Bozeman Downtown Business Improvement District Board Work Session on Building Height and Transitions – August 19, 2026
Bozeman Downtown Business Improvement District Board Meeting – August 19, 2026
The Bozeman Downtown Business Improvement District (BID) Board held a work session on possible recommendations regarding maximum building height in the B-3 zoning district (currently 90 feet) and zone edge transitions. The board heard a technical presentation from city staff, received public comment from one resident, and debated whether to forward a formal recommendation to the City Commission. Ultimately, the board chose not to vote, citing a bare quorum, but individual members’ comments will be conveyed to the Commission at its meeting on August 25, 2026.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Daniel Cardi, Bozeman resident and property owner at 21213 North Third (Midtown) since 1998, urged the board to recommend reducing the maximum allowable building height in B-3 from 90 feet to 60 feet (the same as the B-3C district on Main Street) and to require zone edge transitions across all streets and alleys regardless of width. He argued that 90 feet by right does not comply with the city’s strategic plan or community plan, which emphasize quality of life, sense of place, and balance between new and existing development. He also asked the board to consider code changes to improve the human-scale experience on sidewalks and mitigate noise, light pollution, and construction impacts on residential neighbors.
Discussion Items
- Work Session on Maximum Building Height (B-3 District) and Zone Edge Transitions – Chris Saunders (city staff) presented a detailed overview of the regulatory tools, including the Unified Development Code (UDC) updates adopted in winter 2025–2026, shadow analysis comparing 90-foot and 70-foot buildings, and the existing transition requirements. The presentation covered four transition types, setbacks, landscaping, and street width buffers. Saunders noted that all new buildings must meet additional massing and articulation standards regardless of transitions. Board members asked clarifying questions about the Freestone Building on West Main and the ability to build up to the property line.
- Board Discussion – Members expressed reluctance to take a formal stance with only four of seven members present (a bare quorum). Individual opinions included:
- Concerns that 90-foot buildings can negatively impact adjacent residential properties if transitions are not thoughtfully applied.
- Emphasis on the pedestrian-level street experience (setbacks, articulation, architecture) as more important than height itself.
- A desire not to reopen the UDC so soon after its lengthy adoption process, valuing code stability.
- Support for further study of transition zones rather than immediate code changes.
- One member (Mark) noted that height is often a proxy for other design concerns and that the commission should focus on sidewalk-level design.
- Another member (Elena) suggested allowing the code to play out and making adjustments based on actual building outcomes.
- FYI/Discussion: Economic Development Director’s Report & Finance Report – Emily Cope provided updates on downtown partnership operations: two open job positions (weekend maintenance, operations manager); new holiday garland and bows received; flower baskets performing better due to increased fertilizer; graffiti removal continues; assessment collection will move from city to county on a monthly basis starting fiscal year 2028 (approximately $30,000 uncollected in the last fiscal year); upcoming community events (Catwalk, Music on Main series, final Art Walk in September). The parking vision plan and Bozeman Creek project are ongoing with drafts expected this fall.
Key Outcomes
- No formal motion or vote was taken on building height or transition recommendations due to the absence of a full quorum and board members’ preference for individual input.
- The board’s discussion and public comments will be relayed to the City Commission by Commissioner Magic at the August 25, 2026 meeting.
- Board members were encouraged to submit additional public comment as individual citizens.
- The next regular BID Board meeting will occur in September 2026.
Meeting Transcript
I mean the deadline is September, but it's not that hard. I don't know why they would have done that that way, but I think that's a good idea. How's it going? So order. Any uh disclosures. Any public comment that's not on the agenda. Oh, the changes to the agenda? Are there any changes to the agenda? There are not. I'll do a roll call that ends us in that bar. Elena and Julian. Hi. Eric Nelson. Hi. Mark Kiki. Hi. Great. Passes 4-0. All right. So public comment for non-agenda items falling within the purview of the jurisdiction of the board. Seeing none, we'll move to action items. We have a work session and possible recommendations related to the maximum building height. Thank you for being here today. You're welcome. Glad to be with you this afternoon. So just a quick bit of background on this. Some of this stuff dives into some technicalities that not everybody deals with every day. And so I was felt like it would be beneficial to help folks understand it. So the commission's going to look at kind of four questions related to two topics. One's relating to the building heights, and then the other is relating to zone edge transitions, and I'll describe both of those a little more as we go along. So just for connection, and there are requirements in the law the city has to follow when we do any kind of regulation. One of those is we need to be consistent with our land use planning documents that have gone through the adoption process. We have two that are particularly relevant to this particular topic set. One is the Bozeman Community Plan and then the downtown improvement plan. There's some additional uh details on that in the memo that was attached to the um uh the agenda item. But uh both of them talk about encouraging uh further development in the downtown area, uh but also recognizing the relationship between um adjacent properties and looking at how to help that work well. So uh as part of the Unified Development Code update that was completed last uh winter, uh the City Commission and Community Development Board held six different work sessions and hearings where folks were able to weigh in, a variety of different conversations were held. Um there was a lot of conversation um on the June 24th. I think that meeting ran about six and a half hours long. And so there was a lot of opportunity to talk about not just transitions, not just building height, but all of the pieces and parts that kind of help shape this question of uh of mass and scale. So these are some of the tools that we have in the unified development code to address these issues. Some of them uh regulate the land, some of them regulate the buildings, uh, some of them regulate the right of way, all of them interact with each other and shape how people experience a building as they're um adjacent to it, walking past it, however they're they're experiencing it. And um as you can imagine, the the nuance level is very high. Um, and I am not going to even attempt to try and cover all of that with you today, but we will try to talk about some of the pieces and parts to help you understand how they all fit together. There's also uh some other tools that city has which uh are are handy. Um see if I can get this to work right. So the sandborne maps are a resource. Uh Sanborn was an insurance company support, and they uh mapped thousands of communities across the country. And uh let's see, close that uh so you can look and see what was in place at uh different points in time. Um so if we come, for example, down the road here, you can see on the 1890 map or 1884 map.
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