The Bozeman City Commission met on Tuesday, February 24, 2026, at 6:00 PM in the Commission Room at City Hall. All five commissioners (Joey Morrison, Jennifer Madgic, Douglas Fischer, Emma Bode, Alison Sweeney) were present. The meeting included a consent agenda, public comments on non-agenda items, a special presentation on unseen crimes, and a lengthy appeal hearing on the Sundance Springs Commercial Lot 2 site plan, which was continued to March 24, 2026. The meeting was extended to 10:30 PM and adjourned at approximately 10:51 PM.
Special Presentation (H.1): Detective Captain Anthony Hutchings of the Bozeman Police Department presented "The Story of Unseen Crime." He described the Special Victims Unit (formed in 2017) which investigates sexual and physical abuse of adults and children, including internet crimes against children. Key statistics: The unit handles about 350 high-level felony cases per year; roughly 65% go to SVU, and 45% involve children. Estimated underreporting is 63–75% for adult crimes and 70–90% for child crimes. National statistics indicate 10% of partner family member assault crimes involve strangulation, and 43% of actual homicides involve strangulation. The goal is community outreach, education, and connecting survivors with treatment. The next sexual assault awareness event is April 15, 2026, at the Safety Center.
Action Item I.1: Appeal 25769 – Sundance Springs Commercial Lot 2 Site Plan (25238)
Well, good evening and welcome and thank you for joining us. As we begin tonight, I'd like to remind everyone of a few things to make it easier for you to follow along and to make public comment. You can watch us in real time in several different ways. Attend in person in the committee room as the commission room as uh most of you are here today. You can stream us live on your computer by going to the city commission page at Bozeman.net and clicking on the view live event link. You can watch this meeting on cable TV on channel 190. And you can also join us via video conference. You'll find that link on the meet by clicking on the meetings icon on Bozeman's main webpage to find the city commission agenda. Click on the link to register and follow the prompts to enter the meeting. Lastly, you can go old school and just listen. You'll find the phone number for the video conference and the access code on the agenda, and please note that this is listening only, and you will be unable to give verbal public comment using this method of participation. If you would like to offer public comments this evening, there are two ways to do so. You can make your person your public comment in person here in the meeting room. Or if you're joining us through a video conference, you can use the raise your hand feature. When it is your turn to comment, staff will call you by name. A reminder that you can always provide public comment, written public comment before the meeting by sending an email to Comments at Bozeman.net or by visiting our public comment webpage on Bozeman.net. Any public comment received by noon today has been distributed to the commission and read by all of us. And it was a lot of reading. We will hear in person public comment first. We'll hear in-person public comment first, and followed by those joining via video conference to allow time for the remote attendees to cue up for the comments. Mayor Morrison is joining us via video from Great Falls. So there are five of us here today. And if you are now willing and able or willing or able, uh, we ask that you you stand and join us for the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence. That is correct. Excellent. Do we have any FYI from the commission? Yes, just Commissioner Magic. Thank you. Um so many of us may know that the 2005 legislature made some changes to our property taxes. And the intent is to raise property taxes on second homes. And I just wanted to let everyone know who might have a second home who rents their second home. That March 1st is the deadline to get an application in to the Department of Revenue. And you could have your taxes potentially remain the same as if that were your uh primary residence. So Sunday, March 1st is the deadline to get your application in. And those applications can be found on the Department of Revenue's website at homestead mt.gov. Thank you. Commissioner Sweeney. Thank you. Um I just wanted to give two updates on advisory boards that met last week. Um at the historic preservation advisory board meeting, we met the consultants from the Lakota group that will be working on our neighborhood conservation overlay district design guidelines update. The board was overall impressed with the consultants and their grasp of the situation in Bozeman and their acknowledgement of the correlation between historic character and economic vitality. One public commenter during the meeting expressed interest in a tool that the consultant had used in the creation of design guidelines in other areas. The tool was the inclusion of color coding of the design guidelines that would differentiate between things the developer or homeowner must do and a guideline that has some leeway in it. So folks are already engaging. The board gave several really constructive recommendations on the engagement plan for this project, and I hope this body will agree to adopt those. When we review the plan at our regular meeting on March 10th, it's occurred to me that there are three ingredients necessary for a successful NCOD design guideline rewrite. Those are first that we engage a capable firm of consultants to draft a robust, defensible code and policy. Second, that the whole community show up to participate, making sure that the consultants hear them and incorporate their feedback into the final adopted policy and code. And third, finally, now that we are under the regulatory framework of the Montana Land Use and Planning Act, we need a city staff willing to uphold, apply, and defend the final adopted code and policy that does indeed reflect the wishes of the community. After meeting with the Lakota group, I am satisfied that we have the first ingredient.