Ordinance 1853 - ADU's Public Comment from John HendricksAimee Brunckhorst
From: Mark Johnson
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2021 12:02 PM
To: City Council
Subject: Fwd: [EXTERNAL] Ordinance 1853 - ADU's
I received this from John Hendricks today and am forwarding as public comment.
MJ
Mayor Mark Johnson
201 1st Ave East
Kalispell, MT 59901
From: johnhendricks@kgez.com <johnhendricks@kgez.com>
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2021 11:16 AM
To: Mark Johnson
Subject: [EXTERNAL] Ordinance 1853 - ADU's
Mayor Mark —
I've been watching the progress of Ordinance 1853, allowing Accessory Dwelling Units on Residential lots in
Kalispell and, frankly, I'm deeply concerned.
I was born and raised on Kalispell's East Side —directly across from Thompson Memorial Park, but I lived in the
Denver area for nearly 2-dacades. In my time in Denver, I observed the same type of thing develop in Boulder, just a few
miles northwest of Denver. Boulder is home to the University of Colorado and a community very proud of the
cleanliness and beauty of its neighborhoods. You may remember that the television series, "Mork & Mindy" was set in
Boulder and the house where the characters lived is still a beautiful older home there. Well, back in the early 1980s,
when people were flooding into the Denver metropolitan area from Texas and California, Boulder decided to stop all
development within its city limits. That turned -out to be disastrous, as development happened anyway, just outside
their city limits, but we know how that story plays out, don't we?
As a result of University students wanting to live off -campus, they decided to allow ADU's, which began as
rental units similar to what's proposed in Ordinance 1853. What happened next is what concerns me. The rental units
became units that were sold, while sitting on leased property —similar to what we have on State Trust Land, where
people own the improvements, but lease the land. That progressed to allowing the lots to be subdivided so the new
homeowners could own the property their homes were on. In Boulder, the alleyways were clogged with parked
vehicles, which created a challenge for the Boulder Fire Department and Ambulance Services, too. The increase in
population density created issues for Police, too.
Before the Council takes a final vote on this ordinance, I'd strongly urge a visit to Boulder to see, first-hand,
what can happen. At the very least, perhaps the ordinance can then be written to try to avoid the issues they've
encountered in Boulder. People in the Denver Metro often refer to Boulder as "3.7-square miles surrounded by
reality".
Thanks for your consideration, Mark! --j
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