Well, welcome.

I am excited by today's meeting.

We have a full agenda, a fun agenda, a vote on our uh engagement plan for the rewrite of our our neighborhood our conservation overlay district.

We have a second look at a 300 million dollar five-year public works plan.

I always enjoy the FYI from our commissioners and Mr.

Wynn.

And um we have the great unknown of public comment on non-agenda items.

So before we begin some basics, you can join us several different ways.

Um one of them is here in the room.

We also can join on Zoom and uh uh via cable and the old school phone in.

All that information is available at Bozeman, our website, Bozeman.net.

We will take testimony from in the room first and then online.

Um we will take testimony on several points throughout this agenda, specifically on the consent, the action items, the work session.

We won't take any public comment during the FYI um or discussion.

And um and if there's something on this that you would like to talk to us about, there your item is uh item J, the public comment on non-agenda items falling within our purview.

Um we asked that you keep it civil and respectful.

And um before we get into the pledge of this and the uh and our moment of silence, I would just like to note that that uh March 5th is the seven is uh was the 17th anniversary of the downtown explosion.

And you know, by the grace of God, we just lost one soul to that tragedy, terrible.

And I'd like to bring her into the room and uh just hold her and her loved ones and families in your thoughts.

And with that, if you're able, please stand with us and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance at a moment of silence.

Liberty justice.

Can I have a magic?

I move to authorize the absence of Mayor Morrison.

Second.

Commissioner Magic.

Aye.

Commissioner Body?

Aye.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Aye.

Aye.

He is excused.

I understand we also have a change to the agenda.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

We have two changes.

Actually, we're going to take consent item H eight and consent item two.

And we are going to move those to a future meeting when we have five commissioners present.

Fair enough.

So H eight and I one are off the agenda for tonight.

They'll be back.

Any uh FYI from our commissioner magic.

Yeah, thanks.

I have a walk with the commissioner scheduled.

Uh this is gonna be March 26th.

So two weeks from this Thursday.

We're not meeting next week, so I thought I'd get word out early.

So March 26th at 3 30 in the afternoon.

Uh the idea is to walk Oak Street.

And just the section of the oak in around the regional park.

We're gonna meet at the regional park parking lot, and I should call this really a walk with two commissioners because Commissioner Pitcher, excuse me, Deputy Mayor Fishel will be joining me.

Any other FYI?

Any other FYI.

I have one.

So I was at the school board meeting last night, talking in part about the walk with the commissioner.

And they were going over their capital improvement plan just like we are doing ours.

And one of the they mentioned that they have a lot of deferred maintenance, much like we do, but most of their deferred maintenance is set is all focused all around playground equipment.

They're just, it's it's compared to a boiler in the in a school.

The playground equipment tends to suffer.

It struck me that we are all a community.

You know, all those uh those playgrounds are used uh by communities in in the uh weekends after school.

Um it's the same, the elementary district has basically the same taxpayers as us.

Um I would just I understand again understanding that we have a lot of deferred maintenance on our own and a lot of our own responsibilities.

It would just be lovely to see some sort of uh synergy if there if it exists um to help you know work and realize that those are essentially neighborhood parks.

There's one playground, and especially that that um superintendent Bertram uh mentioned that needs some help is is and it's a new one at the Wilson School downtown for their special needs students.

Um there's no playground in this community where you could put a kid's wheelchair on one of those little discs and spin them around.

And they're trying to create that, it would be basically the only accessible playground in town.

And you know, I think that's one of those things where we could we could you know live in our live our our belonging to Bozeman values in some part by by again seeing to what extent we could we could help the district bring that uh make that real to what whatever extent we can.

But that's that's my only commissioner went.

I mean Commissioner Wynne.

Congratulations.

I'm as far from a commissioner as you could get.

Uh just one I would like to um highlight uh H3, and that is uh will allow the mayor to sign the annual Montana Historic Preservation Office, certified local government program grant application.

And for years we have been a certified local government, it's a CLG since 1991, in fact, and this is to uh help um support our uh historic preservation program, work with the Park Service under the National Historic Preservation Act.

So pretty excited that's on the consent item tonight.

Fantastic.

Thank you.

Um Commission disclosures.

Anything about our agenda tonight that uh we should know about.

No.

Um, we have minutes to approve.

Yes, of course.

Um I would entertain a motion to approve our minutes from uh three sets of minutes from January, February, and last January.

I move to approve the minutes as submitted.

Second.

Mr.

Moss.

Commissioner Bowdy.

Aye.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Aye.

Commissioner Madger?

Aye.

Deputy Mayor Fisher.

Aye.

They approved uh 4-0.

That brings us to our consent.

Mr.

When you highlighted H3.

Is there another one you want to we'll move right to the vote?

Oh, um, public comment first on the consent items.

So this is consent items H1 through H7.

Any public comment in the room on consent on the consent agenda.

Again, we have taken off H8 and consent two.

Second call.

Third call.

Mr.

Moss, are we seeing anything online?

Anyone online?

I'm showing no request for comment.

Fantastic.

I will entertain a motion.

Commissioner Sweeney.

I move to approve consent agenda items H1 through H7.

Second.

Approved by Commissioner Sweeney, and seconded by Commissioner Bodie.

Or motion by movement.

Mr.

Moss.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Aye.

Commissioner Bowdy.

Aye.

Commissioner Matter.

Aye.

Deputy Member.

Aye.

Consent is approved.

That brings us to uh public comment on non-agenda items falling within the purview and jurisdiction of this commission.

So this is time for a comment on any matter falling within the scope of the Bozeman City Commission.

Please note that we can the city commission cannot take action on any item which does not appear on the agenda.

All persons are asked to address the city commission in a civil and courteous manner.

And members of the audience shall be respectful of others.

Please state your name, state whether you're a resident of the city or a property owner.

And limit your comments to three minutes.

Good evening.

Good evening.

Daniel Cardi Bozeman residents speaking for myself.

I'm speaking tonight to ask the Commission to overturn its December 16th 2025 decision to allow 90-foot buildings by right in B3 zoning districts.

On December 16th, the City Commission adopted the unified development code update with language that increased the allowable maximum building height in B-3 from 70 feet to 90 feet by right.

The UDC update went into effect on February 1st.

Currently, all B3 zoning lies within the NCOD and forms a halo around Bozeman's historic Main Street, which is zoned B3C and only allows a 60-foot maximum building height by right.

It's axiomatic that allowing 90-foot buildings in B3 by right will cause irreparable harm and irreversible damage to Bozeman's downtown core historic neighborhoods.

Also, allowing 90-foot buildings in B-3 by right means the city will get no community benefits in exchange for the extra height.

For example, no cash in lieu of affordable housing units, which will make Bozeman even more unaffordable, forced downtown employees farther from their jobs, and increased sprawl.

And allowing 90-foot buildings in B3 by right will exacerbate downtown parking problems, which already discourage many locals from venturing downtown except on special occasions.

As such, by May 31, 2026, which will be four months after February 1, a timeframe mentioned by Deputy Mayor Fisher, I am asking the Commission to meet and overturn its December 16th decision to allow 90-foot buildings in B3 by right and return the maximum allow of building height in B3 to 70 feet, or even better to 60 feet to match the B3C zoning of Bozeman's historic Main Street.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Cardi.

Good evening.

Good evening, Deputy Mayor, Commissioners and Staff, Jim Webster, Bonton Neighborhood, member of Historic Preservation Advisory Board and the INC boards, but I speak only for myself here.

A fair bit has been shared at this podium in 2026 moments ago regarding the B390 foot height limit, but up until now, there has not been a wider netcast out in the community for feedback.

The INC recently completed a survey that addressed interim zoning and asked residents across 14 Bozeman neighborhoods if they would consider it.

The context under which the question was asked pointed to the section of state code that permitted such a consideration if there deemed urgency.

The urgency cited for residents to consider for answering the survey questions were that was that two policies revolving around the NCOD in the landmark historic preservation project that covers all of Bozeman were not yet finalized.

Residents were thus asked to consider pausing the approval of large project applications over the next year, and to also weigh in on whether or not the INC board should write a letter of support to the city asking to hold a public hearing on this topic of possibly pausing large project application approval for a one-year period.

The highlights of the survey were that 428 people sent various responses back, and fully 83% of those answering expressed support for pausing development for one year, while 84% supported INC's writing, a letter of support for the city to hold a public hearing on the issue, as INC will discuss these results and other agenda items later at their upcoming meeting of its neighborhood reps this Thursday afternoon at 4.30 here in this room.

No final action items have come out of this.

Given other agenda items tonight, it seemed appropriate to share these highlights here.

Another item worthy of note is that well over a hundred of the survey respondents lived outside of the NCOD.

If everyone thought that this was only a topic that people living within the boundaries of the NCOD might have passion for, that was dispelled.

The lowest neighborhood percentage for indicating approval of an interim zoning initiative was 68%.

Still a high number, and this was from a neighborhood outside of the NCOD.

At first glance, it would appear that the community is indicated interest in furthering this conversation at the city level.

It has been mentioned that you all on the commission would like to give the new UDC ordinance a four-month trial period before any new discussion comes up.

Fair enough.

Thank you for listening tonight.

Thank you, Mr.

Webster.

And it was a big survey.

If anybody wants to read it, it's a matter of public record.

It's about 16 pages.

Thank you.

Any further public comment on non-agenda items in the room tonight.

Second call.

Third call.

Mr.

Moss, are we seeing anyone online?

First up, we have Marcia Kevin.

Ms.

Keviny, good evening.

Good evening.

Thanks very much.

Yeah, Marcia Cavaney, Bozeman resident.

And just a quick note, I wanted to say thank you very much for removing the not the second consent item about L Street.

So I really appreciate that and look forward to the public hearing on that in the future.

And then a quick note about the NCOD, not the engagement, which we'll be going over tonight, but also a consideration of how to deal with projects that are still moving forward and namely the death um demolitions.

And tonight I'm just speaking off the cup for myself, but with the Guthrie 2 approval being undergoing legal review, I um along with other people and the Bozeman Tree Coalition.

We just question the validity, validity of allowing that project to move forward with a site plan that's you know undergoing a lawsuit.

So I don't know how to go about finding it like if that's in the code that that's allowed anyway, but I do think it would be really worth pursuing, however you guys can, the commission or whether it's a manic city manager or Craig Sullivan uh job.

But it is confusing to the public that that could continue to go forward with the demolition of the trees, even though that demolition is part of a site plan that might get overturned.

So that is a big concern to me.

And also a third thing, another way I don't know how to get this into public attention for codes, but the st there is state code that says trees that you can't take a nest, say for songbirds under the migratory bird treaty act.

Um if trees, large mature trees are cut down between May and July, there's very likely a bird nesting in those.

And so a survey needs to be done of any trees that need to come down, or you know, if the owner wants to take them down to ensure that there are no nesting birds in there.

And if there are, that owner needs a permit from the state to be able to take that tree down.

And we have trees continuing to come down on you know, kind of year-round through Bozeman.

So just wonder if there's a way to bring that into code in the various departments that deal with tree removal, whether it's utilities or developments or transportation issues.

Um just wanted to put that out there.

All right, thank you very much.

Thank you, Ms.

Kevin.

Mr.

Ross, anybody else on mine?

I'm showing no further requests.

So I will close public comment on non-agenda items and bring it up for our first action items.

Mr.

Webb.

Thank you.

And Mayor, Commissioner, Deputy Mayor, I apologize.

I thought you said consent item, and I you said FYI, and I just went straight into the exciting consent item.

So I apologize for that.

Uh the first action item tonight is approval of the community engagement plan for the neighborhood conservation overlay district.

The NCOD design guidelines update.

And here is our Deputy Director of Community Development, Rebecca Harbage.

Good evening, Mayor and Commission.

I'm just pulling up the slides here.

Okay.

Well, actually, sorry, this is not.

We were actually hoping we could have our consultant online share their slides.

Lakota group, if you can hear me, can you pull the slides up on Zoom?

Yes, there's um two other NACORA members uh just making sure you all know they are present as attendees.

Um but I'll go ahead.

Oh do I need to get there?

Mike took over.

Saraj, we can see you, but not the slides.

Right.

I'll go ahead and get started while we pull out the slides.

I don't need a slide for my first intro remarks.

Um good evening, Mayor, Deputy Mayor, and Commission.

My name is Rebecca Harbage.

I'm the deputy director for the community development department.

Um happy to be here tonight talking to you about our community engagement plan for the update to the design guidelines for our neighborhood conservation overlay district.

Um I wanted to just let you know that our director Aaron George is also present in the room as well as our consultants, um, the Lakota group, they are present online.

And a few notes before I do get started.

Um, you may have already heard, but we did uh receive notice that our historic preservation officer Sarah Rosenberg has put in her notice she will be leaving the city after more than eight years of hard work with the city.

So we really appreciate her and wanted to thank her.

Um she's not able to be here tonight with us, but it is bittersweet.

Um Sarah cares deeply about these projects and really wanted to see them moving forward.

And as probably many of you know, there's never a good time to make a career change, but we're really excited for her.

She's moving on to a great opportunity.

Um fortunately for all of us, she's not going far, and she's staying right here in the Bozeman community, so I think that's great.

We are also really lucky to have two um very skilled consulting teams on board to help us lead the NCOD project that we'll be talking about tonight, and also our local landmark project, which is ongoing.

Um, Erin George has been involved in both of those projects since the start, and she and I have both been in every meeting with the consultants, and we feel very prepared to step in and help guide these projects forward as we transition in Sarah's absence.

And on that note, um, I just did want to address the fact that we will be working hard to fill the position that is left vacant when Sarah leaves us at the end of the week.

Um we are going to be looking to hire somebody who is full-time and has historic preservation education and experience because we recognize those are important skill sets, um, both for these projects and for the community ongoing in conversations.

So with all of that said, why are we here tonight?

Um first off, I just want to say that the historic preservation advisory board did recommend approval of the plan, this um community engagement plan at their February 18th meeting with a few amendments that I will go into later in the presentation.

And so, as far as our agenda for the evening, I just want to provide a quick refresher on the project.

Um, I know it's been a while since we've talked about this project.

I'll share our commitment to public engagement and participation as well as what that will look like as part of this project.

I want to introduce our consulting team and let them speak about their experience on projects like this across the country.

And then finally, want to leave you with a timeline for the project and be available to answer any questions that you have.

So next slide, please.

All right, so let's get situated.

This project is focused on the NCOD or the neighborhood conservation overlay district.

You can see that on the screen outlined in the pink dashed line.

The NCOD is an area of the city that encompasses several historic neighborhoods and surrounds Bozeman's downtown core.

You see the neighborhoods in the colored blocks on the screen.

Next slide, please.

This project will provide a comprehensive update and overhaul to the design guidelines that apply to the properties within that boundary that we just showed.

So this is um a document that was adopted originally in 2006.

It had minor updates in 2015, and the community development department has continued throughout that time and to today to apply the guidelines to development applications within the NCOD boundary.

Our efforts to apply the guidelines and to educate applicants about applicable requirements have made it clear to us that the document is well out of date and it is quite challenging to implement.

I just want to pause for a second and say it may be helpful to think about where our community was in 2006 when this document was adopted and where we are now 20 years later.

In 2006, we hardly saw development over three stories in the city.

The population was half what it is today, and we were about to enter a recession.

Contrast that with today.

Everyone knows Bozeman's a wonderful place to live.

We have experienced rapid growth and development pressure in the last several years.

I'm sure all of you are well aware of that.

And with that has come changes to zoning and land use policy as well.

Change at that pace can be jarring, especially in the older parts of town, such as in the NCOD.

And you've heard feedback to that point as part of the UDC update project.

And in fact, this project itself tonight has come through as a commission priority and was also recognized in the phase one recommendations from our landmark project.

And those were presented last May.

So this has been a long time in the works, and we're really excited to get going.

We want to update the document to align with current historic preservation best practices, reflect community goals and values.

And to do that and to better apply design review, we really need a few things.

We need clearer language about what's required and what's advisory.

We need more objective statements.

We need easy to understand visual examples, and we need predictability for both staff and applicants as well as the community.

With this project, we also have an opportunity to establish design standards and recommendations that respect community heritage and values, welcome continued economic vitality to our town, and accommodate the inevitable growth that great cities always experience.

To do that, we are going to need to engage the community and listen to the community.

That is why we are here tonight.

So next slide.

Engagement generates buy-in and a sense of ownership and decisions, and public participation leads to stronger, better informed, and more lasting decisions.

Those are what are underpinning our efforts with this community engagement plan.

This project focuses on an area, the NCOD, that we know folks in the community care deeply about.

That's true for those who live within the NCOD, as well as for anyone who travels or visits downtown Bozeman and sees what just makes this community so vibrant and so incredible.

We anticipate as a result a high level of public interest, and we want to match that with a high level of effort in community engagement.

As you know, the city of Bozeman has made a commitment to community engagement.

We want to increase engagement in our decision making, and so that goes from the adoption of the 2018 strategic plan through the incorporation and launch of the Engage Bozeman platform.

And then also, just as of late, the Montana Land Use Planning Act actually requires a public participation plan for all projects that are related to the land use plan and its implementation.

Next slide.

Most of this that I'm going to cover on this slide is included in the plan, but I want to provide a recap for those of you who may need a refresher as well as for anybody who's tuning in who didn't get a chance to review the plan.

Community engagement, of course, as I've said, is essential to updating our design guidelines.

The community engagement plan is a public document.

We think that's wonderful.

It provides enough information for the public to understand the project.

So it's not a comprehensive description of the project.

We have that elsewhere, and we'll share that with you.

But it is a little bit of information so the public knows what we're talking about with this plan.

We also want to share with the public what they can expect in terms of when and how they'll be asked to engage and how they might be able to weigh in and affect decisions that get made as part of this effort.

We appreciate all of the public input that we've received to date.

It really helps us shape a better plan.

And with the engagement effort or overarching goals you can see on the screen, but just to summarize, we want to inform the community about the role of design guidelines or design standards and gather meaningful input about community values and priorities related to historic preservation, neighborhood character, and design review.

Through this effort, we'd like to build a shared understanding of the need for design review to ensure that the update is grounded in local knowledge and informed by those who live, work, and invest in our community.

We want to provide ample opportunities for the public to make to provide feedback to evaluate any decisions or alternatives prior to final decision making.

And we want to foster a sense of ownership and collaboration in this project.

As I said, decisions that we make as a city affect people and the place that they live.

And it's really important that they feel that they have had a voice and an opportunity to participate in that.

The document itself, the community engagement plan, that is, that document provides a high-level plan for engagement and participation throughout the project.

And I say high level with intention.

While we have thought through the potential engagement methods, the timing, how this will all roll out as part of the project, we want to maintain the flexibility to be able to adapt our approach.

And as the project moves forward, we might see that community feedback or response or participation requires that we shift the methods or change exactly how we're approaching it.

So we did not intend with this plan to lay out precisely all of the details of what we will be doing.

Next slide, please.

This slide just gives you an overview of some of the methods that we've been proposed that we've proposed in the plan.

We did develop this plan with our consultants, the Lakota group, based on their experience and the methods that they've seen successful in projects like this across the country, as well as the experience of our staff working in this community.

As I mentioned on the last slide, we really want to be flexible to allow public interest and participation to guide our engagement efforts, and we want to make sure that there are plenty of opportunities.

So you can see we've identified a whole array of different engagement methods.

A few items that I'd like to highlight here.

First, we have proposed a neighborhood focus group.

In addition to outreach across the whole community, updates to community boards.

We want to carve out space to hear specifically from the folks who live within the NCOD.

While, of course, our history and heritage are meaningful to a broad array of people, both within the community and visitors, the folks who spend every day in these neighborhoods may have unique perspectives, and we need to hear those.

I also wanted to point out the online survey or questionnaire and the walk-in conversation tours.

The historic preservation advisory board requested that those be included in our plan as required elements and not just options that we may decide to pursue.

We've discussed this with our consultants, and we feel that we can achieve that.

We can incorporate those.

Speaking to some of the public comments that I've seen coming in already, I did want to note that of course we'll work to ensure that any surveys that we do are unbiased and we're not asking lead-in questions.

We plan to work closely with the Lakota group.

They have lots of experience doing community surveys.

And we've already been discussing how inclusion of some visual elements in the survey may be helpful to educate the community on what they're looking at.

City staff is going to share responsibility for our engagement activities with our consultants.

We'll have intensive periods of engagement when the consultants are here in town, such as hopefully in mid-April for the first time.

But then the work's not going to stop when they're not here.

So we'll continue engagement efforts as led by the city staff.

Let's see, I just lost my place.

Or you might see things coming out from city staff or updates to other boards or commission even.

So with that, I think it's time to turn it over to our consultants.

I'd like to let them talk about their experience.

But before I do, does anybody have questions for me on what you've seen so far?

Would we I prefer to lump all the questions together unless you're that works?

Would that be our problem?

Yep.

I mean, the the thank you.

Yep.

So with that, I'll let Siraj take it away and I'll stay here in case you have anything that comes up.

Great.

Thank you so much, Rebecca.

Um you pretty much described everything that we we we have talked about previously with HPAP and also a lot of what I was gonna talk about, which is great.

Um we're very much aligned and we're excited to be here.

My name's Sharaj, and I'm a senior vice president with the Lakota group.

And um other team members of mine are present during this call, but they are um attendees.

They're not uh with me as a panelist right now because I'm just briefly presenting to you all.

But I um want to also mention that aside from the Dakota group, we're teaming up with Douglas Gilbert, um, who is a preservation architect.

Um he's also with us on this project and will be with us on the field.

Um the Dakota group is Chicago based, and we have been doing historic preservation for 35 years, and we've done it on in a different in a few different ways.

Um we've done historic preservation plans, we've done design guidelines, we've done um national nomin and register nominations, we've done survey work.

So we understand all the different facets of historic preservation, and we plan to bring that to the table.

Most importantly, we take engagement very seriously, and it is part of every single project that we work on.

So I'll be just walking us through a few of um these examples.

But I also wanted to mention that we understand what's happening in Bozeman today.

We understand that there's a we're experiencing significant growth, like Rebecca was saying, um, and with that comes redevelopment pressure.

Um we understand that um the NCOD is kind of being asked to to do more of of that.

And there's there's a need to kind of talk through standards for for compatibility and for neighborhood character, um, and also allowing appropriate reinvestment and change where change is appropriate.

So updating the standards would really be this opportunity to provide the clear expectations for everybody included, um, with staff, with applicants, with architects, with um uh with residents.

So just being able to bring those um uh standards to the forefront.

And we also recognize like Rebecca mentioned that NCOD really covers a very large area and this includes multiple historic districts and also includes the surrounding neighborhoods that um kind of show us different development patterns, show us different architectural styles and densities and and and overall um building forms.

And so we need to approach the design standards with that in mind and acknowledging those differences and being able to distinguish between the expectations.

So just keeping that in mind.

And then um with this with this slide, we we just want to show with visual some of the examples that Rebecca walked us through earlier in the previous slide, being able to point out some of the different engagement opportunities that we've been successful with in the past, whether it's an open house, whether it's meeting people where there are with pop-ups.

Um we've we we've we've been able to create some really strong outreach and be able to uh provide community members different opportunities to weigh in on any project, whether it be in person or be virtual.

And we know that um the city has been very successful with engaged Bozeman, and we would definitely keep um keep use that use that strong momentum and keep moving forward um with engaging with the community.

So just wanted to touch base on that real quick.

But as I mentioned earlier, and these are just visual samples of what we've done across the nation.

Um you are able to see a lot of our work out there across different states, and many of this uh work is award-winning, and we really take pride in being able to simply say that we understand the overall approach to design guidelines, but we really take a specialized um approach to every community being able to understand what are those character-defining features of this community in specific or the different areas within this community and be able to tailor the national standard that we know um and and add to it um that local flavor that is necessary for this project and for a specific community.

So just making sure we mentioned that.

And I only want to quickly highlight one project that has recently won an award um in um Arkansas, and it is the MacArthur Park Historic District Design Guidelines that we worked on.

And what was very unique about this project, and we see this very necessary in um Bozeman as well, is that the standards that we presented really have to serve two purposes.

Some elements will function as regulatory standards that support review of new construction or additions, alterations um while other standards are meant to be simply guidance on maintenance and and some some other non-regulatory um items of the design standards.

So the way we were able to distinguish that within the MacArthur Park plan is by showing those standards in two different colors, where blue, for example, as you see on the screen, was what was maintenance and was not regulated, but anything in red was um was was exactly what is to be regulated um as part of this document.

And so it made it very easy.

And the the understanding of the document itself became very um very easy to navigate and follow through whether it was for staff or for um residents and applicants.

So we were able to make this distinguishment and just give more teeth to the design standards, um, whether it being here or for Bozeman moving forward.

So that's all I have for you today, but happy to answer more questions.

But with that, I'll um give it back to Rebecca.

Great.

Thanks, Siraj.

And I will just wrap us up with a timeline to give you an idea of what to expect.

Um this is a big picture timeline, but you can see this work will happen over the next year.

Um so we'll start with some very um intensive engagement and information gathering uh this spring and into early summer, um, and then we'll shift into phase two where we're gonna be starting to take that engagement, um, take that input and the feedback and work that into drafts that we'll bring back to the community, back to the commission and say, did we get get it right?

Did we hear you?

Is there anything that we missed?

Um and so there will be some more iteration and feedback in phase two.

And then our hope is that by winter uh we will be able to bring this before commission for a decision.

And so with that, just kind of re-centering all of this.

You've heard a lot about the project, but recentering on what are we here for tonight.

Um tonight we are just looking for your adoption and approval of the community engagement plan.

So we're not looking to jump into any final action or decisions on what's going to happen with the design guidelines, um, but just looking for some some feedback and happy to answer any questions on community engagement.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Hart Harbridge.

Um Mr.

Asfani.

Uh Commissioner Magic, I believe this is your item if we have uh questions, and then we'll um go from there.

Yeah.

Thanks.

Thank you, both, for that great presentation.

I just have a couple of questions.

So our NCOD, our neighborhood conservation overlay district is a specific geographical part of our city.

Uh, and when we look at community engagement, I assume that we're not limiting the engagement to those who happen to live, work, or rent or occupy that area.

Uh Deputy Mayor, Commissioner, yes, that's correct.

We while we will have the neighborhood focus group where we are specifically seeking input from from folks who do live in that area, most of our engagement is going to be citywide.

Great.

Uh last question, and you mentioned this in your staff report, but just want to highlight it.

Our his chart advisory board made some recommendations, and it sounds like three of those recommendations have been incorporated.

And is that the only recommendations that they may?

So we're incorporating all of them.

We are we have incorporated all of the recommendations that were moved and passed by HPAT.

Yes, and those are highlighted in the plan that you all received.

I see them here.

And you talked about them.

Great.

Thanks.

Mr.

Boney.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor, and thank you also for the presentation.

Um my question is about the um survey methodology.

One of our commission priorities that we just passed last week is to um engage meaningfully with the community, and under that heading is leverage evidence-based survey methodologies to understand community attitudes.

We have not had the work session to kind of outline how we're gonna implement that and what that means.

And so recognizing that you know this commission has some work to do there.

I'm just curious if staff or or our consultants are thinking about um evidence-based survey methodologies for this survey.

Thank you for the question.

Um, Deputy Mayor, Commissioners.

Um I will speak first and then I'm gonna let Siraj jump in because I think he has had some experience with community surveys related to design guidelines projects.

Um, but from my perspective, yes, we are very much thinking of that.

Um I know there have been some public comments requesting that all of the survey data be provided, so we will be doing that.

Um we're we're absolutely committed to sharing all of the information.

We're not trying to hide things.

Um we also are not trying to lead toward any predefined outcome.

And so we will certainly be taking into mind, you know, get maybe getting some outside perspective on the questions as we develop the survey to make sure that none of the questions are leading or biased in any way.

And as part of that, we do go through some research methods courses.

And so I do have experience developing surveys, but I will let Saraj, if you want to jump in and add anything to that.

Absolutely, and thank you for that.

Yeah, after every engagement effort that we put put forward, we do bring a summary of what we heard and kind of first summarizing the raw data and then being able to synthesize what that data means.

And so you'll be able to, you'll be able to get access to what people have said in raw form and then be able to see how we interpreted that information and how we're moving it forward.

But it is this is uh going to be done for multiple engagement touch points, and we'll be trying to ask the same questions, you know, depending on what phase of the project we're in across different um different avenues and platforms.

Um with that, the hope is that we'll how we would have provided enough opportunity for almost everybody that chooses to engage to take part.

Um the the hope is that we'll we'll be able to gather um enough information on to keep moving forward.

Um we understand what needs to be done.

We're following certain standards for the design guidelines itself, but we want to get the local flavor and the hopes is through stakeholder input through um community pop-ups, community workshops, and digital platforms that there's multiple ways to gather that um information and help move us forward.

Great.

That's that's helpful, and just to kind of expand on my question a little bit.

In in the past, um, when we've had survey processes, we've really struggled to get um kind of a an even distribution of responses from different constituency groups across our community, in particular when we have divided up the survey responses by age or um home ownership or renter status, we found that uh we just have a really hard time getting responses from from renters and um younger people in this community proportionate to the the population they represent, which is a pretty substantial portion of our community.

Um and so I'm I think I'm most interested in opportunities to get that representation, and I'm curious if you all are considering how to kind of make sure that we are hearing from the needed constituency groups and able to not have certain groups responses um kind of overwhelm one constituency that maybe is an important group in our community, but maybe fewer voices in the survey.

Yeah, thank you, um, Deputy Marin Commissioner.

Um just to jump in, Suraj, then I'll let you go.

Uh yes, and also we would love any input or recommendation or guidance that commission wishes to provide.

Um, but that's such an important question, right?

Like how what are the outreach methods to get the survey in front of a broad distribution and representative distribution of the city?

Um we'll certainly be working with our communications team here at the city to work through various different platforms to get the survey out, um working with our boards who have a much more substantial reach into the community than we might just as staff.

Um, but that's certainly something we'll be working through with the Lakota group as we prepare for this.

Suraj, anything to add?

Right.

Sure.

And just to add to that, um we're not worried about the die-hard preservationists, right?

They're gonna be there at every meeting, they're gonna make sure that their voices are heard.

I think what we're more so worried about is exactly what you said, the the different community groups that are often underrepresented.

And I um the hope is that by be by being able to diversify the different engagement methods, really the aim is to try and reach that younger group, that um group where is not coming to open houses because they have the families, they have kids, and so we're meeting them at the events, we're meeting them um where they're at.

So that is exactly why we're trying to diversify our engagement methods as much as we can is to reach those unique um community groups now.

Um does that guarantee us that things are um equally distributed?

No, but we are definitely trying as many methods as we can throughout the process, and we've outlined a lot of them to be able to get as close as we can to that result that you're hoping for and we're hoping for.

So with that, I hope that answers your question.

Great.

That's that's super helpful.

I just have one more kind of survey related question here.

Um, I I want you all to do that survey at the time that makes the most sense within your program.

And I'm just thinking about the timeline that this commission get together to form up our work plans for our commission priorities.

I'm curious if there might be some synergy in those.

Um perhaps we can kind of define what we mean by um by uh evidence-based surveying practices before you all get to the survey.

Um, but if that's not in the cards, um, so I guess the question is what when in your process do you imagine doing the survey?

Saraj, I'll let you respond to that one.

Yeah, um, the hope is that after um after every open house, we would be able to provide a digital version um of that open house for people to weigh in.

So I see this as happening twice once in the first phase of the process where we're trying to understand what's top of mind, what are the current issues and where opportunities fall.

So that initial engagement is very important for us to know what's the what's the need to what are we really needing to focus on?

And then once we start drafting some of the guidelines and being able to respond to the issues that we heard in the first phase, putting that back out there or engagement as well with the solutions, right?

So we've heard you hear is what we suggest.

So it's gonna happen in um in both phases of the planning process, not specific ones I'd have to just go back and take a look.

Um, but I know it's gonna happen in both phases, and the hope is that we'll we'll be able to draft those questions and um you know work with staff, run them with staff um by staff and be able to get that um multiple sets of eyes on them so that we're all feeling comfortable with what we're asking and the approach we're taking.

Okay, great, thank you.

Those are all my questions.

Thanks.

Mr.

Sweeney.

Thank you.

Um I want to thank the consultants for coming on board and for our staff stepping up to cover some work uh that is now a bigger burden.

Um thank you, Sir Raj, for mentioning um, you know, how do we bring in families with kids?

That is notoriously a difficult group to reach because they are busy.

They are very busy.

Um yeah, I just have a couple of questions.

Um, how are we thinking of creating the neighborhood focus group?

Do we have ideas for how to do that?

Yes.

Uh, Deputy Mayor Commissioners, thank you for the question.

Yes, we have talked through that.

Um, after we get the plan approved, we will be intending to do outreach to through our neighborhood coordinator with the city.

Um, and then she will be reaching out to neighborhoods specifically that are within the NCOD.

Um, we're hoping, you know, it maybe maybe that will be the ink representative.

Maybe it won't be.

Maybe we we want to broaden the participation, and there might be some folks in the neighborhoods that have an interest or have experience in this field.

Excellent.

Thank you.

Um, and then can I just get a little more clarity around who will be creating the survey?

My primary interest is that uh Mr.

Gilbert, the historic architect would weigh in on that.

Um, is that in the cards?

Siraj, go ahead.

Yes, that's definitely in the cards.

All of our team members will be heavily involved in the survey developments, but namely um me and um we'll definitely have the Gilbert weigh in on the questions as well as um help us synthesize the results.

That's wonderful to hear.

Thank you.

And thank you, Commissioner Bodie, for clearing up a lot of my other survey-related questions.

Um I noticed on the timeline.

The community engagement memorandum is scheduled to come out in late spring.

And I'm assuming I'm really pleased you said there's maybe multiple times for surveys.

I'm assuming one of those surveys would be before we have that engagement memorandum come out.

Is that yes?

The engagement memorandum is meant to summarize all the different engagement efforts that have happened prior to that date.

Excellent.

And um I'm really thrilled that you guys included all the recommendations from the historic preservation advisory board.

Um can we get some clarity around the walking tour?

Are we going to have members of the consulting team available for that walking tour?

Deputy Mayor Commissioners, thank you for that question.

That is something that we have yet to really hash out in in detail with our consulting team.

That said, uh they will be here in April, and our hope is that we'll be able to pull together some sort of tour for them, whether that is the engagement walking conversation tour that we identify in the plan, or whether that is a drive around town, and we're showing them what our city looks like.

But it's something that we're just gonna have to have further conversations with them about to make sure we have the time to accomplish all of that while they're here.

Thank you very much.

I think that is all of my questions for the department and the consultant.

Thank you.

Certainly.

I just have one question.

You had early on in your presentation, you had you had mentioned what we need, and you had three or four items.

Would you mind repeating that?

I got clear language and predictability, but then I think I got to do that.

Let me find my notes, yes.

Okay.

So specifically what I said to better apply the design review.

We need clearer language about what's required and what's advisory.

So the differentiation between those two.

Um objective statements, so less less vague.

Our plan, our guidelines currently are sort of vague.

Uh we would need easy to understand visual examples.

And we need predictability for staff and applicants as well as the community.

Thank you.

Yep.

That's yeah, that definitely seems like that would is uh a great high-level um goal for to emerge with us.

Um I think that's that's the only question I have.

Any further questions from Commissioner?

Excellent.

Well, thank you both for that presentation.

Let's open this up to public comment on our um community engagement plan for the neighborhood conservation overlay district design guidelines update.

Is there any public comment in the room?

Good evening, Ms.

Rooster.

Good evening again, Jim Webster, Bontan District member of HPAB and INC, but again, just speaking from for myself.

And no, it's been a pleasure to be here tonight and hear the plan again.

We certainly heard some at the HPAB board meeting in January, and that was done very well by Sarah Rosenberg and got things off to a good start.

And here we're furthering that further.

So thank you both for for putting this together and sharing it.

And certainly I feel that we're getting more positive momentum to move forward, and there's certainly the willingness out there to engage the community more.

That is never easy, as we all know, but certainly strides are being made there to carry that out.

We think that's great.

And certainly the potential synergy between the INC neighborhoods and the HPAB, and certainly others in the community that are not part of either group.

I think teamwork is always best.

And certainly it looks like a good foot forward and best efforts are being made here to do that.

So thank you very much.

And I know there are two of us here from HPAB tonight.

So that's great that uh we hear straight from the horse's mouth, the dialogue, and that's great, because then we can take that back to our folks and talk more at our meetings.

And to the Lakota group, of course.

Thank you.

Uh it was great to see you online back in the February HPAD meeting, and we will look forward to working with you and Lakota Group further.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Webster.

Good evening, Mr.

Cardi.

Uh Daniel Cardi, Bozem Residence, speaking for myself.

Speaking tonight to comment on action item K1, approval of community engagement plan for the NCOD update.

First, please change the goal on page one of the draft NCOD community engagement plan to read address Bozeman's historical character, sense of place, and natural environment, because this language is in line with one of the commission's 26-27 priorities.

Second, thank you for including walking tours.

Please add clarifying language that will uh state that all walking tours will include at least one member of the consulting group.

Third and NCOD engagement surveys, please include visual comparison, comparisons of residential and commercial buildings and building types and architectural styles because people like me don't always know what we like or what is appropriate.

But typically we do like we know it when we will see and we will like it.

And certainly one can say that the North Central is something that almost nobody likes.

Fourth, please name and explain all statistical survey methodologies that will be used to collect data.

If there are no statistical survey methodologies being planned, please explain in detail how data will be tabulated, summarized, and subjectively interpreted.

And fifth and last, please ensure all raw data obtained from any and all NCOD engagement surveys are made available to the public.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Cardi.

Any further comment in the room on the engagement plan?

Second call.

Third call.

Mr.

Moss, do we have anybody online wanting to comment?

I'm showing no request for comment.

All right, I'll close the public comment and bring it up here for a motion.

Commissioner Magic.

Okay, where'd it go?

I move to approve the community engagement plan for the NCOD design guidelines update.

Second.

It's been moved.

It's been seconded.

Um do you want to speak to the motion or do it?

Or do we want to see if there's any amendments?

Let's see if there's any amendments.

Thank you.

Um I would like to propose an amendment.

Um I would like to move to amend the stated goals of the project so that the second bullet point reads address Bozeman's historical character, sense of place, and natural environment.

Do we have a second?

So I don't hear a second.

So do you have another amendment?

Wow.

I would like to I don't know if it's necessarily an amendment.

I just I want to recommend, and I would love it if any of you could support this.

Um I think it's really important that the consultants meet directly with the people.

The consultants are going to be the ones writing these guidelines.

Why don't we why don't you propose an amendment and we'll see if there's a second, then we could have discussion if there is a second.

Thank you.

Um I move.

I have to find the area.

Okay.

In the engagement plan, method of engage methods of engagement, which begins on page four and continues to page five.

I move to amend the final bullet point to read walking conversation tours with members of the consultant team from the Lakota group.

Do we have a second?

Okay, so I'm not hearing a I have a question about the the nature of that um amendment.

Would I need a second in order to ask staff that question?

Technically, I believe we need a second to have a discussion on amendment amendment.

Okay, I'll second it for the purposes of conversation.

Second.

So we have a second.

Um Commissioner Sweet, would you speak to your amendment?

Yes.

Yes, thank you for the opportunity.

I believe that it's really important for the consultant group who is going to be writing these design guidelines to have direct communication with the constituents that are engaging.

That's why I'm proposing this amendment.

I think the fewer middlemen in between public feedback and the authors of our new design guidelines is best.

And Commissioner Bodhi has a second or if you have questions.

Yeah, I'm I'm just curious.

Um the bid that the Lakota group gave us and in the RFP probably included their estimates around travel cost.

And so I I'm just curious if this amendment would increase the scope of the budget for the project, um, or or if it's kind of within the scope of what they may have budgeted.

Great question.

Good evening, Deputy Mayor, members of the commission, Aaron George, uh community development director.

So uh yes, the visit in April uh is part of the planned budget, and we do think we can fit in one walking conversation tour while they're here in April.

So uh we would be okay with that amendment with the understanding that if there was a desire for future conversation tours uh that it may necessitate in addition to the budget later on to have you know shuffle around the travel plans.

But that's certainly not the only time they're planning to visit.

It's just the only visit that was centered around community engagement.

So um as the plan currently stands, the Lakota group will have their members present for at least one of the walking tours.

Um, and this amendment would um mandate that they be present for any future walking tours.

Um is it correct to say that that kind of removes a little bit of flexibility in travel plans or or when walking tours are are potentially scheduled?

Yeah, I think that's accurate.

Okay, thank you.

Any further comments on the amendment?

Um, why don't we call for the vote, Mr.

Moss?

Oh okay, right.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Aye.

Commissioner Bowden.

No.

Commissioner Magic?

No.

Deputy Mayor Fisher?

No.

Amendment fails three to one.

Further amendments.

Okay.

Uh Commissioner Magic, would you like to speak to the main motion?

Sure.

Uh uh, I'm excited to support this motion.

Excited to see this process get underway.

I think the timing um is ultimately good, although I think many of us would have preferred to have this have done perhaps 10 years ago, but it's hard to predict such things.

And um, but I think the timing is good in that we've got a public who has experience seeing how projects work through our current document and sees and has experienced some of what staff has described, some of the outdated nature of our current NCOD.

And when you have a document that's outdated like that, you it you get tripped up as you're trying to policies and guidelines with kind of modern times.

And I think we've seen that, and we've seen the frustration from our community, we've seen the frustration.

I personally have experienced that frustration.

So I am glad that we're getting on this now.

I think the timing is good as well, in that we're kind of experiencing a little bit of a lull, and that could change tomorrow.

But um for now, fingers crossed, we'll have kind of smooth time to work on this.

I really appreciated uh deputy director Harbosch's description of how this process is gonna work, and that at the beginning of the process, you don't try to constrain it too much.

You don't set too many specifics or guidelines or expectations.

You let the community roll with the process and your nimble.

So you can shift course if there's something that we've missed.

We once again I've said this about other plans.

This is not our plan.

It's not the community development department's plan.

It's not people like me who happen to live in the NCOD's plan.

It's our whole community's plan.

So I want that to be have full participation.

I appreciated Commissioner Bodie's concerns about the survey and a diverse group of people participating in the survey.

I'd like to see to see that diverse participation in the process as well.

We've got a lot of different people who not only live within these boundaries but uh throughout Bozeman.

I really appreciate the public input we've received on this so far.

I think that bodes well for a good process moving forward.

I appreciate the suggestions and the attendance of a couple of our advisory board members.

I think you guys made some great suggestions and recommendations that have been incorporated.

Ultimately, I am trusting staff to kind of incorporate some of the spirit of some of these suggestions that have been brought up and to not box the process in too much.

So that's why I didn't support the amendments.

I think we can have some vague language, but I think I saw Commissioner Swane Shake Kurt ahead.

But if you read the project overview, you read you know the mead of what this is all about.

I think that that is incorporated into the goals and the bullet points that we we have.

So I do believe that you know, part of this is about historic preservation, and that is articulated throughout the overview and the intent of what we're trying to accomplish here.

Commissioner Bodie, please.

Just have to be prompted.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Um, and yes, thanks you, thank you, Commissioner Magic, for for your comments.

I'll um be associating myself with them as well.

I am also excited to support the motion and um excited to see this engagement process get underway.

I think the community has been really um eager to sink their teeth into it.

And um I do want to just kind of return to my um questions about the survey and for the benefit of the Lakota group folks who are listening in, um, want to share something I shared last meeting about our deep dive UDC survey.

Um we did a really robust engagement process on our unified development code and and also had a survey sent out by um our city.

And while we have 55% of households in Bozeman as rented households, only 20% of the respondents were renters.

Um, and while 18 to 24-year-olds made up make up 27% of Bozeman, only 2% of the 143 responses to our survey were from 18 to 24-year-olds.

Um, so so it's a real challenge here, and that was not without effort to you know promote the survey on Instagram and um the popular sites and in places where youth and and renters might see it.

So the challenge is real there.

I I am really interested in these evidence-based survey methodologies, and I feel confident that the questions will be crafted in a non-biased way.

Um, but I think we as a commission need to be thinking more deeply about um how to get those underrepresented groups to have a reasonable amount of representation in the survey responses, and um I think the most robust way to do that is through a statistically representative survey.

Um that I know the Headwaters Community Land Trust did one for the UDC process and it cost them 14,000.

Um, I don't know if that's in our budget for this process.

Um, that was citywide.

I I think we do want to do this citywide.

If we did it just for the um, you know, five nine seven one fives of code, it might be less, but I I think that's not really in alignment with our goals of getting a robust um citywide engagement.

And um, I'm open to other ideas for ways that we can do this.

That's not the gold standard tier of full statistical representation, but maybe um a uh demographically weighted survey process.

So um really eager to have that conversation about that commission priority in alignment with this um NCOD engagement project.

Um and then lastly, I'll I'll just speak to some of the public comments that we received.

I really appreciated um getting to read those ahead of time and also hear them in the room.

And um, while I fullheartedly agree and believe that a lot of this NCOD update is about historic conservation and the importance of our historic um districts.

The the NCOD is the um mechanism through which we actually get to enforce our historic um districts throughout the community.

The NCD is that and um more.

It's talking about the character of our neighborhoods across that entire overlay district, including areas that are not directly overlapping with historic districts.

And I I think that's clearly stated and the purpose of the overlay district as currently written, although maybe that's something that we'll we'll review in this process.

And um I disagree with Commissioner Magic's take that um the historic preservation um intent is there, and um don't feel comfortable with making that the kind of only stated part of this.

I think it's about the the neighborhood character overall.

Um and so that's why I was not in support of the motion either.

Um with that, I yeah, I'm excited to support the the main motion and we'll pass it on.

Commissioner Sweet.

Thank you very much.

I am disappointed that my colleagues would not even second the motion for the purposes of discussion.

So I'm going to read for the benefit of the consultants, just as Commissioner Bodie addressed the benefit of the consultants.

My justification for proposing that amendment.

We are updating design guidelines for an area distinguishable from other parts of the community by its historic nature.

What sets it apart from the Gallant Valley Mall and those surrounding neighborhoods?

What sets it apart from Northwest Crossing neighborhoods and commercial areas?

What sets it apart from Ferguson Farms commercial node and surrounding housing?

This is Bozeman's historic downtown and surrounding neighborhoods.

The word conservation embodies the decades-old effort to steward the historic area for future generations, recognizing its value as contributing to the economic vitality and the public welfare.

Bozeman residents and businesses enjoy.

So why should we take that approach to the neighborhood conservation area?

I suggested that we use the word, the phrase natural environment because I don't wanted to see the guidelines updated to exclude trees and historic landscaping, both of which make up a large part of the character of the areas within the neighborhood conservation overlay district.

We recognize the contribution of these more natural features to neighborhood and downtown character now in our design guidelines, and I want us to make sure we continue to do so in our guidelines in the future.

Fortunately, the consultant team does include landscape architects.

Just as the design guidelines for Sundance Springs fit their area.

So I don't think it's unreasonable to ask for some specifics.

So I think we ignore that at our peril.

I will be supporting this engagement plan because I'm excited to do this work, but I'm disappointed in my colleagues.

Thank you, Commissioner Sweeney.

So I I am excited to support this.

I'm excited to see what really excites me most is the clarity of the goals and the uh what you know the what what we need as a city coming out of this.

And it's a there's a crispness there, and I really appreciate that.

Um because what we have now is very fuzzy.

And I also I I appreciate appreciate the iterative approach, the need you're not laying all the details out by design because we're going to be flexible and responsive, and I think that's that's part of why I I couldn't support requiring a consultant here because we there may be a time when we want to have a walk and we're gonna be hamstrung by you know, I don't want that us to be hamstrung by that.

Um the outreach methods, I hear that loud and clear.

Uh I think that that's a key goal we will have to identify and and nail down, and uh hopefully we do so you know in time for it to be a benefit for this.

I think that is a you know um I'll certainly be conveying this that to Mayor Morrison and and of course any of you guys can too, it's just to make sure we elevate that.

Um then you know I just uh again I I go back to it's a neighborhood conservation overlay district, right?

It's it's it's about community, it's about our neighborhood.

Again, that's why I couldn't support the the kind of hamstring it, or not hamstring, but just kind of narrowing it down to historic.

So I'm encouraged by the flexibility we see here.

I'm encouraged by the clarity we have here.

I like the plan.

I appreciate the work that the staff and and and the community has put into this, and I'm looking forward to voting yes on this.

Any further comments from commission?

I did just want to point out, thank you, Mayor, Deputy Mayor.

Um, $14,000 is almost half of what the project is budgeted for overall.

So I would be really impressed if this um body decided to authorize that additional money.

Um I'm surprised.

I'm surprised at that.

Um there's one other thing I wanted to mention.

Oh, the uh C.

Bozeman Creek plan.

We did amend the language there in order to add a lot of clarity around the goals.

And um I think it's understood now that we are we are not supportive of the word historical.

Thank you.

Hello.

Excuse me.

Mr.

Magic.

It's hard not to get defensive after your statements that I'm not gonna do it, but it's hard not to.

And I'll leave it at that.

Any further comments on this?

Mr.

Moss, would you poll the commission, please?

Commissioner Magic.

Aye.

Commissioner Boddy.

Aye.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Aye.

Deputy Mayor Fisher.

Aye.

Passes unanimously.

Thank you.

Uh that brings us up to our work session.

On our capital improvements plan.

Mr.

Wynn.

Yes, do you want to move forward or do you want to take a break here?

Oh.

Uh I would be inclined to roll forward, but I'm open to whatever the commission would like to do.

Roll forward.

Okay, we will.

Uh, it's a work session.

Uh, for fiscal years uh 27 through 31.

This is our recommended capital improvements plan.

And we have our finance director, director of finance, Mosa Hodnet, and I will be taking questions.

We have Caitlin here as well.

Uh, so we have the staff here uh as we work through this.

Hopefully we'll answer your questions and get some direction as we'll come back on the 24th of March for final adoption.

Good evening, Ms.

Hannah.

Good evening.

Thank you, Commissioners.

I am here to just present a few, a handful of changes to the CIP that this commission heard in December of 2025.

Um, just as a reminder of kind of where we are in the overall process.

Um we are required to submit the CIP to the city commission before the end of December every year.

Tonight we'll be talking about some changes to that CIP, like I mentioned, and then adoption is scheduled for March 24th.

We're also required by our charter to adopt by the end of March.

I just wanted to put a quick reminder up here.

We talked about this a little bit in December, but we do define all of our CIP projects based on their cost class to cost classification estimate.

So these cost estimates, as the design and engineering become more clear as we move towards that 100% design, that means we know more about the project and we're better able to establish those costs.

So that will come into play a little bit in some of these changes.

I also want to mention that sometimes we do have what we'll call a planning level estimate.

Right now we haven't classified anything in the document as planning level, but we do plan on doing that going forward just to make sure we're really clear.

A planning level estimate essentially means that we have not had engineer eyes on it.

This is staff making our best guess based on prior projects and our own experience, what we think a project might cost.

And this allows us to start some financial modeling, have some idea of what the project might cost without knowing all the details at that time.

So the first project I want to talk about is an example of this.

Bogurt pool.

The CIP cost for this is 3.1 million that is in the updated recommended CIP.

And the original cost estimate was a planning level estimate, and that was done in 2020.

So the costs updated now, this 3.1 million is a class three estimate.

So we do have some engineering and design that has gone into this latest estimate.

We also know that construction cost escalation and just market conditions have changed significantly since we made these estimates in 2020.

Lindley Center is another.

This is another bond project that we estimated in 2020.

And this Lindley Center estimated cost of 2.5 million is still a planning level estimate.

But because we've gotten these updated engineering estimates on Bogurt Pool and some other projects, we feel fairly confident that this will get that project done for us.

But we will not be starting engineering until we're done with this Bogurt Pool project.

The other project that has updated its scope is the base hydraulic phase one project.

And this is in the water reclamation impact fee fund.

The total cost for this project is 13.4 million, and we're anticipating finishing that up here pretty soon.

We're requesting an increase of 700,000 approximately.

And the increase in scope to this project is actually a really big success story for us.

It allowed us to move phase two, which originally was scheduled for fiscal year 27 out to 2040.

So that's about a $16 million savings to what was in the initial CIP plan.

So we just need a little bit of an additional increase in scope here to make some pretty significant improvements in the capacity at our water reclamation plan.

The next project I wanted to talk about is our enterprise data for government efficiency project, Edge.

So this is our ERP replacement project.

We've talked about quite a bit.

So part of what's really important about this process is going to be the implementation team that comes in and is actually doing the work.

So when we look at the implementation components, what is included in the capital plan is $3.5 million for core financials and HR.

Permitting software at $1.25 million, and utility billing at $1.25 million.

So these are three pieces of separate potentially separate software that the city might go with.

Right now, we have one software for all three of these programs, but we are phasing our RFPs so that we can make selections at the same time and be able to make the determination whether one single system is going to do what we want or if we could get better results with selecting different systems.

But the dollars that we're looking at here is really not for the software itself.

It's for that actual skilled consultant coming in and helping us optimize all of our processes.

They'll configure the systems based on what we want our processes to look like and also make best practice recommendations to us.

They help with all of our data migration and validation to make sure what we put in the new system is correct.

They'll help us redesign our processes they'll help us set up workflows and they also help with staff training and change management before we go live.

So there's a lot of support included in these numbers the numbers are also updated based on estimates from the government finance officers association group that we're working with.

They're the ones helping us do a lot of this process mapping and they can look at similar RFPs for cities our size with processes of our complexity and tell us really what we should put out there in order to get competitive proposals during this process.

There are just three other changes I wanted to touch on briefly to the capital plan since you saw it in December.

One is going to be our streets improvement asphalt rehabilitation it looks like a pretty significant increase compared to the prior years but what it really is is it it's projects that used to be budgeted in the operating account because they're not capitalized.

So we talked a little bit in January about some accounting rules that I think in this case just shouldn't apply to how we think about our capital plan.

So we wanted to move that back into our CIP so it's really clear how much money the street maintenance department has to do mill and overlay and chip sealing over each construction season.

There are two reductions to the CIP to talk about we have a loader mounted mill replacement and we've been able to reduce that cost from 2500 to 1000 just by finding a less expensive vehicle that could work for the purposes that we need.

Two just other notable items to highlight one is the Fowler community housing project we have not made any changes to what's in the capital plan.

So there's still 2.1 million for engineering and design but we are having ongoing conversations with the community that I know the commission is aware of.

More information will definitely be coming in the near future as we work through that conceptual design process.

Next steps we have adoption scheduled for March 24th budget meetings are all scheduled throughout May and June and right now where we are with the budget balancing process is very early.

We've just completed most of our city manager budget review meetings but the general fund is kind of the thing that comes together last to make sure that we can support all the other work that the city is doing.

So we don't have any rate indications based on the presentation that we've given you tonight but we will be talking about that in more detail in June where we actually adopt the appropriations for fiscal year 27 and fiscal year 28.

And with that I will take any questions.

Thank you.

Commissioner Bodio this is yours.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

I am pulling up the recommended capital improvement plan updated now to kind of compare and contrast and I I just am curious if what the total cost for edge is I I saw two million added on the slides.

Is that yes so the total cost is this six and a half million that you're seeing here on the screen throughout the three software implementation components.

I did mean to mention that we are hoping to be able to cost allocate anything additional for HR financials that would hit the general fund in order to make sure we can support the other capital projects we've talked about tonight that could have rate impacts and we're still working that out with the other departments but we're hoping to to minimize the impact of of that on the general fund.

Great I I feel like I've got this like ghost of a memory that it was kind of unscheduled in the future at some point and it was budgeted for like eight million.

Does that number ring a bell for you?

I um I I could just be having a ghost of a memory, but uh my my recollection is that um we we instead of uh deferring taking out a loan um for uh another project um kicked around a little bit of extra money to to make room for a right to council and this was one of the places we had a little bit more flexibility in uh no, I was just um pleasantly surprised to see it being less than I remembered it costing.

So yeah, no um deeper deeper question there.

Um I I think uh an elephant in in the room around this capital improvement project is of course the the fatality that we had on Oak Street um recently, and that's definitely on the minds of a lot of people in this community.

How we can um invest in our pedestrian and bicycle safety across the community.

Um I don't want to get ahead of ourselves.

I know we are talking about scheduling a work session where we can really dive into this, but I I do have some questions about process here.

Um I am curious if we were to have that work session in the future and identify some funds that we want to allocate towards additional pedestrian and cycle um bicycle safety infrastructure, how we might fit that into this existing schedule.

Um would we have to amend the CIP and then amend the budget or um how can we be anticipating that in this moment?

We do not have to formally amend the CIP if you wanted to add money to fiscal year 27, 28, or even 26.

Um we could amend this year's budget at some point, or we could have those conversations when we talk about the special assessment funds on June 2nd, and that would be an appropriate place we could add money into the budget without needing to amend the CIP.

Okay, great.

And I mean, ideally, we wouldn't just be putting a lump thumb, we'd have a sense of how we wanted to spend that and be really surgical about the most important places.

Um are there any um potential street improvements that um we're looking at again with the context of of this recent fatality and thinking about um maybe going about differently or or deferring in in lieu of um getting that money more towards our pedestrian and bicycle safety.

If I may um Commissioner Bodie, thank you for that question.

This has been on the top of everyone's mind, the community, this commission and your staff.

And we have asked ourselves that question.

I believe um that this commission and our staff has uh allocated um a lot of money to address traffic safety.

And um we ask ourselves what else could we have done?

And um that's not an exercise that uh is comfortable for a lot of people, but it's one we need to have.

And and I just want to um give a shout out to our uh director of transportation, Nick Ross, for uh immediately um looking at ways what could we do if we had a little bit more money.

Understanding that the safe plan that this commission directed us to implement, um we have been implementing it.

And this is a program in streets that covers the entire city, and we look at safety all over the city, and Oak Street is not the only place where um terrible things have happened.

And so we are looking at each transportation uh system, bikes, pedestrians, traffic, um, any uh um multimodal transportation system that we have.

And since this is so important and we're not at the work session yet, I'm gonna ask Nick to come up and talk about some of the conversations we have have been having, some of the conversations uh that that he's having with his staff and the community as we um look at our upcoming budget director Ross, thank you.

Thank you, City Manager Wynn and Commission.

Um I I really want to start by um expressing my sincere condolences uh to Leslie Brown's family first and foremost.

Uh and also thanking this commission current and past uh for dedicating so much of your attention uh to an effort that my staff and myself deeply care about, which is the safe transportation of all of our public.

Um to City Manager Wynn's point.

Um you know we we've we have made uh significant investments on Oak Street just as recently as the past year uh with three projects, four projects actually.

We we've we have made uh significant investments on Oak Street just as recently as the past year with three projects, four projects actually.

I forgot another RRFB uh that we installed uh over on the east side at fifth to go with the RRFB, the pedestrian signal that we installed at Oak and Hunters to go along with um almost $300,000 of intersection improvement at Oak and Flanders to go along with the uh new uh Hawk signal uh to support Galveston High and our future sports park expansion.

Um we also uh do have almost a million dollars worth of projects coming to Oak Street um uh the very segment between Flanders uh and North 27th, where or excuse me, Flanders and Fowler, where this tragedy occurred this this year.

Um so that will um improve the signalized intersection uh at Oak in Ferguson and add uh a pedestrian flashing signal um at the Gallatin High Crosswalk or excuse me, Galton Park crosswalk where this tragedy happened.

Um it is is it's truly tragic that those did not come sooner.

Um to city managers win point when it wins point though.

Um we are stretching the allocation, the the uh um authority of what we can use our various transportation funding sources to the maximum extent that we legally can right now.

Um to the question that was posed about um are there any projects that we could forgo for stafy improvements?

Uh my honest answer would have to be no, because what we are dedicating the funding that you've allocated to us on behalf of our residents right now are maxed out at exactly that purpose.

Our College Street project is the first that we are utilizing our Trial and Collector Fund to go out uh and construct a safety improvement project.

Same thing with our McAlhatten Road project.

That's almost three million dollars worth of projects in addition to the funding it will contribute to the Oak and Ferguson intersection this summer.

Um, out of only about a million dollars two million dollars that we collect in a given year out of that fund.

Um, our uh our streets CIP street maintenance assessments will fund um 250,000 dollars worth of ADA and sidewalk improvements this year, in addition to 150,000 uh in the multimodal improvement funds um that you allocate for us to do projects exactly like the traffic calming program that we just launched and received 19 applications from across the city, just like uh the installation of our R RFBs, our pedestrian flashing signals.

Um we're up to about 25 of those citywide.

Thirteen of them have been installed in just the last three years.

Um City Manager is not wrong.

We we would always we could always do more benefit from additional funding.

I I can't I can't reasonably say right now though, there's anything else within the CIP that we could do differently.

Um it's just unfortunate um about the timing and locations where the improvements have made in response or or in um coordination with the tragic events recently.

Thank you.

I really appreciate um both your you know uh response tonight and also how much I know you're thinking about this and um how proactive you've been.

You know, it's um the the really tragic um incidents like this that make us look back and ask ourselves what we could have done better, but I know that we have saved so many lives by the improvements that we have made that um will go unnoticed because there is not like a a tragedy to grief and I um yeah, I'm just grateful for all of your work on it.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Yeah.

Commissioner Bodie, if I could add to, and I know you know this, but for the benefits of um folks who who may be watching.

Our safe streets effort is a team approach.

And our police department has risen to the occasion.

Uh and they work very closely with um Nick's team uh since January 1st, we've had 332 traffic stops just on Oak Street.

And um that's not enough.

Uh we could enforce traffic all over the city.

There is bad driving behavior everywhere, but we are working within our existing resources to do everything we can to change driving behaviors.

Um we've tried to do it a number of different ways.

Some people won't change until there's a penalty to their behaviors.

And we know that.

That's unfortunate, but we are taking action.

Thank you.

Those are all my questions.

I'll I'll pass it on.

Thank you, Commissioner Boddy.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

I wasn't expecting to talk about the tragedy on Oak.

I spend all day every day, about four days a week with nurses and they are some of the most remarkable human beings.

So I'm a little more torn up on during the CIP than I thought I was going to be.

So pardon me.

Since we don't need to necessarily amend the CIP immediately in order to take care of that.

So yeah, I guess I was able to ask a few questions ahead of time.

Thank you for those answers.

Was maybe this is far too granular and not appropriate, but full disclosure, my husband is a roofer, and I noticed that Fire Station 3, which built in 2009, is up for a new roof in 2029.

And uh 20-year roof is a very short lifespan for a roof.

So in the interest of sustainability and perhaps saving on labor, uh diverting materials from landfill, I wonder if the next go around we could use a 50-year asphalt shingle.

And that is about the only thing I have to say about the CIP.

Thank you very much for your recommendation on the water treatment facility.

Um that's exactly the kind of thing I'd love to see a little more investment now, saves a lot in the long run.

So thank you very much.

Commissioner Magic.

Yeah, thanks.

Um thanks to my fellow colleagues.

Um I share that grief.

Um it's been very difficult past uh week and a half or whatever it's been.

Uh thanks, Commissioner Boddy, for your questions.

I was gonna ask similar ones, so thanks for uh taking those off my plate.

Um my only questions concern uh the arterial and collector section, so perhaps question for Nick about the unscheduled projects.

And I know we've talked about these every year.

I have neighbors on one of these streets that keeps asking me when is it gonna be scheduled?

What's up with the lack of funding?

Can you please just speak to those and help me with my neighbors?

May I ask if there was a specific one that I could elaborate on?

Grant Street.

Grand, excuse me.

Not grant.

I was upset about grant, but this is grand South Grand.

Sure.

So uh South Grand was actually a street that was proposed to uh fall under our local street reconstruction program.

Um I believe now back in the fall of 2024, uh we had a work session uh on the the status of our local street reconstruction program, primarily around the fact that um uh significant portion of those projects are SID funded, so special improvement district funded.

Um they all occur in our older parts of town that were platted uh before there was an ability for us to um implement a waiver for that special improvement district procedure.

Uh and unfortunately we've gotten to a point where we have very little success uh compelling our neighbors uh to agree uh to that special improvement district funding source.

Um so uh at the current time uh we are not advancing any local street reconstruction projects uh on account of the fact that our uh street maintenance assessments cannot support the full cost uh of those of those reconstruction projects.

And I'll add that um you know it gets framed around local street reconstruction, so it's a street project, but we also typically um redo all the utilities uh that are associated in those streets as well.

And so this has an impact not only on the streets fund but also on our utility funds.

Um so um if there were any uh uh any of our neighbors who were uh willing to reconsider, we would be more than happy to re-engage uh with the resolution that currently sets the SID percentages as a cost of uh construction, but at this time um we do not necessarily have a funding source that can fully fund those street reconstruction projects.

And regarding the SID is do we initiate those at all, like go out to the street and say, hey, are you guys ready?

Or do we wait for the street and the people to initiate the process?

Uh in the past, that has been uh staff-led.

So um the kicker that everybody wants and needs to know through this process is what it's gonna cost them.

And so the reason that um we have uh tabled the program overall is staff was spending a considerable amount of time developing all of the engagement documents, all of the design documents to a level that would give us a reasonable, give our residents a reasonable expectation of what that cost was going to be.

And so then we would go host the meetings, and then it would get to um uh the point at which the the impacted residents, property owners could protest the creation of the SID, and then the project uh typically fails.

And so um it's a lot of staff time that goes into getting to the point of a in this case a no.

Uh and for that reason, we have recommended that we uh no longer um uh do that until uh an additional funding source could be found.

Got it.

Okay.

Thanks so much, Dr.

Ross.

So I have thank you.

Um I just um I guess this is more a question for Ms.

Hodnet.

Um I'm just trying to get a sense of kind of how much deferred maintenance are we where are we at with deferred maintenance in in this uh in the in the public sorts plan?

Do you mean on buildings primarily or yeah, I mean, I guess I got a sense we got a sense from Mr.

Ross about you know there's a lot of complications with roads, but I'm wondering, you know, maybe with like city infrastructure and and other components.

But yes, let's say let's start with buildings.

Yeah, I'll take that um facilities.

I think you saw in our Bogurt pool and our Lindley Center projects.

Um all across the city organization, we are working to improve our systems.

And I think you there was that item in the uh city managers work plan that we are going to discuss to uh better analyze.

We've done our can our our facilities condition uh assessments.

That's a treasure trove of information.

That's a relatively new program.

Uh we have uh added some real professionals in our facility.

We have um department, and we have also hired a project manager.

So if you've ever managed a construction project, you will know that that's a very um technical and unique skill.

And with the best of intentions, we've had our staff doing those construction projects, which is a challenge to itself.

We've done the best that we can, but we know that we need to improve that capacity and that capability.

So in order to avoid future uh issues like Booverpool and uh the and the Lindley Center and the swim center and the Bogart Pavilion, where we have run these facilities to failure in the past, we are taking a much more proactive approach at that.

The CIP uh represents a well-planned and thoughtful um effort to address some of these uh deferred maintenance.

We also have an ongoing effort in the parks department through the parks maintenance district to address those uh deferred maintenance uh items that have been identified, and we are making progress on that.

It's not a switch that you flip in one year, everything's fixed, and we understand the constraints and the burden on taxpayers, these are paid for in different funds, restricted funds throughout the city, um, save the general fund.

And I believe this year we have made amazing um uh improvements to our system and our schedule that you see represented in the CIP.

Thank you.

Commissioner uh Sweeney, I I uh I heard the comment on the 50-year roof.

That's an example of it.

We also um uh focus on things like the story um mansion.

Uh we are um even though we can't make the kind of improvements to the interior, we know we need to take care of the building envelope.

Um paint, windows, roofing, siding, all those things are being taken care of.

That's an irreplaceable asset.

So that's just another example of of the of the um uh more comprehensive approach to our building portfolio and the kinds of uh efforts that we've identified and planned for.

Thank you.

And you'll have to forgive me.

I feel like I ask this question every year, and I probably even asked it in December.

But the um the unscheduled, um, those are projects.

Could you want just give me a bit?

There's 389 million dollars worth of projects we've identified, but we don't have a funding source for.

Does that represent stuff that we kind of need to get to?

Um I can you know, where do I put that in the constellation of things to worry about?

Primarily unscheduled represents projects we do plan to do, but outside of the five-year period.

Okay, they may have been pushed out for you know some reasons, like typically that base hydraulic phase two is a great example of one that gets pushed out for scope changes and and we don't need it until 2040.

We probably don't want to leave it on unscheduled until 2040 either.

So it probably can come completely out of the plan, so it doesn't look like it's something we should be prioritizing in the near future.

Umscheduled ideally is six to ten years out on our capital plan.

So it's like the long distance radar.

Yes.

Okay.

And then the public works, we have that that that shops complex is unscheduled right now.

Is that and but yet that may come rolling onto this uh CIP at some point in the near future?

Yep, that's another one of our deferred um facilities issues.

We've known that we've needed this for a long time, and our staff is incredibly adept at making do with what they have.

Now it is starting to impact our our operations as we leave um our very expensive equipment out in the winter, and might have to spend a half an hour uh warming it up if it warms up at all uh in order to use it.

So with people like Sean and Nick, John Anderson and uh uh um Mitch and our our our team now, this is a bit like the edge replacement.

We've known we've needed to do it.

We haven't had the professionals on our staff like we do now.

We haven't had a commitment to addressing these issues from our commission, uh this current commission.

And so we're we're tackling these really hard problems now in a very thoughtful way, in a way that we think we can afford it.

It's not perfect, but it's gonna be a lot better than it is, and we're uh identifying these projects in possible phasing so we can make improvements over a period of years, and at the end of that, we'll look back and go, wow, look what we did.

Thank you.

And just two more little hopefully shorter questions.

Um, how much of what we're planning in 27 and 28, even um depends on, like say impact fees and similar assessments that are going to depend on the building cycle or even the economy.

And I may be and then the alter the second question that goes with that is how much of this depends on kind of that the assessed again.

We get the assessed taxable value in August, right?

After we've approved the budget.

So how much you know, how do those those two things interplay with what's sitting here in front of us?

Yes, I'll start with impact fees because that's the easier one.

Um we are very conservative in how we project our impact fees.

We would rather be able to collect more cash and say, hey, may we do this project early than budget more projects that we think we can actually afford.

So we feel confident that the fiscal year 27 and fiscal year 28 plans are achievable.

Um there's quite a bit that will depend on our property tax values coming in in August.

And so that will be a conversation that we do have when we go to budget adoption and talk about the general fund in June.

But it would be um wise to remember that we do adopt the budget before we do know our taxable values.

Fair enough.

Thank you.

We're not in an appraisal year this year, right?

We are not.

But we do anticipate additional impacts based on the changes the legislature made last year.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Those are my questions.

Any other questions?

Um fantastic.

Well, thank you for this presentation.

It's really helpful to have this in front of us and and so ordered.

Thank you.

Public comments on our let's open this up to public comment on the um capital improvement plan.

Do we have any comment in the room?

Second request.

They're probably still reading the 400 page document.

Third request.

Okay.

Um Mr.

Moss, do we have any anything online?

I'm showing no request for comment.

Wow.

Um it's a work session.

We don't have a motion.

I'm just wondering, maybe do we want to have any um any comments on of just as we we we put this one to bed until we see it again next in two weeks.

Commissioner Bodie.

Yeah, I'll um just say that I appreciate having an opportunity to look at this a second time before we have the big adoption.

It's a really large document, and there's a lot to chew on, and um this is a you know changing changing city.

Um and so yeah, I I appreciate having the opportunity to take another um round at it.

And I want to just acknowledge the huge savings that we have the opportunity to um to save in water reclamation with a little bit more investment.

I was really excited to see that.

Um I know that I got a bit in the weeds last time we talked about the CIP on vehicles, and I was just really pleased to see some um additional efficiencies found by resourcing vehicles between departments.

So thank you all for for taking a look at that.

Um and uh lastly, I'll just say that I'm really looking forward to having a work session on pedestrian and cycles um cyclist safety infrastructure, and um we'll certainly have a lot of comments at that time.

So yeah, Commissioner Sweeney.

Commissioner Magic.

Uh I would just echo Commissioner Sweeney's comments.

Uh-uh.

Excuse me, Commissioner Putney's comments.

Uh I would appreciate doing this every year.

It shows how dynamic our city is and how much we plan ahead.

And I think uh a lot of folks out there, before I joined the commission, I didn't really completely realize how much we were mapping stuff out into the future, and I think that it really helps not only with planning and infrastructure, but um efficient use of taxpayer dollars, hopefully in the end.

So I look forward to next steps on this on the budget process.

I think I'll sh I'll certainly share those sentiments.

I I really appreciate staff taking the work on this.

I also have to say I really appreciate that the very Spartan has our uh advisory board liaison's taking um parts of the CIP to their advisory panels.

Um I had the privilege of watching uh Mr.

Ross present to the transportation board when I represented that board or with liaison there.

And it was just it was great to see have have our advisory boards kind of you know noodle on this and get into this in a in a in a slightly deeper way and different way.

So I'm also grateful for this this really second look, and and then we'll have a third look and and vote on this on the 24th.

And um, and then a really a kind of the final vote on the whole budget on the in in June.

And so I I think we're showing the public we're being uh I I appreciate the transparency here and and our effort to make sure that the public knows where their money is going.

Any further comments?

Well, thank you all for for the work, Mr.

Wendell and staff.

Thank you for that.

Um I couldn't be more proud of our team.

They're using asked for so now I believe that brings us that's the last item on our agenda, other than the FYI.

Any further FYI?

I think I would uh just like to um one something that I would love to put on our radar.

Um I I asked about it, it was prompted by looking at the CIP.

Um the community development department had 500,000 budgeted for the edge replacement.

Um but then it had no unscheduled projects, and it got me thinking the architectural inventory survey that we have um before the NCOD.

There's over 4,000 properties, and some of those architectural inventory surveys have not been updated for decades, uh, some since 1984.

And I was wondering, you know, if maybe this commission, when we have a work session about our priorities and protecting neighborhoods and um our heritage, if we could talk about future scheduling, you know, a little bit every year, do some surveying here and there, um, just to put that in the budget in some place that we could carve out.

That would be great.

Thank you.

Certainly.

There was a comment from uh Miss Kavany about the um how we could go forward with us with uh demolition with a um a site plan, you know, that's under in being sued.

And I'm wondering if could we get an answer to it?

Maybe not tonight, but could we get uh perhaps an answer that that also came up in public comment?

Absolutely, and I responded to um Miss Kaveney's email uh and I copied the commission on that response as well.

But I have I would like to ask the city attorney to come up and talk about what are essentially private property rights and development.

Uh uh correct Sullivan City Attorney.

So I'm gonna speak generally about how litigation works in relation to a land use application.

So absent a temporary straining order or a preliminary injunction.

Nothing would prevent a landowner whose project was in litigation from proceeding forward with that project at their own risk.

The flip side of that is the city does not have authority absent a temporary straining order or preliminary junction to prevent the landowner from proceeding with that land use applic application at their own risk.

That makes it pretty clear.

Thank you.

So further in business before us.

Oh sorry, if I may of course give us a redo on my error earlier.

I do have a couple of FYs that I want to share with the commission and community.

Not jump straight to that consent agenda like I did.

Um so podcast episode two is out.

And it it of our Bozeman beat, and it's on a topic that is never really left our community conversations, and that is about housing.

So in this particular episode, uh Mayor Morrison discusses why housing is so expensive and what the market looks like now.

So if anybody in the community is interested in staying up to date on local government and you enjoy listening to podcasts, tune in and download this episode, and you can find us on all major podcast platforms, and I've always wanted to say that.

The second thing is um we uh I have experience, and I'm sorry, Sean's not here, but he he gets a lot of credit for this.

So last May the Commission approved a pilot project uh to pilot a leak detection monitoring system, right?

Uh we have some results of that program, and we are excited to share that our leak detection time dropped significantly, allowing us to find leaks faster.

And we have saved just to date a hundred and ninety-eight thousand dollars worth of water across ten documented repairs with uh savings of nearly three times the cost of the investment of the program.

So again, your incredible staff is looking out for um all of the services we provide, and uh we'll continue to do that.

Um so we're expanding it, we're gonna we're looking at expanding this pilot project, um, which will help save even more water and more taxpayer dollars.

Thank you.

So given that water costs pennies for the dollar for the gallon, that is that is a significant amount of gallons.

Yeah, and the other thing that it does, which uh is kind of trying to prove a a negative is that we're going finding these leaks before they turn into big leaks, which require um oftentimes off-duty uh um uh responses, uh traffic um interruptions, uh business interruptions and residential shutoffs why we fix these things.

So fixing them before they really break um pays a lot of benefits in and of itself.

Please um I I've just been kind of stewing on the the tense moment that we had um up at the dais earlier, and just want to affirm that I I know we're all here because we care a lot about this community, and um we we don't come up here because we we don't care.

Um and I I know that each of you ran on on platforms that include community character um and um uh want the best for Bozeman, and I I think that's important for all of us to to keep in mind as um we are working together as a team.

So thanks.

Those are wise words.

Thank you, Commissioner Bodie.

And with that, I'll call this meeting adjourned.