The Bozeman City Commission spent the bulk of its July 28 meeting in a work session examining the future of the city's historic preservation program, with commissioners signaling they want to move away from using a single overlay district to regulate building dimensions across diverse historic neighborhoods.
In what amounted to a referendum on the Neighborhood Conservation Overlay District—a 6.5% slice of the city that has governed historic properties since 1991—four of five commissioners rejected the idea of modifying base zoning dimensional standards like height, width, and setbacks through the NCOD. Instead, commissioners expressed openness to creating tailored landmark districts where protections would be customized to specific neighborhoods rather than applied with a blanket approach.
"The NCOD is not a rational intuitive historic zone," Mayor Morrison said, noting the overlay contains buildings constructed nearly a century apart. "I think the thing that we need is landmark districts with the regulatory authority to decide design guidelines."
The work session examined two interrelated projects: updating the NCOD design guidelines and creating a new Local Landmark Program. Deputy Director of Community Development Rebecca Harbage described the current 2006 guidelines as "vague and challenging to implement," using language like "should" and "compatible" that creates inconsistency in how staff applies them.
Sequencing and Consultant Changes
The commission voted informally to reorder the work sequence to 1, 3, 2—prioritizing demolition code revisions first, then the landmark program, then NCOD design guidelines. This reversed staff's original proposal, driven partly by consultant availability. The city recently terminated its contract with the Lakota Group over what Harbage described as "unprofessional behavior at an HPAB meeting earlier this month" and plans to hire a new design guidelines consultant later in the year.
Commissioner Sweeney expressed reservations about restarting the NCOD design guidelines while litigation related to the Guthrie development case remains unresolved, saying there are "really important components that will be sorted out by a resolution." City Attorney Greg Sullivan responded that the lawsuit concerns a specific property application under prior law and poses no legal barrier to the commission determining what the NCOD should be going forward.
The Dimensional Standards Debate
Commissioner Madgic argued for addressing building scale and mass through base zoning rather than overlay regulations, saying zoning is "the first place people go when they're looking to find out what they can do with their property, and overlays is more of an afterthought." Deputy Mayor Fischer agreed, expressing concern the NCOD is "trying to do too many different jobs across too large and historically arbitrary an area."
Commissioner Sweeney stood alone in advocating for overlay district regulation of dimensional standards, noting that "across the country overlay zones do regulate these types of things." She warned that if the commission doesn't modify standards through the NCOD, "right-sizing the zoning is going to be a major part of this," and questioned whether base zoning in parts of the NCOD—currently allowing significant density in some areas—truly reflects what neighborhoods want to become.
Harbage noted that most tall buildings generating community concern are in B3 or B2M zoning, where their height and density are already permitted in the base code. She presented zoning maps showing 12 different districts within the NCOD, illustrating the challenge of applying uniform design guidelines across such diverse land use categories.
The Landmark Districts Concept
Commissioner Sweeney proposed creating landmark districts tailored to specific areas, where "we define what that is, and at that time we decide what is regulated." Under this model, neighborhoods would "slowly, as we have something else in place, our planners can apply base zoning and the landmark regulations" rather than the current blanket overlay. Mayor Morrison voiced support for this direction, saying it would replace a "broad language trying to apply compatible to an entire overlay district" with clearer, neighborhood-specific protections.
Community Development Director Erin George summarized the majority sentiment as "interest in exploring potential evolution of the NCOD over time, but with some hesitancy." She said the scope for hiring a new design guidelines consultant could include deeper analysis of which areas within the NCOD have cohesive character deserving protection and which might not require an overlay's layer of regulation.
Commissioner Bode cautioned against eliminating the NCOD entirely, noting it is the mechanism that gives historic districts enforcement authority and expressing concern about "unintended consequences of removing the NCOD entirely." She also suggested the NCOD might focus on new buildings and additions rather than renovations, and proposed limiting application to new development and accessory dwelling units.
Demolition and Heritage Trees
On demolition regulations, three commissioners supported extending notice requirements for historic structure demolitions beyond the NCOD boundary. Three also expressed concern that demolition processes should not be used to slow or prevent development. The commission discussed the existing two-year stay of demolition—the longest such stay found nationally—which aims to encourage applicants to explore alternatives. George reported that planning staff with 20 years of tenure "are not aware of the stay saving any building from demolition."
Commissioner Sweeney advocated for ceasing the practice of locally reclassifying structures from historic to non-historic based on updated inventory forms, saying the practice "prevents a future possible restoration." She also recommended public notice for all demolitions, noting neighbors may want to protect gardens or leave during the process, and that demolition can expose toxic materials.
In earlier business, the commission received a mid-process update on the Urban Forest Management Plan. Consultants recommended a 20-year canopy cover goal of 12%, up from a baseline of 9.8%, and proposed an aggressive ash tree reduction program targeting 10% of the population over 10 years to prepare for the emerald ash borer, which has been identified in Boulder, Colorado. The consultants also outlined a heritage tree program framework for the city to adapt, with model programs from seven comparable communities.
The commission continued a hearing on the revocation of a kennel license to August 18 on unanimous consent. It approved consent agenda items F1 through F8 on a 5-0 vote, and appointed Amy Horton, John Howe, and Sky Cook to the Downtown Urban Renewal Board, with Ryan Finn as Gallatin County representative, on a 5-0 vote. It reappointed Eric Bauman to the Downtown Business Improvement District Board and appointed Eric Nelson as chair and Elena Inderlund as vice chair on a 5-0 vote.