Opinion: Boulder city planning inconsistent


I was struck recently by the marked contrast between the process around municipalization of our electric utility, and those for the “Comprehensive Housing Strategy” (CHS) and Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan (BVCP) five-year update.
The process for deciding whether to create a clean energy-based municipal utility has provided citizens multiple opportunities to vote on pursuing it, as well as ensuring citizens that there are real constraints on its implementation. The 2010 ballot substituted an occupation tax for the franchise fee, removing the commitment to Xcel. In 2011, one ballot issue provided funding to pursue municipalization studies, and the other allowed creation of the muni, but with strong charter constraints. The 2013 city ballot item set limits on the most significant portions of the utility’s debt; the 2013 Xcel-sponsored ballot item would have effectively killed the process.
The 2011 constraints provided significant protections for citizens and businesses from a council making decisions that are not in our interest. In particular, reliability cannot be compromised, rates must meet or beat Xcel’s at startup, and the debt coverage ratio cannot go below 1.25.(Charter Section 178 has the exact wording.)
The city staff has provided a huge amount of information on the city’s web site, and has met with nearly everyone who asked. Expert citizen working groups have analyzed and critiqued almost every step. Goals were clearly laid out; in brief: maximum CO2 reduction with competitive rates; avoidance of impacts of fossil fuel price increases; increased opportunity for local generation and business innovation; and providing a model for other communities.
I contrast this with the CHS process. The CHS has goals of meeting the city’s arbitrary 10 percent permanently affordable housing target, keeping middle income people in Boulder, creating “diverse housing choices” in every neighborhood, creating “15-minute neighborhoods,” strengthening “partnerships”with CU, developers, etc., and “enabling aging in place.” But there are no constraints on how these goals might be reached, so the results could dramatically grow Boulder in ways that many citizens would not like. And all this could occur without the community having a vote on any of it!
Also, these goals have not been critically examined as to what they might mean on the ground. For example, the “15-minute neighborhood” fantasy lacks any evaluation of existing neighborhoods’ access to local shopping and services, much less which of these can reasonably be expected to be so disbursed. With respect to seniors, I could find no market analysis of what Boulder seniors might want, or what buildings might be converted to senior housing if that is, in fact, what they want.
The “diverse housing choices” goal may include, according to city staff, up-zoning single-family neighborhoods to allow townhomes, multi-unit buildings,and high occupancy co-ops (that’s a cooperative, not a home for chickens.) This may not go over well with many people who have invested all their savings into their homes.
None of this should have gone out to the public without careful vetting by the council. The whole project comes across as “throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks.” So it has been left up to the citizens to try to keep a damper on the staff. This is simply irresponsible. And given the makeup of some of the “working groups” for this project, their role and value is uncertain at best, and hardly representative. I guarantee you that if the outcomes were required to go on the ballot, the whole process would look a LOT different.
Unsurprisingly, this project does not address the excessive commercial/office development that drives housing price inflation as well as peak hour traffic congestion. So I would hardly call this strategy “comprehensive.”
The BVCP update is already becoming irrelevant. The staff, with the council’s support, is pursuing massive growth as part of their “Envision East Arapahoe” project. Such a project should only occur as an outcome of the BVCP process since it involves significant land-use changes, but apparently that is now unimportant. Also, there is no demonstrated need for anything more than some possible zoning changes to allow medical offices and supporting services near the hospital.
The consultant that evaluated the BVCP pointed out that while it contained laudable values, it provided no clear direction for Boulder’s future. Some council members seemed to like this; one even noted that he could pick and choose particular parts to support whatever he wanted. So if you’re waiting for either process to resolve your concerns about growth in Boulder, don’t hold your breath!


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