BOZEMAN, Mont. — On Tuesday, Bozeman City Commissioners voted 3-1 to repeal and replace the Affordable Housing Ordinance, approving the revised version presented by city staff.
Commissioner Douglas Fischer was in dissent. Commissioner Jennifer Madgic, who voted against the draft when it went before the Community Development Board earlier this month, was not present at Tuesday’s meeting.
The city of Bozeman’s Affordable Housing Ordinance was initially passed in 2022 after the city lost the power to implement inclusionary zoning. This drew controversy last summer when the Guthrie, the first application to make use of deep incentives allowing deviations from height restrictions and parking requirements, received community backlash. Ultimately, that backlash resulted in residents and neighborhood groups alike calling on commissioners to rescind the Affordable Housing Ordinance, saying it causes more harm than good.
Some city officials, including Bozeman Mayor Terry Cunningham, have stood by the ordinance, saying that it is working, and is one of the few tools the city has to combat its housing crisis. Since its implementation, the ordinance has facilitated the development of 14 affordable housing projects in the city, consisting of over 1,000 units making use of the ordinance’s shallow incentives like reduced lot sizes.
In response to community concerns, city staff began working on a revised ordinance, holding a work session with commissioners in August, followed by community engagement efforts including a survey and open house, as well as presentations to the city’s advisory boards.
The revised version drafted by staff reduces some incentives such as those pertaining to parking and height, extends the time units will be held affordable from a period of 30 years to 50, and expands targeted income levels to those making 60% of area median income, down from 80%.
But even in its revised form, some residents say it allows developers to take too much while giving too little in return.
“This Affordable Housing Ordinance might well be called the developers’ delight act,” said Bozeman resident Deanna Campbell. “Developers get bonuses to build dense, boxy, unsightly projects that disrupt neighborhoods, do not deliver affordable housing, and drive property taxes up.”
Other residents voiced concerns that provisions allowing developers to donate land or pay cash-in-lieu of providing affordable units will have detrimental impacts on existing neighborhoods without increasing the availability of affordable housing.
“If I were a developer, I would exchange money and land and not deal with the Affordable Housing parameters. I would just build where I want to build and leave it to someone else to have to do that,” said Bozeman resident Karen Sanchez. “Where is the environmental justice there where you start building these in lieu of developments in over impacted neighborhoods?
Instead, these residents urged commissioners to pause the existing ordinance and consider ways to incentivize local landowners to build accessory dwelling units and subdivide existing housing to create affordable units in a way that doesn’t displace current residents. Many residents cited the city’s high vacancy rate as a sign that they have time to explore alternatives.
But other residents disagreed, calling on commissioners to approve the revised ordinance, saying the city’s essential workers need a solution now.
“We do not have time to wait for the silver bullet to our housing shortage,” said Bozeman resident Emma Papasian. “I don’t personally believe that there really is a choice between a form of housing and the potential and consequential workforce drain that would happen if we continue to just postpone to try and find this perfect solution.”
Papasian shared how, as a renter, it’s a challenge for her to live in the city while pursuing a career in agriculture, and how she has witnessed local farms struggle to retain employees for that very reason.
Throughout the revision process, the city received feedback from hundreds of residents, advocating both for and against the ordinance, as well as suggesting alternative measures to combat the problem.
Though commissioners discussed turning Tuesday’s meeting into a work session to allow for more time to decide, and to revisit the revised ordinance’s Type C incentives which mirror, to a lesser degree, its predecessors’ deep incentives. Some worried that doing so would jeopardize projects already in the pipeline. Those include developments making use of deep incentives, such as the Hidden Creek and Alder and Sage projects.
“For folks that point out, aptly so, that this is a handout to the development community – it absolutely is,” said Bozeman Deputy Mayor Joey Morrison. “That’s all that we have at our disposal to rein in development into the type of projects that we want.”
Commissioners also unanimously passed a series of amendments to the revised ordinance including further reducing maximum allowable height in select zones, compelling equal access to amenities for residents of affordable units, requiring on-site ADA parking spaces, and stipulating that developers meet with neighborhoods as part of their planning process.
In alignment with their priorities, commissioners plan to consider additional remedies to the city’s affordable housing crisis, including a potential ADU incentive package in the future.