The Latest in Urban Villages
By Michele Corriel
As unlikely as it may sound, the idea of creating urban neighborhoods in Montana is generating a lot of interest.
“When most people think of Montana, they think of living on 10 acres in a home on a creek,” Bozeman Mill District Project Manager Mike Barrett said.
But in an area like Bozeman, where unprecedented growth has doubled the county’s population over the last 30 years, people are beginning to realize the benefits of an alternative to the suburban subdivision. Traditionally, developers have come into an area, taken land previously used for farming, miles away from a city or town, and carved out streets and housing tracts. The result is “suburban sprawl,” a term that implies a spreading of one-to-ten-acre parcels further and further away from city centers. Usually, these types of subdivisions do not have any commercial components, so people who live there find themselves driving everywhere, several times a day. Gallatin County’s subdivision regulations cite eight average car trips a day from a single-family home in a subdivision.
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Story Mill metal silos
photo by Tom Ferris
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In response to this type of land use, the city of Bozeman is embracing “Urban Villages” as a kind of movement geared toward creating neighborhoods with walkable and bikeable destinations.
Currently, there are three major projects using the concept of urban villages underway in Bozeman. Two of them, the Bozeman Mill District and the Story Mill Neighborhood Project, are reknitting the historical fabric inherent in the character of these formerly industrial neighborhoods.
“The northeast side of Bozeman has a distinctive flavor to it, and the city has designated it a mixed-use zone,” Barrett said. “By renovating the buildings that aren’t bringing the city any new tax revenue, the city benefits as well when the project is completed.”
Barrett is referring to the Tax Increment Financing (TIF) mechanism that allows the city to bond for improvements. All the money from the sale of the bond goes back to the city, which in this case will mean millions of dollars that can be reinvested in the neighborhood for lighting districts or infrastructure. At the end of 15 or 20 years the bonds are paid off from the higher tax base that was created by the improvements.
“It’s a great opportunity to redevelop a part of Bozeman with a lot of history behind it,” Barrett said. “An area that was the heart of commerce and industry in Bozeman.”
The motivation for the Bozeman Mill District is to provide a convenient, safe, and well-planned neighborhood where people can live and work. Keeping with the motif of industrial workspaces, there will be offices, retail shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues. Apartments and lofts will be located above the shops; parking and storage units will be available. Covering about five to seven acres, the developers are working on a grow-on-demand principle, buying and renovating buildings in phases.
Another, much bigger project, is progressing in another part of Bozeman. The Story Mill Neighborhood Project, cultivated by Blue Sky Development, stands on 89 acres occupied by the silver silos of Story Mill.
“What we’re trying to do with the Story Mill Neighborhood Project is bring back the idea of a small town within a larger city,” Kath Williams, of Kath Williams + Associates and LEED consultant for the project said. She is key in getting the Story Mill Neighborhood accredited for a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design—Neighborhood Development project.
In order to get approved for LEED accreditation, buildings have to go through an energy efficiency checklist. Most LEED homes can lower utility bills anywhere from 27 to 60 percent, Williams said.
“We definitely want to rehabilitate the buildings,” Blue Sky Development President Matthew Crocker said. “We want to show the history with a new modern use. We’ll rebuild the elevator and the pole barn to recreate the skyline that’s there.”
Not only is the Story Mill Neighborhood Project revitalizing an industrial area where many of the old historic buildings stand empty and in disrepair, but also with over 30 acres of open space it is greening up the land, as well as reclaiming wetlands.
“The idea is about smart growth,” Crocker said. “The way I look at it, it’s really a throwback to communities and the way we used to live. One of the reasons we live in a small town is so that we’re close to the places we like to go... coffee shops, groceries, bookstores.”
Smart growth is a philosophy that fits into the urban village concept. By identifying policies regarding land-use, public transportation and community benefits, smart growth keeps density within the city, makes better use of existing amenities, and discourages suburban sprawl.
Architect Stephen Domreis, principal of GBD Architects, the primary designer of the Story Mill Neighborhood Project, said this proposal harkens back to the time when people walked everywhere. “The motivation is for people to get out of their cars.”
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Story Mill Concept
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He spoke about creating a community that can pass the “Popsicle test.”
“That’s a place where you can send your six-year-old down the street to buy a Popsicle without worrying about him,” Domreis explained. “We’re looking at this through the eyes of creating a better sense of community.”
The Story Mill Neighborhood Project is looking at a high concentration of residents—about 1200 dwelling units in buildings, ranging from single family to seven stories high. There will also be a grocery, a fitness center, a small boutique, coffee shops, a bakery, and restaurants—a kind of town center feeling. The area was already designated urban infill by the city planning office, so it’s not a stretch to have that type of density there.
“One of the fits is the scale of it,” Domreis said. “Our work is to take the historic aspect and adapt it, reuse it. No one has used most of that property for 40 years. Now we’re beginning to see how to do it.”
Most people who are used to living in subdivisions outside of town aren’t eager to give up certain amenities—a garden, a backyard, a garage. And the Story Mill Neighborhood Project addresses these concerns with community gardens, community composting, and by designing terraces and roof gardens into the building plans. Over four miles of trails are accessible to everyone.
The third project is a Gateway Project, set up along the entranceway to Bozeman, west of Main Street, across from the Gallatin Valley Mall.
With the same kind of lifestyle attributes as an urban village, the Bozeman Gateway Project, with an outdoor walking mall, takes previously undeveloped land and creates something that is new and quite different to the state. It’s kind of a master-planned town center on about 73 acres, but because the developer Ted Mitchell doesn’t have any existing structures to deal with, he can create his own unfettered vision.
“People want to simplify their lives, to slow down, so when they get to a spot like Bozeman, ing to drive everywhere. People are tired of that. They want to go to one spot, live there, work there, and stay in their neighborhood to go out in the evening. In this project people can window shop and go on strolls. We found that a lot of people in Bozeman are very health conscious, so we designed this so people can park their cars and walk or ride bikes.”
Incorporated in the outdoor walking mall will be an area for open-air concerts, restaurants, water features, and something unique—outdoor fire pits scattered around so people can warm their hands, when the weather cools down.
“Along with everything else, it has to have aesthetics,” Mitchell said. “I want a lot of fire and a lot of water—waterfalls and fountains; the center of the retail area will be a gathering spot, fairly large and wired for audio. Everything we do is creative. I’d actually seen something like those fire pots in a movie about the old Roman days. That’s what gave me the idea.”
Anchoring the Gateway Project will be several large retail stores, including a national grocery store, a bank, an office complex and two residential towers. He’s also hoping to attract a multiplex cinema.
“Bozeman is the only area I can think of where an idea like this would work,” Mitchell said. “It’s a town where there are a lot of highly educated, outdoorsy people.”
Most developers, when considering a project of this scope, would first consider the viability of an indoor mall, since the weather in Montana is not always amenable to outdoor shopping.
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Story Mill trailhead looking north at silos
photo by Tom Ferris
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“It’s the trend in the nation,” he said. “It puts people in a state of mind that’s conducive to having fun. Truly, open-air type retail is what’s going on. It’s getting back to the basics, to the time and era before malls came into effect.”
And the open-air flavor adds to the general notion of a quaint city.
“Again, it’s the village idea,” Mitchell said. “I don’t want to mimic the downtown. Bozeman’s is very strong. But there is a need for something similar yet different, too. Downtown is more difficult to find parking and this concept includes parking and parking lots.”
The estimated build-out date for the Gateway project is seven years down the road, although some businesses will be open before then.
What is working in favor of these projects is timing. A few years ago not one of these projects would have gotten off the ground. With a booming population, the Internet as a way of life, people moving to Montana with experiences of living in urban areas, the groundwork is laid. Planners, frustrated with the city and county and always trying to catch up with developers who build hundreds of single-family homes without thought to infrastructure, welcome ideas that embrace smart growth.
Just last year, the Streamline bus system began to service Bozeman and a few of the outlying areas from Belgrade and Four Corners, which again, makes it possible for people to get around without a vehicle. It may not be mass transit, but it certainly offers an alternative.
No one comes to Montana looking to sit in a traffic jam, hoping to live next to a strip mall, or reside in a tiny apartment. But due to the unconstrained growth the area has witnessed, with transient businessmen trying to make a quick buck, that would seem to be the direction Bozeman and its surrounding neighbors are headed.
Montana, an oasis of big sky and mountains, of recreational opportunities and historical significance, is changing. And the change affects more than the age-old clash between the farmers and the ranchers, the townies and the boonies. As more people discover the benefits of living in Montana, and as cities like Bozeman continue to become cultural centers, mitigating growth, planning out stages of development in an environmentally efficient way has become a necessity.
According to the Montana Smart Growth Coalition, the state is losing more than a million acres of agricultural land every 10 years.
“Smart growth is conservative,” the MSGC’s Web site states. “By building compactly and protecting farmland and open space, we cut the need for taxpayer-funded infrastructure while we simultaneously protect water and air, make housing affordable, reduce traffic, revive and create beloved traditional neighborhoods, and sustain community bonds.”
By opening up to new ideas, by incorporating the paradigm of an urban village, which brings back the concept of a neighborhood instead of eating up open space, Montana is responding to challenging circumstances.
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