Bozeman Economic Vitality Board Meeting: Bozeman Creek Vision Plan Work Session - October 7, 2026

The Economic Vitality Board of Bozeman, Montana, met Wednesday, October 7, 2026, from 6:00 PM to 7:28 PM. After routine approvals, the board heard a work-session presentation from Assistant City Manager John Henderson on the Bozeman Creek Vision Plan. Board members asked detailed questions on flood modeling, costs, funding, property acquisition, water rights, and the city's partnership with C. Bozeman Creek. The board took no formal action on the plan.

Consent Calendar

• The board confirmed no disclosures and no changes to the agenda.
• The board approved the August 5, 2026, and September 2, 2026, Economic Vitality Board meeting minutes by unanimous vote.

Public Comments & Testimony

• No public comments were offered during the non-agenda public comment period.
• At the end of the presentation, Steve Noble, a Bozeman resident and co-leader of C. Bozeman Creek, spoke in support of the plan. He described the group as citizens advocates with no economic interest in the project and highlighted the productive collaboration with city staff, especially John Henderson. Noble said the group has been patient and persistent for about six or seven years and believes that persistence is beginning to pay off.

Discussion Items

• F.1 Bozeman Creek Vision Plan work session: Henderson presented the history, community engagement, and recommendations for the Bozeman Creek Vision Plan.
• The plan began as a City Commission priority in 2024; it builds on the 2012 Bozeman Creek Enhancement Plan and a 2025 engineering analysis. It is being developed with C. Bozeman Creek, a local grassroots organization co-led by Steve Noble and Jim Madden.
• The study area runs from roughly Ice Pond Road south to the confluence of Bozeman Creek and the East Gallatin River to the north.
• Five adopted goals: manage flood risk, improve water quality and ecological health, improve public access and trail connections, support economic vitality downtown, and reconnect the community to the creek.
• Community engagement included dozens of nonprofit groups, neighborhood associations, four of five citizen advisory boards, and the Downtown Urban Renewal District board. Open houses included a June event at Soroptimist Park and a 10-hour SLAM festival booth at Bogart Park on August 8 that drew about 1,000 people.
• Flood findings: Henderson said FEMA's current 100-year floodplain is based on 1D modeling, while the city asked engineers to produce a 2D model for a 100-year-plus rain-on-snow event at about 1,250 cubic feet per second, roughly a 20% increase. The 2D model shows a significantly larger flood extent and up to roughly $1 billion in potential damage using available property assessment data. This is a rough order-of-magnitude estimate.
• The city identified 36 under-capacity locations along Bozeman Creek and Mill Ditch, mostly culverts, bridges, and other conveyances. The most significant constrictions are old tunnels under Main Street that predate the Montana Department of Transportation and are very difficult to expand.
• Proposed flood mitigation: the preferred engineering alternative is to use Mill Ditch as a flood control device. By diverting 750 CFS down Mill Ditch and improving Bozeman Creek to carry 500 CFS, the city could resolve downtown flooding up to 1250 CFS. Henderson described this as a 20-30 year, tens-of-millions-of-dollars effort, with FEMA grants likely to be the largest funding source.
• Park and creekside projects: the plan includes splitting the channel into Soroptimist Park, abandoning Rouse Avenue from Main to Olive, a city-controlled right-of-way, to create public space, installing a tunnel under Babcock, daylighting a channel in front of City Hall where a parking lot now sits, fixing the problematic 90-degree bend at Creekside Park, and expanding Bogart Park by moving the Anderson Pavilion and Fred Wilson Band Shell to allow a more natural meandering channel.
• Henderson emphasized that all recommended projects are on public land or public right-of-way and none require private property acquisition. The city is not in the business of identifying property acquisitions; C. Bozeman Creek could have willing-seller conversations. No eminent domain discussions have occurred.
• Connectivity and policy: the plan does not propose a continuous trail along the entire creek, but would repurpose abandoned rights-of-way and dead-end streets for creek access. Policy recommendations include watershed-scale code updates, routine water-quality monitoring for Bozeman Creek, tiered or averaging setbacks instead of the current 75-foot setback, native landscaping requirements, and more proactive city maintenance of the waterway.
• Funding discussion: Henderson said no total cost estimate is available yet; a feasibility study after plan adoption would prioritize sections, assign costs, and prepare for FEMA grant applications. Potential funding includes federal grants, philanthropy led by C. Bozeman Creek, Downtown Urban Renewal District funds, with a sunset around 2032, and limited stormwater utility and park maintenance district funds. He said general-purpose tax dollars are highly unlikely because of taxpayer fatigue.
• Board Q&A and comments: Board members expressed strong interest and support for the plan's ambition. One commissioner supported not placing a dollar figure on the project early, saying the vision should come first. Board members also commented on accessible seating, the need to capture some of the property value gains so benefits do not all go to investors, and the value of challenging old frameworks.
• Henderson noted that permitting and water rights are significant for Mill Ditch. It would be engineered as a flood control device only, with a weir limiting flow to 750 CFS; existing ditch water rights are only about 1-2 CFS, and sending water through the downstream wetland outside flood events would not be permitted without buying water rights.
• Partnership structure: Henderson said the city and C. Bozeman Creek will likely need a formal memorandum of understanding modeled on the Bozeman Public Library Friends and Foundation relationship.

Announcements & FYI

• At the November regular meeting, the board will hear a housing tax credit project presentation from Brian, which also needs City Commission consideration.
• A commissioner reported that a City Commission work session the previous evening discussed possible November 2027 ballot measures. Housing emerged as the top priority among ideas that included a pool, West Side Library, mental health/mobile crisis response, EMS, and a fourth fire station. Ballot concepts would need to be solidified by early 2027.
• The City Commission will hold an October 27 work session on high-performing advisory boards.
• Board members were reminded that three board positions have terms ending in December; applications are currently open.

Key Outcomes

• Approved the August 5, 2026, and September 2, 2026, meeting minutes unanimously.
• No action was taken on the Bozeman Creek Vision Plan; it remains in development.
• The next public open house is scheduled for November 9, 2026, and City Commission consideration is targeted for December 15, 2026.
• Staff will continue work on feasibility, funding strategy, and formalizing the partnership with C. Bozeman Creek.
• The meeting adjourned at 7:28 PM.