really excited about um this as an opportunity to kind of do a trial run of transferring our um sensitive lands plan to more of a land use planning framework.

And to that end, I just noticed that the sustainability board was not listed as um one of the groups that were um plan to be a stakeholder.

I I think the sensitive lands plan kind of fell within their um uh authority for review, and I I think it'd be really great to bring it back to them.

And similarly, the the transportation board.

I noticed um the NPO and the urban transportation district were kind of listed on there, but um just another city board.

So this is the question section, so I'll frame it as a question.

Um I I am curious if you would consider bringing in front of additional boards besides just community development board and um you know what might work within the time frame of um when you're trying to deliver the the final product here.

Absolutely, and that's a good point.

I I think it's well worth uh the investment and time there.

Great.

That's my only question.

I think I I only have one question.

Um many of mine were asked already that's try not to editorialize too much here, but just to kind of rewind to some of the considerations that got us here was some feelings of whoa, the this Gucci area lift station question on the on our CIP uh is a you know a needed step in in unlocking the western edge of the city for for developments of of any kind.

Um, where we have other planning documents that sort of play into this as to what we would expect or what we'd want to see out there as well as can this consistent conversation of how do we get commercial to want to take the risk to build and and come online and all of this sort of informed.

I'm I'm curious at how, and maybe I'm getting a little uh off base as to what other documents talk to this one.

Um, but just noting one plan that we don't talk about that often, but but comes up in most of our conversations that relate to the western edge of the city of Bozeman being our our triangle plan um that comes from our planning coordination committee with you know with the with cities of of Belgrade and Gallatin County.

How does this talk to that?

How how did they collaborate as as mutual plans in this?

I saw it, I saw a Chris Saunders stirring as well.

Yeah, we we always go first and let Chris come up and make sure we get it get it right.

Um yeah, no, I think the triangle plan and then the triangle trails plan um both inform this plan and um and actually our firm under our former name uh did both of those plans, uh Sanderson Stewart.

So I think it's really an interesting.

You look at the MPO sort of bridging the gap between Bozeman and Belgrade, the triangle plan sort of created another another connection, and and now we're again on a much smaller geography, gonna drill down in a little bit more detail.

So um excellent um question, Mayor Morrison, and and both those triangle plans will be um part of part of the background and and also you know I'm gonna not get this exactly right, but those are certainly several years old.

And um and things, you know, have have changed in certain regards.

Um so it'll be another chance to actually kind of revisit some of the priorities um in in those two plans.

Great.

Thank you.

That's my only question.

Are there any any damage control from Director Coates or Chris Saunders?

Okay, any other questions from commissioners.

Okay, we will wrap up our question section and we'll open up for public comment.

Any public comment in the room this evening on our Gucci lift station area plan.

One more request for public comment in the room.

Mr.

D, are we seeing any public comment online?

Mayor Morrison, we are not.

Okay.

We will close the public comment on this item and bring it up here for a motion discussion and vote.

I'm not sure where we were at.

Maybe we're back to Commissioner Magic.

Great.

I moved to authorize the city manger to sign a professional service agreement with Sam Bell Rocky Mountain for the Goochill area plan.

We can't proceed.

City attorney, do we have second?

Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

Commissioner Magic, if you like to speak to your motion.

Yes.

I am excited.

One quick clarification.

Can we do both of these motions at once?

Would you like to add the second?

Okay.

I had momentum going.

And I and I saw it, and I had to stop the momentum.

You're just in charge.

That's what you get to do.

Okay, motion two.

I move to adopt the resolution for the Gucci area plan, community engagement plan.

Two plans.

Second.

Okay, it's been moved and seconded.

Now you really have the floor.

Okay.

Well, I am really excited about both these motions.

The first one, I'm particularly glad that Sam Bell is doing this.

Chris, uh, just your experience doing some other plans in the area recent plans, including the hospital plan, I think will serve us well.

I didn't support uh, in fact, I think I was the lone voice against supporting the Gucci Lip station, because I wanted this to come first.

And I think that I'm sure my fellow planning friends have gotten tired of hearing from me over the years of wanting more of these area plans, just an opportunity, not only to kind of dive down into the details and take into consideration all the other plans out there to kind of coordinate all our plans, but to give the public an opportunity to speak prior to developments happening.

And what we've had mostly today is the public coming in kind of after the fact, you know, maybe with annexations, it's a little different, but once you lay down zoning, things are pretty much done.

So this is a way to be proactive.

It's uh opportunity again to take into account our sensitive lands plan, transportation plan, coordinate things like you know, where does uh a cyclist who's gonna live in this area?

How did it go from there to downtown?

So really excited.

Thanks so much to Director Coates for getting this movie and to planning staff ultimately for also making it happen.

I think that's all the comments I have.

I'm gonna be supporting both motions.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Thank you.

Um so I'm really glad actually that Mr.

Mayor, you brought up the triangle plan because just poking around the sensitive lands plan over the last five days or so within this context.

I did notice that you know it the triangle plan currently has Belgrade and Bozeman urban areas touching.

And I mean, since I was a kid, that's been a sort of awful joke, like uh, someday Bozeman and Belgrade are gonna be the same city, right?

So now looking at the sensitive lands plan, we actually have you know some idea of wildlife corridors that maybe we do want to revisit that at some point and just say, you know what?

What does it look like to make a little more room here so that we're respecting the other users of our land and water?

So thank you for bringing that up.

Um also going through the prep plan with this in mind as well.

I I did notice we have a really good track record of like yes, we're expanding the city, and to a lot of people that looks like sprawl, but as we go out, we do create a lot of new parks and a lot more open space than our urban core has.

And so we are doing a better job of respecting those uses of land as we grow.

So I'm hanging on to that and being hopeful.

I was thinking about engagement areas where you could do open houses.

And then also outlaw brewing.

Do something at a brewery, have some fun, invite the neighbors.

I don't know.

And then with okay, in the engagement plan on page four the milestones, the July work session for this commission, July-ish.

I'm sure the timelines are a little bit fudgeable.

I would love an analysis of the what we heard.

So how did the first draft incorporate the public comment and the community engagement to then influence the second draft?

So I would I would love to see a sort of highlighted breakdown of that.

Yeah, yeah.

Thank you for for doing this work and putting together this engagement plan.

I'm really glad you're planning to send out the postcards right away.

So thank you for that.

Commissioner Bodie.

Thank you, Mayor.

And yeah, thanks to uh the comments that my colleagues have already made.

I have only been up here for about you know a year and a half now, but I I don't think I can count the number of times I've heard Commissioner Magic talk about identifying the things that you want to preserve or um uh kind of keep in the land use and then designing the land around those areas.

And I I think this is exactly um getting to that uh land use planning ethic.

I was really excited to hear in the presentation the idea that like we're we're taking stock of everything that's here that we um cherish and like and we're just subtracting that out of the um planning area um acreage.

So I yeah, that's really exciting.

Um a lot of the conversations I had this electoral season were about kind of this area as we grow towards Belgrade and how are we going to preserve key wildlife migration corridors?

And so I'm very interested in this translation of our sensitive lands plan to um this planning area and kind of our our larger um you know planned growth to the west.

I will note that the sensitive land plan um kind of identifies a potential grizzly bear pathway going through this zone between here and Belgrade.

It seems like there's really only two wildlife migration corridors left that we have the potential to preserve, and um this lift station will kind of open up development for through one of them.

So yeah, I think it'll be a really interesting conversation in our community.

Um I would love to engage wildlife experts on is the 300-foot riparian era area buffer around our streams big enough for an actual wildlife corridor.

Um I I don't know what what kind of tools we have to protect more than 300 feet, but I'd be really keen to um explore that.

And I think this is a great time to have that conversation.

So yeah, super in support of having this um area plan ahead of time and um grateful for Commissioner Magic for bringing up the uh the need for this, um, especially in advance of that development.

And then uh lastly, I'll I'll just say that I was really excited to see the MPO and um Streamline listed as partners on this.

I think multi-use um multi-use transportation is something that often gets um included as an afterthought, and oftentimes it's really hard to build that out later.

So having all of our, you know, a cyclists and walking enthusiasts involved in this from the start will be super great.

Um so with all that said, I'll I'll be in support of both motions.

It's great to go with the end.

Uh this was a great spot that the mayors had uh for a long time, too long to be able to go last and say, wow, all my colleagues are really sharp.

Um but in this case that that feels true.

I I have I have little to add.

I think some of the pieces that are sort of swirling in these considerations that they come up in these conversations are around, yeah, this question of Bozeman and Belgrade uniting at some point.

Will there will there be the ceremonial moment where the mayor of Bozeman and the mayor of Belgrade shake hands across their respective boundaries?

And what we've sort of been watching as uh Belgrade, which is aggressively annexing.

You know, I think I think we've had a couple hundred acres since since I've been on the commission in the time in that same time.

I think they had 2,000 acres.

Um they're growing, we're growing northwest, they're also growing northwest.

And so there might not be, it might not be in in you know, many of our lifetimes that that that that ever happens.

Um but I think it's I think we're doing the due diligence of city governance and good planning to at least entertain that possibility.

Um, because some of those it feels like a quintessential, you know, we need to we get accused of not planning for growth, and here's us trying to make good on that with an opportunity where there's some level of predictability of this infrastructure will unlock development.

It will open up a potential for change.

Um, and again, as as our city manager uh explain this is by petition of property owners.

If throughout this process we find there's actually just it's never gonna happen, it wouldn't make sense to build this lift station, it wouldn't make sense to to um plan for commercial or residential or otherwise.

Um so this this just feels like a more modernization of trying to look outside of our of our direct city limits as we imagine where our community goes.

Um I would just to plug, I I know that the the Gallatin County is is listed in many parts as a partner.

The PCC could be an interesting you know, potential meeting for as a hearing.

I know that those seven hearings will be um tight to be able to find exactly where the the you know the juice is worth the squeeze.

Um but just seeing this is this is absolutely a Belgrade conversation and a Gallatin County conversation, of course.

Um, and the PCC is you know, it's one of those opportunities where we're already all in the in the same room.

Um but otherwise, yeah, really excited.

Um excited for the staff that we've got working on this.

Grateful to have um Sand Bell, who's already been, you know, his story um local leader on on some of these conversations and being able to stand at the helm um excited to see where this goes.

Excited to support these two motions.

Any other discussion on our items this evening?

Okay, seeing none, Mr.

Newby, would you poll the commission?

Yeah, here's what we're gonna do.

We're gonna vote on one motion and then we're gonna vote on the other motion.

So um Commissioner Magic.

Aye.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Aye.

Commissioner Bodie.

Aye.

Mayor Morrison.

Aye.

All right.

First motion passes 4-0.

And uh for motion to Commissioner Magic.

Aye.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Aye.

Commissioner Bodie.

Aye.

Mayor Morrison.

Aye.

Both motions pass.

See, even I only try to pretend that I'm running the meetings.

You know, I if I if I didn't show up, we would still be able to have a meeting.

If Alex doesn't show up, yeah, we just go home.

Okay.

Uh, we uh that is our only action item.

Any FYI from the commission.

Any FY from staff?

Okay, seeing no further business to come up with a city commission.

I have one.

Commissioner Bowdoin.

Um, I just want to look up a written public comment we had about how because it has not snowed for so long.

Could we please put up the tennis, the the tennis nets and the pickleball nets?

Um, and I'm I'm just curious.

Um under what circumstances we might consider, you know, restarting um some of the recreation opportunities that are a bit more you know summer and and fall related considering.

I think that's a great idea because the minute we put them up, it's gonna snow.

So we need snow, so we'll get them up.

I will talk to the park and works um director about that.

I know there's some um formal or informal agreement we have with the neighborhood about that gap between uh fall closure and spring opening that um provides some level of peace for some neighbors, but let me talk to Mitch about that tomorrow.

It can perhaps spiritually reverse because you know the rumor was that last winter, you know, we had record-breaking uh snowblower purchases, which then meant it didn't snow this winter.

So if we put up the the nets, it balances it out, and then the rest of the winter will be.

And um you know yeah I I just feel the sentiment of a lot of people looking for some way to be outside in um a way that they enjoy even though we don't have quite as much snow rise as we might like at this time year.

Okay.

Seeing no further business come before the city, this meeting is adjourned.