Bozeman is one of three communities nationally that has been chosen for the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Regional / Urban Design Assistance Team (R/UDAT) project. A volunteer arm of the AIA, R/UDAT consists of professional members of AIA from out of town working in conjunction with a steering committee of stakeholders and community leaders in Bozeman. The focus area for the Bozeman R/UDAT is the Northeast Neighborhood District. Within the area in the orange R/UDAT study boundary, 70% of the land has potential for redevelopment in the next ten years. In addition, Montana Department of Transportation (MDOT) is spending $40M to redo and upgrade the Rouse corridor, a portion of which is in the boundary.
This innovative initiative has multiple interrelated goals including neighborhood character, connectivity, land use and zoning, sub-study areas, and a ten-year plan for the area.
In conjunction with the project, Montana State University graduate students are incorporating the use of their Envision Tomorrow tool. The software Envision Tomorrow is a scenario planning software that weighs choices against consequences. The program utilizes current building types and prioritized stakeholder preferences to create development types that create places. Those places together form scenarios in the form of land use grids. Each scenario has an associated set of data used in the evaluation portion of the software which categorizes economic values, density, and other quantifiable statistics. The scenarios with underlying uses can then be graphically, spatially, and fiscally compared.
If you live or work in the Northeast Neighborhood District or would just like to get involved in planning efforts related to the growth of Bozeman, visit the Bozeman R/UDAT website. In addition there are three upcoming public events for the project:
- March 23, 2017: the monthly neighborhood meeting for the surrounding neighborhood. There will be an interactive Envision Tomorrow project where attendees can articulate and document their values and color in one-acre squares with desired land uses.
- April 7, 2017: a neighborhood walkabout open to the entire community. Participants will visit 5-6 businesses within the R/UDAT boundary and participate in discussions in a community forum style at each location.
- April 10, 2017: the final presentation of the study's findings. The presentation will be at the Ellen theater.
For times and other details regarding the listed events or the project, visit the Bozeman R/UDAT website.