Steve Pomerance

On Tuesday night,  the Boulder city council chose the best approach to mitigating the risk of future flooding on South Boulder Creek . But, given our situation, there are no perfect solutions. First, Boulder is one of the most flood-prone cities in the country. We have numerous creeks that run through the city. And being up against the foothills allows sudden storms to dump rain into the drainages that flow directly into town with almost no chance to dissipate. Second, some of Boulder’s drainages are huge. For example, the South Boulder Creek drainage above Colo. 93 is about 100 square miles. One inch of rain throughout that area would drop over 5,000 acre-feet of water, about five times the storage capacity of the measures under consideration Tuesday night. (An acre-foot is one acre covered with one foot of water, or 43,560 cubic feet.) Third, much of Boulder was built without serious consideration of the flood risk. South Boulder is not the only area subject to severe i...

FAR “density transfer”, used at 1440 Pine and 311 Mapleton: Add underlined language to BRC 9-2-14 (c): (c) Modifications to Development Standards: The following development standards of B.R.C. 1981 may be modified under the site review process set forth in this section. However, land underneath a building or part of a building may not be counted in calculating the allowed floor area for another building or part of a building, and no building or part of a building may be built on land that has been counted in calculating the allowed floor area of another building or part of a building: Spot Zoning, used at 311 Mapleton: Add underlined language to BRC 9-2-19: (e) Criteria: The city's zoning is the result of a detailed and comprehensive appraisal of the city's present and future land use allocation needs. In order to establish and maintain sound, stable and desirable development within the city, rezoning of land is to be discouraged and allowed only under...