Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Bozeman Creek topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Bozeman City Commission authorizes Bozeman Creek Vision Plan contract after public calls to add 'ecological health' to goals
Summary
The commission voted to authorize the city manager to sign a professional services agreement with Port Architecture and Urbanism to produce a Bozeman Creek Vision Plan, while directing staff to incorporate explicit ecological-health language into the project goals following public and commissioner concerns.
The Bozeman City Commission on Jan. 27 authorized the city manager to sign a professional services agreement with Port Architecture and Urbanism LLC to develop the Bozeman Creek Vision Plan, after public comment and commissioners pressed staff to explicitly include ecological health among the project’s stated goals.
Assistant City Manager John Henderson told the Commission the $150,000 project — procured after seven proposals and a selection process that included staff and community representatives — is intended as a one-year visioning roadmap that will prioritize flood mitigation, water quality, access and connectivity to parks and trails, and community connection to the creek. Henderson emphasized the plan is a strategic vision rather than a full watershed study and noted some technical constraints (for example, the conveyance tunnels under Main Street cannot be solved within this contract and will require additional partners). He said the city expects to kickoff the consultant team immediately if the contract is approved, with a draft vision emerging in the June–August timeframe and a more complete draft by September, followed by advisory-board review and a final document later in the year.
Commissioner Sweeney moved to authorize the agreement; the motion was seconded and the measure passed (the clerk recorded the outcome as “Motion passes four-two-zero”). In the roll call recorded on the transcript, Commissioner Sweeney, Commissioner Majic, Commissioner Boddy and Mayor Morrison voted "Aye." The record lists the tally as four yes, two no; the transcript does not name the two dissenting votes in the roll call section. City staff said they would incorporate the Commission’s direction about wording into the signed contract and scope, and the City Attorney described contract approval as an administrative task that staff may finalize to reflect the Commission’s expressed intent.
Public commenters urged stronger explicit commitments to ecological function. Dan Carty asked the Commission to delay approval until the RFP materials and contract explicitly reinstated the phrase “increase ecological health” (citing Resolution 5,626, adopted Aug. 6, 2024) and until Port and its partner Rio ASC added a riverine aquatic ecologist with a master’s or PhD and at least five years’ experience. Angie Kachowiak urged a delay or conditions so the project’s goals and the roles of city partners and C. Bozeman Creek were clear after she cited past public comments and letters related to watercourse setbacks. Several commenters also raised flood-risk concerns for neighborhoods and asked for clear, actionable recommendations.
Several commissioners and staff responded that the consultant team includes scientific subconsultants (Henderson noted Rio ASE as a subconsultant with science expertise) and that adding the words “ecological health” to the water-quality goal — and substituting “economic vitality” for “economic development” — could be done in the contract language without changing the procured scope or triggering a new procurement. Commissioner Sweeney argued explicit wording matters because the consultant’s funding strategies and recommended projects will follow the stated goals.
The contract authorizes Port to lead community engagement (surveys, workshops, walking the creek), a literature review and code review, identification of demonstration (“scribe”) projects, policy recommendations (zoning tools, setbacks), and development of a funding strategy that leverages city leadership and nonprofit partners. Staff said the plan will be coordinated with advisory boards and may prompt additional, follow-up technical studies (ecological or engineering) as implementation needs are identified.
Next steps: staff said a kickoff with the consultant is tentatively scheduled for the day after the meeting. The Commission’s direction to add explicit language about ecological health and to prefer the term "economic vitality" will be transmitted to the consultant and incorporated into the scope without returning the contract to the Commission, according to staff statements on the record.
Action: Motion to authorize the city manager to sign a professional services agreement with Port Architecture and Urbanism LLC for the Bozeman Creek Vision Plan; mover: Commissioner Sweeney; outcome: approved (motion recorded as passing four-two-zero).
