Bozeman staff reopen wetland-code rewrite after expert review; aims to tighten avoidance and mitigation

City staff told the Sustainability Advisory Board they are restarting an expanded revision of Bozeman’s wetland provisions in the Unified Development Code to strengthen avoidance and minimization requirements and to clarify mitigation options after a technical review of local wetland jurisdiction.

Nut graf: Staff said the review shows only a minority of wetland acreage in the Bozeman planning area — roughly 14–20% — would likely fall outside federal jurisdiction under the Supreme Court’s Sackett decision, which narrows which wetlands are regulated as waters of the United States. The city will therefore broaden the code rewrite beyond mitigation prioritization to close regulatory gaps, tighten application checklists and improve coordination between wetland and watercourse code sections.

Staff describe…