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Record of Proceedings

Bozeman Tax Increment Finance Board Meeting Summary – August 20, 2026

City Commission — Thursday, August 20, 2026
BodyBozeman, Montana
SessionCity Commission
DateThursday, August 20, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 45:51

Original source
Transcript — VerbatimClick a timed line to jump · ⧉ to share it
0:19

Conferencing system, you can join the meeting via Zoom, clicking the link in the agenda.

0:27

Do we have any disclosures?

0:30

I didn't get that.

0:31

Oh, nice.

0:32

Could you try?

0:32

None of them more.

0:33

Well, apparently Siri doesn't either.

0:36

Um are there any changes to the agenda?

0:41

No, no.

0:42

Um, can we approve the minutes from the June 18th meeting?

0:47

Anyone who was I was absent, so I'd like to motion approval of those meet meeting minutes.

0:56

I'll second that all in favor.

1:02

Aye.

1:03

All right.

1:03

Great.

1:05

Um moving on to public comment and non-agenda items falling within the purview and jurisdiction of the board.

1:13

Are there any public comment?

1:21

There are no comments online.

1:23

Thank you.

1:24

Okay, great.

1:25

Moving right along.

1:27

Um where's my oh yeah.

1:32

Okay.

1:33

Action items.

1:34

Authorized city staff to negotiate grant agreement with the Northeast Neighborhood with Nina.

1:40

Great.

1:41

So um, and and I think we do have uh a member of the public who's here who can probably ask answer questions on behalf of Nina in that form of Jason Delmu.

1:49

But um, we were approached by uh the Northeast Neighborhood Association about installing landscape on escaping on three of the four boulevards at the corner of Cottonwood and Wallace.

1:59

Um the neighborhood's expecting to get some donated landscape design work, plants, materials, and labor.

2:05

Um, and there'll be some additional cost for landscape materials and plants.

2:10

So um having completely run this by legal, but our goal is that we'd we would do a granting reimbursement grant agreement and get this done.

2:20

I think local projects like this are part of what makes the Northeast neighborhood special, and in addition to that, um way cheaper than having a landscaping firm do it.

2:30

So I I I think it's a win-win if we can figure out how to how to make the grant agreement work.

2:35

Um I'll let uh if Jason has anything to add about this, uh happy to get the get the neighborhood perspective.

2:42

But I think what we're just looking for a staff is uh go ahead and get this done if if that's what the sense of the board so go ahead.

2:51

Thank you, uh Jason Delmu.

2:53

Um involved Nina resident.

2:56

And uh this is just kind of one of those highlights of how Bozeman's still a small town and the neighborhoods are still so strong.

3:03

But like honestly, I was just probably biking by and saw this one corner, the south uh west corner.

3:09

I was like, oh, it looks like it's kind of getting run down.

3:12

We should redo that and reached out, and then local residents were volunteering design work and there's some small equipment nearby that we can use to prep and haul off.

3:24

Um then Nina adjacent, so we've got Hillside Nursery, it's just down the road, and they they agreed to donate some and and and supply.

3:34

Um and then our our friend and neighbor, uh Jason Darrow in midtown has higher ground landscaping and um he has to buy his rocks, so we have to buy them from him, but he would donate the labor and the equipment to get it there.

3:46

Um and then I thought, oh, maybe the city could help with economic development, and so we got you know very quick creative response from economic development that you know there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to uh make this happen.

3:58

Um and then also the adjacent landowners at each quadrant or business owners at each quadrant agreed, uh including your chair to make sure that their respective little boulevard would get watered and weeded after uh installation and then the Misco Mill corner and then the the residents who live at the other corner.

4:16

There's still uh a fourth one we're trying to reach out to.

4:19

Uh but anyway, just really kind of just your normal sort of grassroots initiative and still a very small responsive uh city government that can just hear ideas and and help citizens to to uh make them make them work.

4:35

So that's basically it in a nutshell.

4:38

Um if there's any questions, far away.

4:44

I feel like I should note that I I don't know if it's a compliment or what, but it one of these corners isn't directly in front of my business.

4:51

So we're obviously supportive of this, but that is selfish interest.

5:02

Um there's kind of development as we know going around in that area.

5:06

And oftentimes they'll want some road improvements or potentially a new pedestrian crossing, where they redo all the corners, or they put in a turn lane, and wall this is pretty constrained that I can imagine something like that happening some sometime soon.

5:23

Will this still like is this gonna have to be all redone if that happens?

5:28

Do we know if any of those projects are indeed being required to run the improvements to that intersection or anywhere?

5:36

There are no improvements required for any of the for any of the projects.

5:40

Um Tamarack is a collector and it was just reconstructed kind of um to the directional challenge west of the of the Bozeman Yards project.

5:52

Um and then the streets around that are getting upgraded in the Ida and the turns there.

5:58

But generally, like while these look like big projects in terms of actual traffic counts, they're they're not triggering anything in terms of upgrades that we didn't already have.

6:07

Um one of the things we did hear from the neighborhood when we did northeast neighborhood outreach last fall was that um perhaps our initial traffic calming had gotten too effective.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Urban Redevelopment█████████████████████████25%
Affordable Housing██████████████████████22%
Tax Increment Financing███████████████████19%
Transportation Safety██████████10%
Economic Development██████████10%
Procedural███████7%
Neighborhood Association█████5%
Community Engagement██2%
Summary of Proceedings

Bozeman Tax Increment Finance Board Meeting Summary – August 20, 2026

The Tax Increment Finance Advisory Board of Bozeman, Montana met on Thursday, August 20, 2026, at 12:00 p.m. The meeting was held in-person and via video conference. Chair Natalie Van Dusen presided, and six board members were present. The board unanimously approved previous minutes and a grant authorization, received construction updates, and discussed proposed changes to the Northeast Urban Renewal District TIF Assistance Program application.

Consent Calendar

  • Approve June 18, 2026, meeting minutes: Motion by Susan L. Fraser, seconded by Nolan Campbell. Carried 6-0.
  • Authorize staff to negotiate a grant agreement with the Northeast Neighborhood Association (NENA) for boulevard beautification projects: Motion by Mike Waterman, seconded by Julien Morice. Carried 6-0. The grant will fund landscaping at three corners of Cottonwood and Wallace, with design, plants, and labor donated by the community. Installation is planned for late September/early October 2026.

Public Comments & Testimony

  • No public comments during the initial public comment period.
  • Amy Hoitsma (written comment read by Commissioner Sweeney): Hoitsma,unable to attend, suggested increasing the weight of the “unique character and vitality” criterion in the TIF application scoring table (currently a minimum of 4 out of 42 points). She emphasized that two large future developments (Bronken’s/Cloverleaf and Car Stage properties) will heavily influence neighborhood character. She encouraged stronger scoring to preserve the district’s intimate, inviting feel.
  • Jason Delmue (NENA resident, spoken public comment): Delmue supported Hoitsma’s suggestions and proposed adding early public/neighborhood engagement as a scoring criterion. He noted that discretionary TIF can address subjective qualities not easily codified.

Discussion Items

  • G.1 Midtown Urban Renewal District Construction Projects Update (David Fine): Fine reported that the Whittier School parking lot landscaping is complete; streetlight poles are delayed until October due to Canadian manufacturer backlogs. The BMX park has new seeding and trees, and the crosswalk at 7th and Aspen now has poles. A speed study with MDT aims to move the 25 mph sign west of Tamarack. Downtown collaboration includes new lights on North Fifth and Main Street, and design for the opposite side of Main Street is under consideration. No action taken.
  • G.2 Northeast Urban Renewal District TIF Assistance Program Application Update (David Fine): Fine presented the draft application, recommending an update to the “community housing” section to reflect the adopted Affordable Housing Ordinance (AHO). He noted that the AHO currently only applies to rentals; for-sale housing regulations are pending. Discussion focused on the affordable housing scoring category (6 points). Board member Morice expressed concern that requiring AHO compliance through TIF scores could penalize smaller projects. Fine clarified that scores are not pass/fail but signals of project alignment with urban renewal goals. The board debated whether to increase points for community character (public comment input) and whether to include early engagement. Fine also mentioned that a competitive RFP for economic development term contracts resulted in two teams (Economic & Planning Systems with Bridge; Crescendo with Cascadia Partners), who will be asked to propose a Midtown action plan. No action taken.

Key Outcomes

  • Unanimous votes (6-0) on consent calendar items.
  • No formal decisions on the TIF application changes; staff will refine the scoring criteria based on board feedback and bring revised language to a future meeting.
  • Next steps: Staff will explore collaboration with planning to better define the unique character of the Northeast district, potentially using existing documents (RUDAT report, Vision Northeast). The board will continue discussions on balancing affordable housing, commercial vitality, and community character.

Meeting Transcript

Conferencing system, you can join the meeting via Zoom, clicking the link in the agenda. Do we have any disclosures? I didn't get that. Oh, nice. Could you try? None of them more. Well, apparently Siri doesn't either. Um are there any changes to the agenda? No, no. Um, can we approve the minutes from the June 18th meeting? Anyone who was I was absent, so I'd like to motion approval of those meet meeting minutes. I'll second that all in favor. Aye. All right. Great. Um moving on to public comment and non-agenda items falling within the purview and jurisdiction of the board. Are there any public comment? There are no comments online. Thank you. Okay, great. Moving right along. Um where's my oh yeah. Okay. Action items. Authorized city staff to negotiate grant agreement with the Northeast Neighborhood with Nina. Great. So um, and and I think we do have uh a member of the public who's here who can probably ask answer questions on behalf of Nina in that form of Jason Delmu. But um, we were approached by uh the Northeast Neighborhood Association about installing landscape on escaping on three of the four boulevards at the corner of Cottonwood and Wallace. Um the neighborhood's expecting to get some donated landscape design work, plants, materials, and labor. Um, and there'll be some additional cost for landscape materials and plants. So um having completely run this by legal, but our goal is that we'd we would do a granting reimbursement grant agreement and get this done. I think local projects like this are part of what makes the Northeast neighborhood special, and in addition to that, um way cheaper than having a landscaping firm do it. So I I I think it's a win-win if we can figure out how to how to make the grant agreement work. Um I'll let uh if Jason has anything to add about this, uh happy to get the get the neighborhood perspective. But I think what we're just looking for a staff is uh go ahead and get this done if if that's what the sense of the board so go ahead. Thank you, uh Jason Delmu. Um involved Nina resident. And uh this is just kind of one of those highlights of how Bozeman's still a small town and the neighborhoods are still so strong. But like honestly, I was just probably biking by and saw this one corner, the south uh west corner. I was like, oh, it looks like it's kind of getting run down. We should redo that and reached out, and then local residents were volunteering design work and there's some small equipment nearby that we can use to prep and haul off. Um then Nina adjacent, so we've got Hillside Nursery, it's just down the road, and they they agreed to donate some and and and supply. Um and then our our friend and neighbor, uh Jason Darrow in midtown has higher ground landscaping and um he has to buy his rocks, so we have to buy them from him, but he would donate the labor and the equipment to get it there. Um and then I thought, oh, maybe the city could help with economic development, and so we got you know very quick creative response from economic development that you know there's no reason why we shouldn't be able to uh make this happen. Um and then also the adjacent landowners at each quadrant or business owners at each quadrant agreed, uh including your chair to make sure that their respective little boulevard would get watered and weeded after uh installation and then the Misco Mill corner and then the the residents who live at the other corner. There's still uh a fourth one we're trying to reach out to. Uh but anyway, just really kind of just your normal sort of grassroots initiative and still a very small responsive uh city government that can just hear ideas and and help citizens to to uh make them make them work. So that's basically it in a nutshell. Um if there's any questions, far away. I feel like I should note that I I don't know if it's a compliment or what, but it one of these corners isn't directly in front of my business.

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