Good evening, everyone, and welcome to the Tuesday, March twenty fourth, City Commission meeting of the city of Bozeman.

We are glad that you are here joining us tonight.

Um I'm gonna walk through a little bit of how the procedure is gonna look, um then we'll get the meeting underway.

Um for those that are here in the room, you've obviously decided you're here, you're in the room with us, that's one way you can participate.

Um anyone can stream online as well from our website and our meetings video page at Bozeman dot net.

You can watch um from cable channel one ninety, and you can also tune in just with audio um by calling in to the phone number that's listed on all of our agenda packets.

Um, but in if you participate in that way, you will not be able to give public comment, you'll just be listening to the meeting.

Um if anybody is ever having a connectivity issue, you know, just back out and join again if you have any uh needs to be accommodated to participate or or hear and follow along today, our deputy clerk uh Mr.

Alex Newby will be the point person to be able to help you out with that.

And some of the ways to be able to participate in public comment today.

This is sort of an odd meeting where we have an action item that does not have public accomplish comment associated with it, but normally every item following the appeal item will have public comment associated with them.

That will include consent.

That will include the section of general public comment that is on non-agenda items, as well as the following action items.

Um three minutes in person, same kind of deal for each of those.

Thank you.

So as uh what moving on, do we have any changes to our agenda this evening?

So good evening, Mayor.

We have no changes tonight.

Okay, no changes to our agenda.

So we'll move on to our appeal, um, which is a continuation of a February meeting.

Um, and I'll kick it over to our our deputy attorney um Sabird here in a moment to just kind of remind us what's on the menu for us tonight and how this procedure is gonna work as a catch up from where we were last time.

Um, and just a reminder for everybody who's here.

Um, that hearing incorporated the public comment record.

So there's no new information to add to the record of the decision tonight.

There won't be public comment associated with this item.

There's been no new information from staff or otherwise to inform the decision for this evening.

Um to add on that, or I can just hand it over.

No, I'd like to uh just provide an opening comment from our assistant city attorney, as you said, that will set the stage for the deliberation and the decision that you will make today.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the commission.

Um, just to remind you that there was a site plan application submitted for the development of the commercial lots in the excuse me, Sundance Spring subdivision, and it was reviewed as all site uh plans are and was ultimately conditionally approved by the director of community development back in December of 2025, pursuant to uh the UDC at that time.

Um a timely appeal was submitted by the um appellants in this case.

And as a reminder, this is the second site plan that has been proposed for that property.

The previous site plan was overturned on appeal.

That uh appeal is completely separate and distinct from that, which is in front of you tonight, but for those few findings that the uh commission made that were incorporated and considered for this uh site plan that's before you.

The appeal tonight at issue was notice.

Public comment was accepted, and a hearing was held before this body on February 24th of 2026.

At that hearing, city staff uh presented their um reasons for why they believed the appeal, or excuse me, the director's uh conditional approval should be upheld.

The appellants proposed their reasons for why they believed the uh decision should be overturned, and we also heard from the property owner at that hearing.

And uh, you all as commissioners had the chance to ask questions of all those presenters, and all that information is contained in the record.

Uh public comment was also taken as the mayor indicated.

And then at the conclusion of that meeting, the hearing closed.

And the only thing that was continued till today was the discussion and vote.

So today your sole job is to have that discussion and vote and to decide whether direct the director's conditional approval of the site plan application for the Sundance Springs uh commercial uh lots should be um upheld, amended, or overturned.

And as a reminder, the commission is to consider only the relevant information in the record when making its findings and decision.

Okay.

Any questions or clarification on the process that we're completing this evening?

Okay.

Um I think we can just move on to starting with a motion and um discussion of relevant findings.

Yeah, Commissioner Magic.

Sure.

Make sure I have the right one here.

Having reviewed and considered appeal two, five, seven, six, nine seeking to overturn the decision of the director of community development.

Conditionally approving the Sundance Springs subdivision, commercial lot to site plan application two five two three eight, the record of review, the presentation of staff and the appellant, public comment and all information presented.

I move to amend the a conditional approval of the site plan application two five two three eight to include new condition of approval four as follows.

Um site plan application 25238 must update the lightning plan to comply with maximum lightning standard of 0.3 foot candles of the property boundary as required in Bozeman Code 38570040 G5 and I move to approve the amended conditional approval of the Sunday and Springs Commercial Law 2 site plan application 2528.

That was a lot for the purposes of discussion.

I will second.

It has been moved and seconded, Commissioner Match.

Yeah.

Um thanks very much, everyone, for your patience.

We've had a month go by since our initial hearing.

Um it's hard to have that much time go by even for us.

Uh but as we stated at the February 24th meeting, it's very difficult for us to make decisions and take everyone's information and come up with findings at 10 o'clock at night.

So thanks for bearing with us on that.

So what I'm gonna start with is we received uh an appeal, and the appellants submitted a basis for their appeal on December 18th, 2025, giving us eight main points spelled out over the course of 15 pages, and I'm gonna go through each of the eight main points and kind of give my perspective on those points.

So it's a lot.

Um bear with me as I go through it.

Uh question number one.

What is the statutory purpose of the master plan and development guidelines in a 1996 era phased PUD?

PUD is planned unit development.

So I believe the appellant is trying to give equal weight to the planning documents associated with the Sunday on Springs PUD and calling all of these documents the approved final plan.

Instead of recognizing that the PUD approval process really includes a mix of non-regulatory and regulatory elements, it's really a progression that starts kind of with a non regulatory concepts and then moves and finalizes as the course of that review goes on.

So the non-regulatory non-binding elements include the master plan, the preliminary plan, and the development guidelines.

If you look at the definition standard definitions associated with the field and practice of planning, you will find that master plans, preliminary plans, and development guidelines are not binding, non-regulatory documents.

This is standard practice as I know it.

I'm a community planner, I have a master's degree in the field.

So the statutory purpose of a master plan is to provide early stage guidance that is subject to change as more information is gathered.

Development guidelines are meant to guide and promote a framework without being legally binding.

What did the commission order when creating the Sunday on Springs PUD?

The Commission approved the PUD, and this is a commission of 1996, subject to conditions in the findings of fact and order, which we received a copy of, and ultimately approval of a final plan or final plot.

And we saw a copy of that on the 24th that was presented on the screen.

The final plan cemented and made legal, the conceptual locks that were originally shown in that master plan, to add teeth to the development guidelines, a property owner's association would add covenants to further specify the things that need to be met.

And it's things that we have seen in the covenants, things like building height, building size.

We saw that there's a building height specified in covenants of 34 feet and a building size not to exceed 5,000 feet.

5,000 square feet.

How does the 2025 municipal code enforce the terms of the PUD?

Building permits are issued based on the code, and it's the code that includes zoning.

So let me just say that.

So building permits are issued based on the code and the final plan, as well as compliance with the covenants.

It's compliance with the code that is in place at the time a building permit and or site plan is submitted.

Question three.

5.2 are the terms of the master plan binding.

Again, no.

Appellant states we need to enforce what's on the master plan, which shows a single one-story building centrally located on commercial lot two, which shows a drawing of a village door.

Yes, and staff reassessed the surrounding zoning and determined that the site does indeed have that adjacency.

This impacts lighting on the site, thus the condition, uh amended condition at the beginning.

So a summary of the non-compliance from the applicant was the master plan violation, the block frontage violations, the development guideline violations, and the 1992 code violations.

And I'm essentially saying that these are all not violations.

They all meet what the PUD proposed.

Item seven talks about the character of the development.

And I believe the applicant, the property owner has taken steps to meet the spirit of the PUD and to integrate design guidelines into the project.

And ultimately what the appellant is saying, that somehow staff got this wrong.

There are three individuals, some of whom I can't see right now, representing the city's community development department staff who reviewed this project for compliance with the rules and codes that we all, as boatsman residents, have to follow.

Why would they jeopardize their planning careers by making a pretextual decision?

I would say they wouldn't, and they didn't.

A letter we received complained that the city is making a decision on this project based on a whim.

That somehow we just, you know, don't agree with it.

And nothing, nothing could be further from the truth.

We have laws, we have rules, we have code, we have processes that are longstanding, not only here in Bozeman, but in the practice of planning.

These are stuff I learned in grad school before this application even came to be.

The outdoor patio area space has been reduced.

Efforts have been made to protect the open space and to help overall stress on the neighborhood parking.

And I believe that these improvements show a good faith effort by the landowner to be a good neighbor in this case.

Thank you, Commissioner Magic.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Thank you, Commissioner Magic, for that extremely robust foundation for discussion.

Hard to follow.

Having none of your experience, I am going to risk sounding a bit like a brat and disagree on two points.

So I don't know where we go from there.

Do I describe the two points that I disagree on or yeah, I think you can add which all of the relevant findings that you want to cite for your decision, either in agreement to uphold the director's decision or to overturn the director's decision.

Okay.

It doesn't necessarily have to be oriented to disagreement or agreement with Commissioner Magic's findings.

Okay, excellent.

So yeah, I guess I have multiple options here, depending on which direction the commission decides to go.

If it is indeed the will of this commission to uphold the director's approval, I would like to propose an amendment to the original motion and add another condition of approval requiring that the parking should be removed from the rear setback, allowing only landscaping in that area in order to comply with the declaration of covenants conditions and restrictions for the Sundance Springs Section 2 Neighborhood Services Property.

My findings to support suggesting that.

I'll second that.

Oh, okay.

Sorry.

Thank you.

The motion will say from what I heard is related to the parking setbacks landscaping, sort of some of the pieces that Commissioner Magic also spoke to, but not necessarily proposing an amendment.

You've read that out.

It's now been moved and seconded.

Right.

Thank you.

You can speak to the amendment.

Okay.

So the 2024 Commission finding of findings of fact ordered that the director should have considered and applied the design guidelines for the Sundance Springs PUD, which are incorporated within the covenants to this site plan application, and we are held to those findings in this decision.

All construction other than landscaping improvements shall be limited to the buildable area, this buildable area.

So while I find that the planning staff reviewing this application were correct in applying the dimensions of the setbacks contained in the development code for B1 at the time the application gained adequacy, I find that they did not apply the design guidelines or covenants as directed by the 2024 Commission findings of fact order in regards to what is allowed within those setbacks, and this should have been done.

This application shows no variance granted by the Sundance Springs Neighborhood Services Owners Association in accordance with item 3.2 of the CCRs, which would allow for parking in this setback.

So it needs to be eliminated, and only landscape improvements may be allowed.

I agree with the appellants' stance that 381050A of the Bozeman Municipal Code, which stipulates that wherever the requirements of this chapter are at variance with the requirements of any other lawfully adopted rules and regulations, or wherever there is an internal conflict within this chapter, the most restrictive requirements or those imposing the higher standards will govern.

That means no parking infrastructure should have been approved within the rear setback.

I find that all design guidelines must be applied equally since they were mandated in the finding of facts from May 2024.

It is erroneous to pick and choose guidelines like 8.4 restricting the height of a building to 34 feet or 9.2D requiring 18-inch eaves while ignoring 8.3C preventing parking infrastructure in the setbacks.

It is not reasonable to think of parking infrastructure as a landscape improvement.

Therefore, if this commission is going to uphold the director's decision, I recommend that this commission adopt this additional condition of approval.

Okay.

We have a proposed amendment.

Now, is this the time to talk about not supporting the original motion?

Or did I give that up?

You when I you still can, I'm sure.

But I think if as there is an amendment that's been proposed, we should vote on that.

We should go.

Yeah, Commissioner Fisher.

Sure, I appreciate that recently a chance to discuss this.

Um I you know, I agree that the design guidelines are important in this in this, you know, this this whole issue.

My um I just I can't support this effort because I I think the staff interpreted, and I think the um the applicant interpreted correctly that the buildable area again, according to the design guidelines, that's section 8.3c.

We seem to be this crucial here.

The buildable area determined by a building or structure setbacks.

And what we're talking about here with the building and structure setbacks are outside of that.

What we're talking about is a the parking lot and our code, um municipal code allows parking in a in a rear setback.

Um, and in fact, the Bozeman Municipal Code expressly contemplates and allows for parking and parking-related encroachments into the rear setback.

And so um I you know, um, I mean, I have thoughts on whether we should put parking in the rear seppets, but but the but I'm I'm looking at the code here.

And and I I'm not gonna design this from the diason, so I feel like um I think staff read this one correctly, and the and the uh applicant is entitled to that parking lot.

Thank you.

Commissioner Bowdy.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, and yeah, thank you to my colleagues here.

I I also appreciate the opportunity to have this conversation.

Um, and I am going to associate myself with Commissioner or Deputy Mayor Fisher's comments here.

And um to say that I I also agree that staff interpreted this correctly, that you need to go to the Bozeman and Municipal Code, and the Bozeman Municipal Code says that there isn't a rear setback required.

Um, that aside, I just want to spend a moment kind of discussing like functionally what this does for the neighborhood, how how this would be an improvement on the application.

Um, and I I just don't feel like anything is meaningfully achieved by by this change.

Um, we have permanent open space directly behind the parking lot, and um the um landscaping requirements of proper visual shielding occurring already.

Um, moving this setback, the parking lot back a few feet doesn't to me meaningfully change the character of this development or impact to neighbors.

Um we actually received multiple, several public comments being concerned about the parking impact that this commercial development may have on the surrounding neighborhood.

So I worry that adding this condition of approval, which is not required by the code would reduce the amount of parking and could negatively impact the neighbors in the area.

Um so for those reasons I I won't be supporting the amendment.

Commissioner Madrid.

Yeah, thanks to my fellow commissioners.

Um Commissioner Sweeney, very much appreciate the spirit of what you're trying to do here, but I think that I'm gonna uh agree with the deputy mayor and um commissioner Bodie on this.

Even though I really appreciated um the applicant and property owner on the meeting of the 24th saying that they're willing to look at you know the placement of the parking lot and possibly move it.

Then once again, if that is gonna make a material change and um make things better for the neighborhood, I believe that the applicant is willing to do that.

That's a good thing that I don't think I'm support mandating that they do.

Um thank you, everyone.

Um appreciate the the opportunity to have a um rich discussion around this.

I think similarly um seeing A point three C in the CCNR's um design guidelines reading each lot in Sundance Springs shall have a buildable area determined by building or structure setbacks as allowed in the Bozman zone code.

Um it's quite clear in our current code, parking is allowed in rear setbacks.

So I I think that to me um exists to that effectively precludes what the second sentence then says.

But I I think I understand the sentiment of um wanting to apply it with that rigor.

I I think I disagree and and believe that staff um acted accordingly and and properly applying the code.

Um further discussion on this amendment before we vote.

Okay.

Seeing none.

Mr.

Debian.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Aye.

Deputy Mayor Fisher.

No.

Commissioner Bodey.

No.

Commissioner Magic.

Oh, Mayor Morrison.

No.

Um the amendment fails um one to four.

Um okay.

So now it is still the the main motion is still on the plate at the moment, Commissioner Sweeney, if you'd like to speak to that.

Thank you.

Um I was instructed not to watch the appeal from 2024 and just to rely on the findings of fact.

And so I've done that.

I I do wish I had a little more context around like a little more of the nuance around findings of fact number four regarding the block frontage.

Um, since I don't have that, uh I'm going simply off what we were presented and the materials and the reading of the current of the code that was in effect at the time.

And so for me, I find that I agree with the appellants that this site plan does not satisfy block frontage standards in our code at the time the application gained adequacy.

Um in keeping with the findings of 2024, I observed that the new site plan still has not addressed block frontage standards for multiple frontage situations described in 38.510.020, specifically internal frontage situations.

The West Building has its primary entrance facing the parking lot rather than the street.

Um so it doesn't comply with the order of precedence for frontage laid out in 38510.020 F.

I find the appellants' assertion that the entrance to the atrium is the primary front entrance, uh, which should be required to face Little Horse Drive.

Um the second building appears to have an internal frontage, so according to the same order of precedence, it should front the trail rather than the parking lot.

Um these grounds, I would be supporting overturning the director's decision.

Okay, thank you, Commissioner Sweeney.

Um Deputy Mayor.

Thank you.

I appreciate the comments of my fellow commissioners.

Um, so the the Sunday on Springs POD was was meant to provide a degree of certainty to residents in the community about how that neighborhood would develop.

Normally a person buys a piece of property and can build what they want by right, subject to the provisions, of course, in our uh that apply to everyone under our city code.

This PUD imposes an uh an extra layer of requirements.

So what puzzles me is how we could have such a gulf of interpretation and what those requirements are.

And so our task tonight is to look at these documents, to look at the project before us, to look as um attorney Severed said, at the at the relevant information in the record, and say whose interpretation best matches that record in front of us.

And I would argue the spirit of that PUD.

So, somewhat like Commissioner Magic, I thought I would go through their the different arguments and look at these, you know, kind of one by one.

So the master plan, the appellants are alleged that virtually everything in this site plan, the number of buildings, the number of stories, the leasable floor area, the building location, the commercial activity, the outdoor patio, all violate the master plan.

Um I find that the PUD and the plat uh expressly recognize the conceptual nature of the PUD approval, and that the subsequent site specific design would be needed.

This PUD, in fact, explicitly states that future construction on individual lots will be controlled by Bozeman area zoning and building codes and the covenants and design guidelines for the project.

The final site plan contains no such detail as Commissioner Magic mentioned, and I would associate myself with her remarks about the building location or the type for that lot.

And I believe that the appellants assign a level of importance to a map that is essentially marketing material, and that based on the document trail, that map is not something to be taken as an ironclad depiction of future development.

In fact, the findings of fact and order for the Sundance Springs PUD explicitly states in note number 29 that uses permitted on these lots include professional offices and other permitted uses listed in the B1 neighborhood service district chapter of the Bozeman Zoning Ordinance.

So, and as for the the application of the 1992 code, I think the city commission answered this in 2024, and those findings stand.

And so I believe that the director's application of the 2025 code stands as correct.

Um next, they the appellants contend there's a contention that the applicants must amend the final PUD approval for the proposed development to comply with Bozeman Code.

And again, I I turn to condition 29 in that findings of fact in order for the Sundance Springs PUD.

And it's clear to me the assertion that all B1 uses are allowed in those neighborhood services lots.

On block frontage, um here I disagree with my respectfully with Commissioner Sweeney, that our code addresses situations where property and buildings front onto multiple street blocks, trails, and internal frontage designations.

And I accept staff's assertion that this site has one block frontage on Little Horse Drive.

Our code requires that simply that the building entrance, a building entrance must be visible and accessible from the street for that for the building that fronts on Little Horse Drive.

It does not need to be the main entrance, and the building can have other entrances and facades as the designer or the applicants feel appropriate.

I believe we answered with our previous motion the uh encroachment into the setback complaint.

And I accept the director's concession, a consent concession, and and I believe we have an amendment, or we have an amended motion in front of us that will deals with the residential adjacency complaint.

But that brings me to this character of development, the spirit of PUD that really puzzled the 2024 Commission, and it continues to puzzle me today the how this development could run so contrary to expectations.

You know, in 2024, that the city commission placed an emphasis on the spirit of the PUD.

Two big blocky brick clad buildings they said that did not meet that spirit.

I feel like this design feels more responsive to that spirit.

The buildings are half the size, they meet the design guidelines, the parking has been pushed back, the design is more open and rural.

And so in making this decision tonight, I need to look at the documents on record, the relevant information in that record.

These documents are not that cryptic.

They do not dictate the specific form or function of the building.

They do prescribe some guidelines and preferences.

And so when I assess whether this development meets the spirit of that PUD, I can see the range of possibilities for that parcel has been hemmed in by the guidelines in the PUD documents.

You can't put anything there.

And I believe that this development has been responsive to those limitations and complies with that spirit.

I think the appellants are asking us to narrow that range of possibility beyond what the site plan, the findings of fact and order, and the design guidelines lay out.

And so therefore I find myself in support of the director's decision.

Associating myself with Commissioner Magic's comments and denying the neighbor's appeal.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Commissioner Bowdy.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, I also want to appreciate all of the folks who showed up today and previously, and all of the immense amount of thought that's gone into this process.

So I am going to support the staff findings in the staff report and add some additional findings that may echo some of my colleagues here, that the requirements of the covenants are met by this application, that the application of the design guidelines did significantly change the character of this building compared to a previous application, and that I believe it now honors the spirit of the PUD.

Things like improving conserving open space more, decreasing the size of the patio, decreasing height, decreasing the square footage of the buildings, changing the facades and the roof lines.

I'm just looking at the renderings and the drawings, I'm seeing that I feel that it's very much in the spirit of this neighborhood and what those covenants attempted to dictate.

The original documents state that the master plan should include a site plan, and the final site plan that staff showed us does not actually include buildings at all.

And I think the diagram that the appellants claim is a site plan has some issues.

There are several elements in that drawing that would not have even met the requirements of zoning and the PUD at the time it was adopted, such as a gas station in that location, and access onto South Third.

So I find that that drawing with the buildings on it is conceptual and should not be enforced literally.

And that the uses on these lots were not constrained to only those shown in that conceptual drawing, but permitted uses listed in the B1 neighborhood, all of those uses are allowed on this commercial lot.

And I do feel that the spirit of the application, it's kind of reflected in what was drawn there for the neighbors.

And friendly, I just like to associate myself with Commissioner Magic's findings and Deputy Mayor Fisher's findings.

Thank you.

Thank you to my colleagues and the appellant and original applicant team.

These are hard, challenging, messy procedurally and emotionally in how these are conducted.

They're not easy positions for us, for staff, and of course for aggrieved neighbors and adjacent parties as well as property owners staff to watch as these get picked apart in these ways.

And it's nonetheless an important part of the process.

Here I'm mostly will rely on and incorporate staff's findings into my findings for the record, but a few pieces to lift up.

Similar to my colleagues, that uh that seemingly everyone agrees that they're that this master site plan is cannot be the defining document that says what can be built there.

Um there's probably some um uh uh ability for an engineer to infer, you know, based on the building and the street that's in the conceptual plan as to whether those would be buildable streets and all sorts of things.

So it's it's clear that these are meant to be conceptual, and actually the pieces that um are in writing um don't say anything about um a single-story building, it says 34 feet, um, which would likely mean a two-story building.

Um so there seems to actually be parts that imply um those are those were the intentions at the beginning from the beginning with this PUD.

Um that it yes, uh similarly um we found in 24, same as today.

We're applying today's code, um, the code that was relevant at the applic point of application.

Um the setbacks we we discussed in the previous um amendment discussion.

There's procedures in the code for multiple frontages that I believe staff have have correctly applied.

If we look around town, there's many places, especially commercial properties where there's multiple frontages and there's a frontage A entrance that fronts onto the street that to which it has an address.

It's not necessarily the only frontage, the only entrance that's allowed.

And so I I will be supporting the director's decision.

I believe this follows the statutory requirements of the code as were the law of the land at the moment of this relevant in this application, as well as the above and beyond what would be expected for B1 elsewhere in the city that was incorporated in the design guidelines for the finding effect in order of the previous hearing for that for the Sundance Springs commercial lot.

And so believe that by virtue of that mechanism, not only meets the actual technical compliance with our code, but the spirit of the PUD itself.

And I will be supporting the amended director's decision.

Any further discussion or findings to incorporate from anyone?

Okay.

Seeing none.

Mr.

Newby, would you pull the commission on the original amended motion?

Commissioner Sweeney.

No.

Deputy Mayor Fisher.

Aye.

Commissioner Bowdy.

Aye.

Commissioner Magic.

Aye.

Mayor Morrison.

Aye.

Motion is approved four to one.

Okay, we will wrap up that item and move on now to where we traditionally start our meetings often with FYI.

We'll maybe wait wait a moment for folks that wish to vacate.

I'd like to be hold.

Okay.

Open it up for any FYI from the commission this evening.

Yep, Commissioner Magic.

Yeah, so uh there is a walk with me on Thursday.

Um Deputy Mayor Fisher is gonna join me.

We're gonna walk the length of Oak Street along and near the regional park.

It's Thursday, which is March 26th.

We're gonna meet at 3:30 in the parking lot of the regional park, and it would be great if people would like to join.

We're gonna talk generally about traffic calming and streets and parks and all that sort of good stuff.

Thank you.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Uh yes, thank you.

So this Friday and Saturday, March 27th and 28th, the American Indian Council pow celebrate its 50th year.

Um head to the Brickbreed and Field House at MSU to join this celebration of cultural heritage and honor our First Nations students, faculty, veterans, dancers, drummers, and artisans.

Uh witness grand entry at 5 p.m.

on Friday and twice on Saturday at 11 a.m.

and 5 p.m.

This celebration is free and open to the public, and all are welcome.

You can even join in the dancing when the MC calls for an intertribal or a round dance.

My favorite is always the tiny tots dancers.

Um not only are they stinking cute, they are also an affirmation of pride in their heritage to see the next generation participating and carrying forth the cultural traditions of their forebears.

It keeps hope alive.

Um see you at the POWA.

I hope.

Thank you.

Any other FYI?

Yeah, Commissioner Bodie.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, in the spirit of giving updates about our advisory boards, I just want to give folks an update about the sustainability board meeting that um occurred a couple weeks ago now.

Um so we had a really thorough update from the board chair on the water advisory council, and they have um been presented with 10 strategies to kind of securing our water future, and we walked through each of those strategies and um gave the chair, uh the board gave the chair some thoughts on ones that they were more interested in and less interested in pursuing.

And we walked through each of those strategies and gave the chair, the board gave the chair some thoughts on ones that they were more interested in and less interested in pursuing.

Staff then gave an update on an improved system for monitoring greenhouse gas emissions and mapping climate plan goals to emission reduction pathways.

Looks like a really cool dashboarding technology and has some great visuals that we'll be able to put up on our website and have residents kind of engage with our plan to reduce emissions.

So I'm really excited about this, and we should kind of get it up on the website sometime soon.

And then our sustainability board also approved their work plan for this next two-year period.

Some of the logical things from our commission priorities made it into their work plan, things like reviewing the advisory boards and all the kind of buckets under that environmental health goal.

But we also the board also had this very robust conversation about the desire to sink their teeth into the affordable housing goal.

Specifically that there are some low and no-cost elements that can really impact long-term affordability and resiliency of buildings that are kind of overlapping with sustainability goals.

And I'm really interested to support them having that conversation.

One example that they gave is orienting our buildings for solar gain.

Definitely that might constrain how many buildings you can fit on a lot.

So maybe maybe that's a negative for cost there, but when it doesn't negatively impact the number of buildings that can fit, I think that's just a smart way to make sure buildings cost less over the life of the building for our lower or middle income folks trying to live in affordable housing.

So anyway, um that's just something that came out of uh kind of an unexpected place for me and wanted to update the commission to it.

Thank you.

Yeah, Deputy Mayor.

I'm I need to give a little update about the inner neighborhood council of which I'm the liaison.

They two weeks ago passed a resolution um unanimously requesting us as a commission to um impose a moratorium on large buildings uh development or demolition within the NCOD while we are considering our NCOD design guidelines.

Um that that uh note or that recommendation is sitting in public comment and encourage you all to read it.

Thank you.

Um any FYI from staff this evening?

Just a real quick one.

Uh a conversation that has been around forever and continues to this day is parking downtown.

And uh the downtown urban renewal district is conducting an online community survey to better understand the perspectives about parking in downtown Bozeman.

Uh survey responses will be used to build out the vision, mission, core values, and strategy for downtown parking.

I applaud this effort.

Everyone is invited to participate in the survey uh by March 30th.

There's more information on flyers by the door, or you can go to downtown Bozeman.org to uh find out more about it.

Thank you.

Thank you, City Manager.

Um moving on to commission disclosures.

Any disclosures from any of my colleagues this evening?

Okay.

Seeing none, we'll move on to consent.

So we've got a long post-spring break consent agenda.

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

Sure.

I'm not sure what the record is, but uh this is pretty close.

I'll highlight two tonight, um, both good news for taxpayers in our city.

Uh we uh item G6 is to uh award the bid for the Cattail Construction Project from Baxter Lane.

Um it's the North 27th project from Baxter Lane to Cattail.

Uh the total base bid in the amount is two million dollars less than the engineers uh estimate, which is unheard of.

You who've been around in Bozeman, know the difficulty of getting any work done during the pandemic.

And finally, uh, we're getting very competitive bids to our projects, and I want to thank Nick Ross and his team over there for all the hard work to make sure that taxpayers' money stretches as far as it can.

The second uh I'd like to uh highlight is G8.

That's another super awesome project.

Uh it is the children's room renovation at the Bozeman Public Library.

It is a well-used, beloved part of our library, families, children are in there all the time.

They do some amazing uh programming, and that is uh about a million two renovation, a million of that is raised by the foundation through philanthropy.

They do some amazing uh programming, and that is uh about a million two renovation, a million of that is raised by the foundation through philanthropy, a million dollars to get that work done at our library, and that's good news too.

So thank you for that.

Thank you, City Manager.

Um for moving on to motion to motion and vote on consent, we'll open it up for public comment.

Any public comment in the room this evening on our consent one or consent to schedules.

Second request for comment in the room, and one final request for comment in the room.

I'm seeing our staff shaking their head.

No, they're not commenting.

Um Mr.

Newby, do you have any comment requests online?

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

Okay, seeing no requests for public comment, we'll bring it up here for a motion and vote.

Um, we will have uh two separate motions on consent one, consent two.

Commissioner Sweeney.

I move to approve consent agenda G1, items G1 through G21.

Second.

It has been moved and seconded.

Mr.

Newby.

Commissioner Sweeney.

Aye.

Deputy Mayor Fisher.

Aye.

Commissioner Bodie.

Aye.

Commissioner Magic.

Aye.

Mayor Morrison.

Aye.

Consent uh one, G1 through G21 are approved as submitted.

Moving on to consent two.

Um, Deputy Mayor, would you be able to help us out with this one?

I move uh to present uh consent two as presented.

Second.

It has been moved and seconded, Mr.

Newby.

Deputy Mayor.

Deputy Mayor Fisher.

Aye.

Commissioner Bodine.

Aye.

Commissioner Magic.

No.

Commissioner Sweeney.

No.

Mayor Morrison.

All right.

Consent two is approved three to two.

And we will move on to a mayoral proclamation.

Um, some context for for everyone, um, both on the procedures of proclamations as well as this one in particular.

Um, anybody in the community can submit and say, hey, here's a moment, an event, a person that we think is important, and should be recognized by the mayor via proclamation.

Um you can submit them.

We've got others pending in in the running.

Um, but this is one that came from a group that has been uh working tirelessly to emphasize and celebrate first contact day as a day of significance for this community, even though it comes from science fiction, comes from the Star Trek franchise.

Um for those that are unaware, uh this is something that the city we receive public comments about quite regularly from residents that are asking, hey, when are we gonna recognize Bozeman's importance within the Star Trek universe, or from folks that are traveling the country and go to sites of fictional importance as as tourists as a hobby.

Um and so for those that don't know, uh the first contact in the Star Trek franchise between humans and uh extraterrestrial life occurs on April 5th, 2063 in Bozeman, Montana.

Um, which seems surprising to many.

Uh I think most of the renderings that I've ever seen show like a farm and a windmill, um, which is maybe uh not even what it looked like 50 years ago.

Um, but so be it.

Uh everyone is uh is open welcome to their own interpretations.

And so consequent consequently, this group that has emerged in this community um has submitted a request for proclamation that I am honored and excited to um to approve and to participate in.

So proclamation declaring April 5th as first contact day, whereas April 5th, 2063 is the date of first contact between humanity and extraterrestrial life in the Star Trek media franchise, and whereas the city of Bozeman is home to hundreds of scientists, technicians, engineers, artists, mathematicians, and other professions, and other professionals who expand our shared understanding of humanity's place among the stars.

And whereas Bozeman is home to Montana State University, a contributing member of the Space Grant Consortium, expanding scientific knowledge of outer space and how best to bridge the gap between space research and planetary progress.

And whereas Central Montana has since time immemorial been a meeting ground for many people who call the Rocky Mountains and the Great Plains home, including the Salish, the Ponderay, the Coot Nine, the Blackfeet, Chippewa, Plains Creed, Grovant, Cinnaboyne, Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, Crow, and Little Shell Chippewa.

And whereas the people of Bozeman wish to cultivate a spirit of curiosity and collaboration across both the imagined cultures of science fiction media and the real cultures of our earthly neighbors.

And whereas the advocates of first contact they seek to highlight the power of science fiction to inform the lived reality with gatherings of people from Montana and beyond on April 5th of every year to come.

And whereas the development of tourism that attracts STEM professionals, artists, and science fiction fans during a historically slow season for visitors will be an economic boon to local businesses.

They put it in there.

Whereas if extra terrestrial life searches the galaxy for peaceful connection with other species, is the sense of the city of Bozeman would welcome such visitors with open arms.

And now, therefore, I, Joey Morrison, the mayor of Bozeman, do hereby proclaim Sunday, April 5th, 2026 as first contact day, and I urge all citizens to look to the stars with hope and to one another with open hearts and open minds.

Okay, now the fun is over.

Where is Okay, general public comment?

Is it all the way up the end of the action?

Okay.

Understood.

Um so next up we have a special presentation.

City manager.

Yep, thank you, Mayor.

As a part of our uh engagement uh process, uh, we are highlighting certain divisions and activities that are going on uh in our city all the time.

Tonight we have um Mr.

Nick Ross, uh director at Nick Ross, uh, telling our story about transportation and engineering.

So welcome, Nick.

Thank you, City Manager.

Tough act to follow.

I'll try to be quick.

Uh so as City Manager Wynne uh expressed, I get to meet you tonight, talk a little bit about my department, transportation and engineering.

We're gonna focus on some of the side that we don't get to talk about quite as much uh on commission night, and that is our operating, our operating division.

So transportation engineering, this is split into six individual divisions.

Tonight, we're gonna talk about those hands-on divisions that are providing frontline services to all of our community.

So we start out with the one internal service that we have uh in transportation and engineering, and that is our vehicle maintenance division.

So uh this is how I present all of our commission onboardings.

You guys rarely get a chance to see all of our workers in person.

And so uh by way of introducing you and the public to all of them here, uh, they are in org chart form.

So uh vehicle maintenance is now led by Sam Berzi, our first fleet manager as a city, and he is supported by uh seven mechanics and one fleet part worker who all make up the vehicle maintenance division.

So uh we split vehicle maintenance out into two parts, fleet services.

So that's sort of what a fleet manager does for the city.

So, Sam, our fleet manager is responsible for capital planning, procurement, disposal, and record management of all city vehicles and equipment.

Uh breaking that down into some stats, so just in our current uh FY27-31 CIP, we have 152 separate assets uh that will be purchased by the city that will all be managed by Sam or our fleet manager at the time.

So on the opposite end of that spectrum on disposals, uh, just in the last uh about eight months, since August of 2025, Sam's disposed of 55 assets uh worth almost half a million dollars.

So that's almost half a million dollars that come back to the city and the department that's getting rid of those vehicles and equipment while also clearing out a lot of space around our yard and our shop.

Uh Sam's also helped repurpose seven vehicles within our current CIP that were up for disposal, but can be utilized by another department without having to go ahead with that new purchase.

And he was all also instrumental in securing $500,000 all electric vehicle grant for a new aerial lift truck for our science signal division.

The one public-facing service that we provide in vehicle maintenance is oil and anti-freeze disposal.

So if you weren't aware, uh we host a free public service at our facility at 1812 North Rouse, uh, where last year we collected uh over 4,000 gallons of used oil and anti-freeze from over 600 individual customers.

That's a lot of crap that we get to keep out of the sewers.

Uh and so we're happy to promote that free service to our community.

On the uh maintenance side, our seven uh uh maintenance technicians maintain uh up to 695 city assets uh with across all divisions of the city.

So we're staffed with ASE master mechanics certified technicians.

That's a very lofty goal that a lot of mechanics have, and all seven of our current mechanics uh have that certification at the at the uh present time.

So uh we handle all manners of preventative maintenance, diagnosis, and repair of equipment failures across the city.

Um we also support on crawl on call breakdowns, and so all hours of the day if we are operating everything from fire to streets and solid waste, we'll be out there if we have a breakdown.

Uh right now we do prioritize heavy duty repairs in our shop.

We have 10 bays, seven mechanics, uh, and with the lack of heavy-duty mechanics in the community, uh other places, other shops that we could take our equipment.

The amount of heavy-duty equipment that we have to run divisions like fire, like solid waste like streets is so high that that's really where we have the space to dedicate greatest needs.

So we mostly focus on heavy duty, potential future expansions could take on more of that light duty service that we would love to help out with as well.

Uh we have a dedicated PD mechanic, and we will be adding an incoming fire department dedicated mechanic as well to make sure public services stay on the streets.

And so, all said and done, we had about 1,694 work orders completed last year alone.

Now to a receiving division.

Uh so our streets division right now is staffed up with uh uh about 30 full-time equivalent equivalent employees led by uh Matt Workman and Neil Smith as our superintendent and assistant superintendent.

And so streets we break out into two different groups.

Uh first and foremost, our streets, street maintenance division.

Uh we are responsible for maintaining uh a little bit over 300 miles of city maintained streets uh all across Bozeman.

Uh in the winter, break we break that down into 12 priority plow routes with 24 hour turnaround service after every accumulating snow event.

That's led by our 3 a.m.

shift.

Uh and then once 7 a.m.

terms are turns around, we bring on our second shift.

We break down all of the city's local streets, all of our residential streets into five routes with weekly service uh using our graders to really get down to that hard-packed ice.

Uh in the spring and fall, we run all of the city street sweeping and leaf collections.

That is in large uh large amount of support of environmental compliance with our MS4 permits.

Uh and then, of course, in the summer, we are responsible for all potholes, patching, and paving.

Uh, we have really built up our in-house paving capacity with an annual goal of about 2,500 tons of in-house mill and overlay work on our local street network.

Uh, this year we're projected to exceed 3,000 tons there.

So stuff that we have around in the winter, we put to great use in summer, maintaining all of our city streets as well.

And we also are sort of the jack of all trades uh as operators, and so we support a lot of special projects around the city for other divisions as well.

Uh just this past winter, looking for plenty of work to stay busy.

Uh we filled in 20 uh 20 locations of exposed uh um debris at our old city landfill near the East Gallum River.

So putting our operating services to use.

Um for a few stats in a good year, not quite this year, but last year, uh we plowed over 45,000 lane miles of street, 2600 miles of sidewalk and path, uh, and spent about 1,300 hours total hauling snow out of our downtown core.

Over on the other side of street maintenance is our sign and signal division.

So we have uh six operators uh that are especially trained and all things traffic control that we utilize for their specialty skills.

So uh we again maintain all street lights signs, crosswalk striping uh on all city maintained streets.

Uh we maintain uh right now 28 full traffic signals, uh 24 pedestrian crossing beacons.

We do all of our own seasonal traffic calming installation now.

Uh we the science signal division are the primary leads for all special event traffic control.

So if you see uh the barricades going up for music on Maine and a lot of our uh events like that, signs and signals are usually the folks with help from streets uh taking that on.

And this group also in the winter pitches in uh for sidewalk and path plowing to help out with winter maintenance.

And so uh Streets Division, we take a huge amount of pride in keeping our streets safe and uh and and uh uh frankly pretty and usable and livable for our community.

And we take a lot of pride and care a lot when people write in with very nice notes as well.

And especially if you send in pictures, those are all getting hung up on the board at the shop.

So we really care about our community, and we love hearing when they like our work too.

Uh last but not least is Bozeman Sol Waste.

So our Bozeman Municipal Solid Waste Service is led by Superintendent Russ Ward, and we have uh 23 operators right now staffed to manage all uh residential collections of landfill or trash service recycling and now and uh new organics collection program.

We also run a commercial collection service where we have a whole suite of various uh size dumpsters, totes, and tubs uh that really want to we we uh we offer to really serve our customers uh with the most flexible manner that we can.

We also include construction roll-off service as well to help with a lot of the projects going on around the community.

Uh so on our residential service side, uh we estimate we serve about 70% of Bozeman households at this time, which is uh always our goal uh to be the provider of choice for Bowesman residents.

Uh we run our residential service or our trash service with five routes uh five days a week.

And one thing that we're proud of, we uh show about half of the uh national average in the amount of trash that we send to the landfill per customer per week based on our community's environmental ethics and our service goals with uh um uh uh uh uh landfill reduction and uh by providing those uh recycling and organic services.

Uh our Bozeman Recycling program was started uh back in 2008.

We run a co-mingled service uh to encourage as many folks as possible to have that be a low barrier to entry.

Uh we are super happy that we're up to over half of our uh trash customers also have our recycling service.

We run uh about one and a half routes five days a week to take care of all of our customers, and we partner uh with Four Quarters Recycling here in the Valley where we collect the recycling material, they process uh and dispose of it from there.

Finally, uh just last year we started uh Montana's first municipal organics collection program uh across the entire state.

So we're up to almost 1,800 customers on our organic side, and we are about to start with our next round of uh uh community education and marketing uh to hopefully bring more folks on as we've just started back with our seasonal service.

Uh we run this program as a public-private partnership uh with Happy Trash Can, a local company who is actually uh hosted at our solid waste uh facility up off Story Mill.

We do the collection, they do the composting.

And so finally, uh Bozeman Solid Waste is our one enterprise fund, meaning we are uh uh essentially a self-sustained business that's competitive with the private market for hauling across Bozeman.

We take great pride in that, and we really want to be the provider of choice for all of Bozeman.

So we care about the work we do, and we want to serve you.

So hopefully you you learn something from that.

All right.

I could not be more proud of Nick and his team.

Um we have unbelievably talented staff across the city, but no more where no more talented than we have in the uh vehicle mains division.

They're amazing.

Our streets operators are amazing.

Um our science signal group is amazing, and those folks could work anywhere.

But because of Nick's leadership and your uh allocation of budget resources, they choose to work here.

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

So thank you, Director Ross.

Thank you, Commission.

Thank you, City Manager and Director Ross.

Um, always fun to get an update on um what our department's working on and hearing uh yeah, it's probably an uh an odd it'd be interesting to see the comparison of miles plowed um this winter versus last year's winter.

Um next up the the finance echelon came in on queue.

So I think we're moving on to our our one action item of the evening.

City manager.

Thank you, Mayor.

Item K1 is a resolution to adopt the fiscal year's 2027 through 2031 capital improvements plan.

You've seen this at least two times.

We've had a lot of great conversation about it.

And here tonight is our director for finance, Melissa Hodnet.

Okay, good evening, Commission.

I um and Melissa Hudnett, Finance Director.

I might beat my record for fastest presentation tonight.

We'll see.

But just a couple reminders for you all because we've had a couple of work sessions on the CIP already.

We started this process internally back in Geece September of last year.

Um departments submitted their CIP requests, and they've all been reviewed and vetted by the finance team, the city manager's office, and all of the relevant advisory committees.

On December, um I forgot the exact date.

In December, we presented the first work session of the capital improvement program, which had really the meet the bulk of the information that is in the CIP document in front of you tonight for adoption.

And then on March 10th, we presented a couple of changes to you all tonight.

We are here for CIP formal adoption.

And I want to just talk a little bit more about how we integrate that into the biennium budget and next steps after you all discuss this CIP tonight.

So as a reminder, the CIP is a planning document.

It does not guarantee that we have revenues to fund all of the projects.

We try to be as realistic as possible in this capital plan.

But the real test of whether or not we can afford and have appropriations for a capital project is when we get to this budget development and budget adoption process.

So when we talk about the budgets in May and June, we will talk about the capital plans again a little bit, not in project detail, but we will talk about any changes that have occurred based on all of the financial modeling and the balancing that this budget team is doing right now.

So we are in the middle of all of that balancing and determining what we believe rate impacts may be proposed during these June meetings.

So June 2nd, enterprise funds and special assessments funds.

Those are the funds that have the most capital in them.

So we'll talk about rate impacts on June 2nd and on June 9th, we'll talk about the general fund that has some significant capital in front of you for adoption tonight as well.

Are there any questions for me before I turn it over to you all?

That was the whole presentation.

That's it.

Yeah, any questions open up to commission questions for staff.

Okay.

Seeing none, um, we will move into public comment.

Um so we will start um with public comment in the room.

Um so this is uh specifically to the item of the capital improvement plan.

Um just as a point of order, uh, you'll have you can step up to the podium.

You'll have three minutes to give public comment.

Um the lights will move in cascading order when the yellow light is going, you got a minute left.

Um, just start out with your name, um, who you are and and what your stake is and and why you're giving us a public comment this evening.

Any public comment in the room this evening on the CIP?

Second request for public comment in the room and one final request.

Seeing none in the room, Mr.

Newby, are we seeing any public comment requests online?

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

Okay.

Seeing no request for public comment, we'll close the public comment hearing and bring it up here for a commission motion discussion and vote.

I believe we are Commissioner Bowdy.

Thank you, Mayor.

I move to approve the resolution adopting the fiscal year 2027 to 2031 capital improvement plan.

Second.

It's been moved and seconded.

I guess before getting too far into discussion, are there any proposed amendments from any commissioners this evening?

Okay.

Then Commissioner Bowdy, you may speak to your motion.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, yeah, I just want to acknowledge how much work went into putting together this very massive plan.

Um, and that it touched every single one of our departments.

Um, I think every every staff person's every staff department's hands are on this.

Um they had to meticulously go through all of the improvements that they'd like to see within um their offices within the city within the services that we're providing to our community and painstakingly prioritize them.

And that is an exceptionally difficult thing to do.

Um, I know there are many projects that didn't make the cut uh for um up to 2031.

And I just appreciate everybody who made those hard decisions.

And I feel confident that we have prioritized things to the best of our ability here to provide the best services and facilities to our residents.

I also just want to name that this is a substantial building block towards our budget process.

And I think Director Cagna already kind of named that, but I'm excited to have this kind of approved so that we can move forward as we consider what to prioritize in our budget this June.

I want to lift up a couple big projects in this capital improvement plan that I'm excited about.

And I'm just thrilled to see them on this capital improvement plan.

There's been a lot of engagement and work on the Fowler Avenue connector, and I'm excited to see that scheduled for these coming years.

And these were kind of already discussed in our previous work sessions, but I again want to lift up the huge savings that we are going to see in water reclamation facilities by a um relatively minor additional investment now for massive savings later.

Yeah, I know that we had um multiple work sessions to discuss this, and I already named the bike and pedestrian safety and the importance of that as we consider where our investments are made.

And um want to remind uh our commission and those in the audience that we heard in our March 10th work session that all of our current transportation projects are focused on bike and pedestrian safety in some way.

Um that we are scheduling a work session in the near future to dive more deeply into how we can do even better on our pedestrian and cyclist safety infrastructure.

And I I'm really looking forward to that conversation and think that each of us will have some some meaty things to contribute.

Um yeah, lastly, I'll I'll just appreciate staff in giving this commission multiple opportunities to chew on this.

Uh, I think the reason you're not seeing amendments or um kind of large public comments in this moment is that we've just had a lot of time to pour over this document and consider it and tease out anything we might be confused about.

And I um hope that we will continue to have this kind of process of multiple opportunities for the capital improvement plan in the future.

So, with all that, I will be in support of the motion.

Thank you, Commissioner Bowdy.

Commissioner Magic.

Yeah, thanks, Mayor, and thanks, Commissioner Bode.

You said a lot of things uh that are on my mind.

Um I think the CIP process every year is really a testament to the expertise and professionalism we have in our staff and the amount of work and care that they put in to taking care of our city and so many paths that kind of has shown in a very small snapshot by uh director or Ross and the street division, but that you know goes city citywide.

Uh speaking of um college avenue, a couple of years ago, that was one item in the CIP that we decided to move up because the commission at the time thought it was a priority.

And I I share your uh sentiment about college avenue.

It's uh well-traveled street, it kind of cuts through the heart of our communities separately, but integrating both MSU and um our town.

Love to see the students in our audience.

Um I I think Carl that you should send them home and have them read the CIP.

Just further understand, and then come back and participate in the budget discussion here in the next couple of months.

We can find one printer and print everyone a copy.

It would probably take us a couple hours to print to everyone.

Um Commissioner Sweeney.

I have nothing to add.

Um I appreciate the staff's work on this and um definitely appreciate the new process of having a few months to dig into this, submit questions.

Um I remember the first time I saw the CIP deliberation.

It was Mayor Andrus was still in office, and I thought, wow, how are they making these decisions at 11 o'clock at night?

So very much appreciate this.

Thanks.

Yeah, Deputy Mayor.

I just need to call out that this is the maybe the first budget presentation we've ever had that doesn't have a single number presented on the slides.

And so I do want to want to lift up that this is a $300 million investment in our city's future over the next five years.

I mean, I think that that is something that's really important.

We are a growing city.

And I I want to call out actually the unscheduled totals, which has been you know erroneously described, even by yours truly here as deferred maintenance, right?

And that is I think that also it speaks, I think, both to the needs of us as a growing city and to staff's recognition that there are there are maybe like what ifs, there are there are there are dreams, there are, and there are things that we're going to need as as Ms.

Hotna said, you know, uh a couple weeks ago, that that in this next seven to ten years that we're we know um that are gonna be rolling on to this, and they don't want to, you know, the staff, and I appreciate that you don't want to lose sight of that, and so you're putting that on there as like that is that's coming for us.

And so um, and that unscheduled is is even bigger.

It's almost 400 million dollars.

So it's it we're we're looking at like 700 million dollars, almost a billion dollars worth of investment that this community is going to need in the next decade, let's say.

Um and that is something I think that's that's important, it's daunting, but it's also um it there's an incredible opportunity there.

Um and so I can't wait to see what other like college and eighth avenues uh you know, college streets we have in in you know coming at us uh in the next few years.

Um and I do also want to thank staff.

They have been wrestling with this, I believe.

You know, sitting on this on the the transportation board, I think it was maybe August that I first heard Mr.

Ross grumbling, maybe not grumbling, but just talking about that he needed to get the CIP prepared.

And so um it is it's a lot of time to keep this the to put this together.

It's almost like baseball season, you know.

It's it it ends in when uh you know November and starts back up in April.

Um so um thank you.

My roommate would like that um uh association with being baseball season.

It does feel like it feels as though it's always ongoing.

Um I'll just offer a few comments.

I think similarly on on process that yeah, I think this um translating it into the spring that then makes it it's just a more intuitive translation of CIP um discussion adopting into the budget sort of makes it feel like the first half of the year is is budget, and we're thinking about budgets and we're thinking about the the vision and the future of the community.

Um the other piece that I that I would add is similar to to what the deputy mayor was was getting at.

Um it is uh there are a few city documents that I have consistently bookmarked so that I can pull them up.

Um in our budget and CIP is often some of those that I pull up the most regularly when a constituent is calling and saying, Hey, why aren't you doing this?

Where is this solve this problem?

And being able to look to, hey, what have we how do we tell the story of what we budgeted for to deal with right now?

And what is the vision that we're looking at over the next five years to address that?

Because I think so often folks are calling and saying, what are you doing about this?

And being able to have a quick answer of here's here's what we are doing, either programmatically policy-wise, and then show the money.

Here's how we are investing in solving that problem, um, or here is our plan, knowing that there's no committed dollars within the CIP, but it still is showing intention and ambition.

Um, I think is a just an important part of any community's story of what their values are and what they're trying to do with their resources.

That still at the end of the day, I think any time we're having conversations with our our budgets and otherwise, is that the need and the the expectations of our community is always greater than what we have the tools and resources to address.

Um and the CIP consistently feels um a reminder of this, how few streets per year we can meaningfully update, renovate, rebuild, um, reconstruct um versus the need that you know, if we could, if we had our way um either differently with how we are able to create our budgets or our relationship with Montana Department of Transportation or otherwise, um, what we'd be doing differently um to to meet the community's needs that um at times we get um the feedback that it's insufficient, and and I think we we feel that as well.

But I think at the end of the day, um the in combination of the policy that this commission gets to set, the budgets that are adopted in our budget cycle and the translation of the CIP get to tell the story of the values and ambitions of this community has and the services that we want to provide.

Okay.

This was I really underprepared for how long we were gonna spend on this item, or over prepared for how long we were gonna be here.

Um but if there's no further discussion, we'll turn over to our deputy clerk for a poll.

Okay, Mr.

Newby.

Commissioner Bodie.

Aye, Commissioner Magic.

Aye, Commissioner Sweeney.

Aye.

Deputy Mayor Fisher.

Aye, Mayor Morrison.

All right.

CIP is adopted five to zero.

I um, Mr.

Mayor, um, I'd like to you coined a term tonight that I fear is gonna live on.

That's the finance echoan.

Yep.

And I see Steve and I see Jonathan, Melissa and Caitlin, and I just want to thank you all for your diligence, um, your your high ethics in uh dealing with the taxpayers' money, and just want to thank you all.

Yeah, thank you, City Manager.

Okay, maybe we were uh you know maybe set ourselves up.

We still have uh general public comment in front of us.

Um so now we'll open it up for general public comment on non-agenda items.

Um so same procedure as before, you'll have three minutes.

Um tell us your name, what your relationship is to the city, um, and then you have your three minutes to speak your mind and tell us what you think we should hear.

Good evening.

Uh thank you, Mayor, thank you, Commissioners.

Um, Carl Anderson.

I'm actually a resident of Belgrade these days, uh, but still work here in Bozeman.

Um as the owner of Weird Productions and Director of Operations for First Contact, I would just like to thank you for the proclamation this evening.

Uh, we look forward to working with you for many years in the lead up to our contact with the Vulcans on April 5th, 2063.

So thank you very much.

Um, to put on my other hat.

I'm also here with my Montperge students.

So I would just like for them to stand up really quick and wave.

Umfortunately, this semester we don't have any projects that have us interacting with the city, uh, but we look forward to working with you guys again uh in the future.

So thank you so much.

Thank you.

Good evening.

Good evening.

My name is Laurie Wallace.

My husband and I own the home at 2724 Daisy Drive in the Harvest Creek subdivision.

I'm here to read the most recent press release created by our homeowners association, dated March 13th, 2026.

It's titled Neighbors Win Seat at Table with the City.

On January 6, 2026, after many months of citizen outcry, the City Commission of Bozeman invited Harvest Creek HOA to participate in quote, a consensus-based engagement, end of quote, regarding the city proposed high-density housing on part of 10 acres acquired in 2017 for the FOST for the Fowler Avenue extension between Oak and Durston.

When purchased, the city agreed in the purchase memorandum to quote preserve existing trees, open spaces, and irrigation ditch, end of quote, on the property.

The city now proposes using the 5.5 acres not needed for the right-of-way to build a multiple high density up to five-story buildings.

This parcel is in an area rezoned R1 and R2 with housing heights of no more than two stories.

Public comments to the commission noted the development will burden neighbors by cutting off air and sunlight to homes, provides for insufficient parking, which will create overflow parking congestion in the neighboring subdivision, and will expose pedestrians and children to increased traffic inside the subdivision.

The citizen concerns were raised at the August 6, 2025 economic vitality board meeting, and the August 12, 2025 and December 9, 2025 Commission meetings.

The preliminary interviews for the mediator mediation are underway.

Harvest Creek HOA is presenting a position paper to the city.

Our HOA does not oppose affordable housing or the construction of the Fowler Avenue construct connection.

Harvest Creek HOA proposes the city create a covenant on the land before any annexation or zoning occurs, restricting development to eight units per acre, no more than two stories high, and creating a traffic and parking access plan that does not impact the subdivision.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other public comment in the room this evening?

Good evening.

Good evening, Daniel Cardi Bozman resident.

I came to the public's attention this weekend that a contractor out at Urban Farms cut down a number of willows and or cottonwoods along an irrigation ditch that is managed by Metal Creek Ditch Company.

So somewhere along the line, there's a failure of process.

Is it the developer's fault?

Is it the contractor's fault?

Is it the city's fault?

We know the contractor or the uh developer can buy their way out of this by paying a fine to Middle Creek Ditch or paying for development up to the bank so many so much money per linear foot.

So somewhere along the line, I would ask the city, especially the city manager and the mayor to look into this incident and find out who is responsible and to set up a process so that it will not happen again.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any more public comment in the room this evening?

Second request for comment in the room.

One final request for comment in the room.

Mr.

Newby, are we seeing any public comment requests online?

Yes, Mayor, we have Mary Francis McHugh online.

Ms.

McHugh, are you here?

Yes, I am, Mr.

Mayor.

Thank you very much.

Um good evening, uh Commissioners and Mr.

Mayor.

I uh am suggesting that uh the agenda be modified uh to have the consent agenda bear an advisory which alerts the public to its right of participation, such as all matters listed under the consent agenda are considered routine and will be enacted by one motion unless any member of the commission wishes to remove an item for discussion or a member of the audience wishes to comment on an item.

I emphasize that.

I I commend uh the mayor uh and the commission for its practice of uh soliciting orally uh comments uh from the public.

I just feel that um including this advisory in the written document would be beneficial and serve the improvement of communication between commission and public.

I note that Bozeman Municipal Code Section 2.20.050 point B sets out the order of agenda and provides that only a commissioner may request items to be removed from the consent agenda for the purpose of discussion.

I think I I I wonder what happens if all of you say no.

Uh and uh there does not seem to be a process for that to allow a member of the uh public to approach the consent agenda and make a comment uh that seems to me to be an impediment that may require an amendment to the ordinance.

But in any event, um the the commission's presiding officer certainly can adjust the order of the agenda to accommodate uh a change such as the advisory that I am suggesting.

I will be following up with this with uh Mr.

Moss.

Uh he and I have started a conversation on it.

I thank you very much for this opportunity to make this comment.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Newby, are we seeing any further requests online?

No, ma'am Morrison, we are not.

Okay.

Seeing no further public comment to come before the commission, we'll bring it back up here for any FYI or discussion.

Any FYI from the Commission.

Yeah, Commissioner Magic.

Yeah, thanks.

Um this is a bit of an experiment.

Uh there is a AI-generated podcast out there called the Bozeman Brief.

And it's actually kind of good.

You can i i it will take our meeting of like four hours and condense it into like a four-minute discussion of these two AI generated voices.

Yeah.

One of the AI people.

So I've found it useful, mostly accurate.

The one consistent inaccuracy is mispronouncing Commissioner Bodie's name.

So I am putting the word out to the AI folks that Commissioner Bowed is actually Commissioner Bowdy.

And we'll see if it makes a difference.

Well, they're on notice.

Magic is watching.

Thanks for that, Commissioner Claire.

Any further FYI?

Nice.

Yeah.

Commissioner Schmidt.

Yes, please.

I have two, actually.

So Deputy Mayor Fisher mentioned earlier the Inc had submitted a resolution to us or a letter to us.

And I just wanted to say publicly that I would support us having a conversation about it's called interim zoning.

So just wanted to say that.

I would support us having that conversation.

And then also the public comment about the trees being removed in the ditch.

This, you know, we updated our wetlands and water course code to great improvement.

But ditches are an agricultural water user conveyance and are not a water course.

And so we have a lot of work to do on that section of our code, and um hope that during our priorities for the next four years, week or two years, we can address that under the um watershed health priority.

So yeah, thanks.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Deputy Mayor.

I um I'd like to yeah, just like a follow-up on that.

I I would I've gotten also some comments about that, the the trees being cut into ditches, and I would love if we just a little bit of information.

That not it doesn't have to happen tonight, but just some some follow-up about, you know, is that just part of the normal process?

Was it accidental?

Um I also think I gotta say, before I got involved in public service, public, you know, sitting in these meetings, uh, this agenda was was daunting to figure out when to when to when to comment on and what you know how how my role was.

And so I think Miss McHugh's um um comment about you know how the ag how the consent agenda works in particular is is is spot on.

Um and if we can maybe put some text in there um just about how the how the kind of consent works.

I think she had it summers, I was I was rapidly scribbling it down, but um but I think if we could look at the tape, she had a uh her language seemed pretty succinct and and I think that would make sense.

And in fact, I think it might actually we may want to put on you know with with all the the letterheads, I mean the the subject you know headings like action items, public comment because we don't take public comment during a mayoral proclamation or special presentation or during FYIs.

And so just to let the public know where we're going to be taking public comment and where they can participate, I think that that's a that's a good call.

My final comment is I would love to have this commission do a little interior decorating.

And I'm wondering, because I noticed Mayor Morrison that you took a picture with your proclamation against a blank wall.

And we have all those pictures of past commissioners somewhere, I I'm hoping, right?

They were beautifully framed.

They're kind of nice.

And it would be kind of cool to see our predecessors up here.

It don't have to be neat, they could be stacked one one another, we can jam them in.

Um, but I would just love to put put like our have our predecessors here in the room with us.

And then that bulletin board, I I have to say has been irking.

Um I would again, I'm not the interior, it's not gonna be my my decision alone, but but if I could get other commissioners to agree, I would love to put our priorities up there in the just the top line, the top four priorities that we have agreed to up there, just so they're a reminder to us in the community.

And then I'm wondering if we could parcel out a little bit of that for our mayoral proclamations.

Um I think the uh you know, first contact day is is up there in terms of mayoral proclamations.

I think Mayor Cunningham's um on the fly one about uh the the national championship football game deserves a spot up there.

Um there might be others in the archive that we may want to pull up, but and I think going forward they're infrequent enough that they would they they deserve to be up there.

So again, it's not a unilateral call, of course, but if if other commissioners feel that this is important, I I would love to have a little more life in this room.

Thank you, Deputy Mayor.

Commission Bode.

Thanks.

I um want to look back to consent since we don't typically have a moment of um discussion among the commission and just say that in addition to the tremendous unexpected savings from the construction bid that our city manager already lifted up.

I just want to note and appreciate that four of our consent items had to do with grants, either received or applied for, and we are always looking for ways to save money and be able to do more with less.

Um and so I just really want to appreciate that our staff are proactively going out there and looking for grants.

Um I got an email um from Commissioner Magic about another grant that we applied for over the past week that maybe we'll come over on consent as well.

But um, yeah, I just hope that this community knows that we are um trying to be really fiscally responsible and also do big things.

Um thanks.

Um thank you to my colleagues.

I'll add just a quick piece.

Um I was gonna follow up similarly on on Miss McHugh's comment.

Um saw her public comment and her correspondence with with our um city clerk Mike Moss.

Um remembered a discussion.

I don't know if I was it might have been before I was on the commission, but there was um some momentum about sort of an anatomy of an agenda.

Here's how to follow along, and here's how they work, and here are the moments to participate.

Um, especially that there's just some things that yeah, once you do it once or twice, the enigma is shattered and it's quite intuitive.

But um, for especially um more you know in infrequent participants, um it does seem it seems odd and it's hard and it's bureaucratic and it's parliamentary and it feels hard to dip your toes in.

Um and I think it's yeah, I think I would echo that sentiment that there's probably some work for us to do to make this um a more accessible process generally, um, and how we whether it's an accompanying you know wine item uh associated with each item, uh each of each of our letters or um some another a longer preamble at the beginning that kind of explains how this process works, I think would um go a long way to uh demystify um participating in local government a bit.

Any further FYI from the commission?

Okay, any FYI from staff?

Yeah, just real quickly.

I have three things on my action item list from the conversation tonight.

I will find out what happened to the tree or trees on the ditch, is first I've heard of it.

Uh secondly, um I think that uh that's a a really great idea, and I think we can clarify um public comment and um areas of participation during our meeting.

I think we can put that in there and um demystify it using the mayor's words.

And then I will, that court board has been there since this was the Bozeman Public Library built in 1983.

Um so I'm hoping that it doesn't have any historical significance.

It would limit our ability to remove it from the wall, but we will go ahead and um uh come up with some options, and I do like the idea of priorities and resolutions and just making that a more attractive um space for everybody that comes and uses this room.

So thank you for those suggestions and ideas.

Thank you, City Manager.

Um and seeing no further business to come, just to triple check, um, no further business come before this commission.

This meeting is adjourned.

Goodbye.