Story Mill Center Approvals Underway
Wednesday March 21, 2007
NewWest.net
By Lucia Stewart:
On Monday night, the Story Mill Center was unanimously approved for a growth policy amendment by the Bozeman City Commission, with Mayor Krauss absent. On Tuesday night, it was unanimously approved by the planning board for zoning changes to increased residential and rearranged the current industrial zoning, which awaits final approval from the City Commission on April 2.
Read the entire article on NewWest.net
Trailer court residents prepare for moving day
Monday March 19, 2007
Bridger View residents have until October 2008 to move, make way for proposed Story Mill development project
By BROOK GRIFFIN Chronicle Staff Writer
After 32 years, Frank Kane is leaving Bridger View Trailer Court. Kane, 85, a three-decade resident of Bridger View on Bozeman’s north side, is moving to Miles City in a few months, one of the many people affected by the proposed Story Mill Project. The trailer park has to go, according to the plans for the massive new residential and commercial project, which puts everyone living there — about 90 units — in the house hunt. Kane has lived alone in the trailer since his wife passed away in 1989, and looks at his situation with the cool, calm demeanor of someone without much choice. “There was a time when we should have sold this and bought a place,” he said. “I tell people this is a university town where you go to learn and I did: Don’t put your property on someone else’s land.” Negotiations with Gobuild, the project-management group behind the Story Mill Project, have been going on for months and most of the residents in Bridger View have reached settlements. Most of them, like Kane, own their trailers, but rent the lot.
Kane, like many residents there, is thankful Gobuild has helped as much as it has. He said Gobuild has offered him $11,000 for his trailer, not quite as much money as he has put in over the years, but enough to help him make a new start.Deals to purchase trailers have been made, assistance has been given finding other housing in the area and many people are satisfied with the outcome.
More than 60 signed contracts have been delivered to Gobuild, said Chaucer Silverson, a representative with the local firm.
“The developer has said we don’t want to screw anyone over,” Silverson said. While the situation has been difficult for the residents of the trailer court, Silverson said, there have been many “silver linings” or happy endings. “Admittedly we’re the change agents,” he said. “It sounds sad on paper but I don’t know if there is a perfect way to do this.” The bottom line is Gobuild didn’t have to be as nice as it has, said Kathy Callahan, another resident of the trailer park. “They treated me pretty well and I got a good deal,” she said. Developers could have told everyone to be out in 30 days, she said, but instead chose to work with the residents. Still, there are some residents, she said, who will not do well with the change. “I did OK, but maybe half the people around here are not happy,” she said.
Many found the price of new homes in Story Mill too high and so alternatives had to be found. “They bought me out and it was enough to pay off what I owed at the trailer park,” said Mandy McClurg, one of the many residents who has already left Bridger View. McClurg now has a home in Belgrade and said she appreciated Gobuild’s efforts to help her. “They were very informative and got back to me every time I had a question,” she said. Residents have until October 2008 to move, although some will be able to stay and “rent” their trailers back from Gobuild until the company is ready to begin construction. Rent will be increased by about $200 from what residents pay now.
Many of the trailers at Bridger View are empty now and eventually Gobuild will have to sell them off or recycle them before any new construction can begin. Kane said he will miss his trailer and Bozeman in general. “This is the kind of home you plan on spending the rest of your life in,” he said. “I’m not upset because it’s nobody’s fault but my own. I’ll adjust.”
Story Mill on KTVM
Wednesday March 14, 2007
KTVM (Channel 6/42) March 8, 2007
10 PM News
Lincoln Graves interviews members of the Story Mill team about the project. Team members interviewed include Chaucer Silverson; Cory Ravnaas, Ron LeCain and Kath Williams.
Story Mill plan will meet highest green standards
Saturday February 24, 2007
Bozeman Daily Chronicle, February 24, 2007
Kath Williams, Guest Columnist
The proposed development of the Story Mill area just north of Bozeman’s downtown has engendered some strong feelings within the community. Most are positive comments, starting with the fact that this will be a new diverse neighborhood embracing Bozeman history while regenerating wetlands and reviving an area that is deteriorating.
There are many unique opportunities in the Story Mill project. First, it is led by a socially responsible developer with a vision that provides an alternative to sprawling fields of high-priced, single-family homes. Secondly, this will be a “in-town” neighborhood, not a homogeneous development. It is being designed for people of all ages and income levels, living and working together. It will be filled with residents who have purchased homes or apartments and located businesses purposely to reduce the negative impact of living on the land. The folks who choose to live here are those who prefer to walk and bike rather than drive and who are interested in preserving history, conserving natural resources and reducing emissions.
One of the most important opportunities is to demonstrate that growth and development can be done in a sustainable manner. Bozeman has already taken a first step with a single building, the Bozeman Library. As a long-time Bozeman resident and someone who is both personally and professionally devoted to “green” concepts, I was honored to contribute to the sustainable design standards, from Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED), by which Bozeman Library was designed and built.
The Story Mill developer has committed to going much further. The team is applying to be a national pilot project for LEED-Neighborhood Development. This new third-party certification through the U.S. Green Building Council defines sustainable neighborhoods, using the best urban design principles known to date. It requires the application of hundreds of environmental and social criteria including preservation of existing structures, the reusing or recycling of existing materials, reduced automobile dependency and transportation efficiency, parkland and wetland preservation, water and stormwater conservation and contaminated brown-fields redevelopment.
LEED requires respect for the land and the people. The goal is to build a community through collaboration, creating solutions for all kinds of development challenges. Essential components of LEED projects are partnerships and teamwork needed to overcome challenges inherent in any leadership project. We have to think differently, act differently, build differently.
Addressing the concerns of current neighbors becomes a natural part of any LEED project. For example, Story Mill will produce more traffic and the northeast neighborhood will be impacted on a daily basis under the current street configuration. Story Mill’s traffic studies show that the effects of traffic can be mitigated to the city’s standards for capacity and level of service. The city plans to construct an Oak Street connector with or without the Story Mill project, and the plan includes the use of street impact fee money. By encouraging new development within the city limits, there will be more impact fee money to help pay for it.
Building a LEED neighborhood development will provide a chance for Bozeman people to work together for the future of Bozeman and the kind of community it can be. Growth is a given, and most of us understand that residential developments are a function of economic development. As a community, it is important that we encourage and support developers who are taking a leadership role and expanding the “green start” the city of Bozeman has taken with the LEED-silver Library.
Building to LEED, the highest standard currently available, is not easy. LEED-ND is the most responsible and inclusive approach to development, the result of years of volunteer work by the Green Building Council, Congress for New Urbanism and Natural Resources Defense Council. The entire document is downloadable from www.usgbc.org under LEED. Bozeman has before it the opportunity to live up to the full potential of environmental stewardship of Montana’s rural beauty and demonstrate national leadership in sustainability.
Kath Williams, a resident of Bozeman, recently concluded her third term as president of the World Green Building Council. She is a LEED accredited professional and serves on the Story Mill Center Development Team.
Pilot Version: LEED for Neighborhood Development
Tuesday February 20, 2007
The U.S. Green Building Council, the Congress for the New Urbanism, and the Natural Resources Defense Council—three organizations which represent that nation’s leaders among progressive design professionals, builders, planners, developers, and the environmental community—have come together in partnership to develop LEED for Neighborhood Development.
Unlike other LEED products that focus primarily on green building practices, with relatively few credits regarding site selection and design, LEED for Neighborhood Development places emphasis on the design and construction elements that bring buildings together into a neighborhood, and related the neighborhood to its larger region and landscape. LEED for Neighborhood Development creates a label, as well as guidelines for design and decision making, to serve as an incentive for better location, design, and construction of new residential, commercial, and mixed use developments.
The existing LEED for New Construction Rating System has a proven track record of encouraging builders to utilize green building practices, such as increasing energy and water efficiency and improving indoor air quality in buildings. It is the hope of the partnership that LEED for Neighborhood Design will have a similarly positive effect in encouraging developers to revitalize existing urban areas, reduce land consumption, reduce automobile dependence, promote pedestrian activity, improve air quality, decrease polluted storm-water runoff, and build more livable, sustainable, communities for people of all income levels.
LEED provides rating systems that are voluntary, consensus based, market driven, grounded in accepted energy and environmental principles, and that strike a balance between established practices and emerging concepts. LEED rating systems are developed by committees in adherence of USGBC policies and procedures. LEED rating Systems typically consist of a few prerequisites and many credits. In order to be certified a project must meet each prerequisite. Each credit is optional, but achievement of each credit contributes to the project’s point total. A minimum point total is required for certification, and higher point scores are required for silver, gold or platinum LEED certification.
Click Here to Download the LEED for Neighborhood Development Rating System Official Publication