Published On: February 3rd, 2023Categories: Colorado News

The Boulder City Council on Thursday night approved two amendments to the city’s land use code — one which updates criteria needed for certain projects; and a second, which updates the language generally used to identify types of housing and businesses that can be located within a particular area in the city and the standards by which projects should be reviewed.

The first ordinance, which will take effect July 1, updates the city’s site review criteria by simplifying its language to create more predictability for developers and staff during the planning process. The criteria is required for projects that exceed a certain size, acreage or number of units, or if modifications are requested.

The city receives between 10 and 15 site review applications per year, Boulder senior policy adviser Karl Guiler wrote in an email ahead of the meeting.

Guiler said the city’s site review criteria have not been updated in years. The updates approved Thursday removed unnecessarily complicated criteria, added more descriptive language, reorganized the criteria and emphasized criteria that will result in projects that address important city goals such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing diverse types of housing.

“(I’m) just incredibly grateful to everyone on staff who’s worked so hard on this as well as for the community members who’ve contributed to the process over the years and the planning board members too,” said Mayor Aaron Brockett. “It’s great to finally get a box checked. That’s a big box check.”

Boulder resident Lynn Segal spoke during the public hearing for the ordinance, expressing concerns regarding the city’s density modifications, which allow specific zoning districts the ability to increase the density and floor area of a building.

“This is not beneficial for Boulder because what it does is it creates more units and drives up the price of housing of each of those units,” she said.

The second ordinance approved during the meeting was to Boulder’s land use table and standards, which is part of an ongoing project to align the ordinance with goals illustrated in the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan. This update encourages a mix of uses in industrial areas and creates a balance between housing infill opportunities and the protection of both established and future industrial businesses, Guiler wrote in an email.

The ordinance is in phase two or what city staff are calling “module two” of what will be a three-step update. The first change was adopted in June and replaced outdated or rarely implemented uses with similar uses or more general categories; updated some use names and definitions, modernized language and clarified common interpretation questions.

Thursday’s update removed restrictions for residential, office and manufacturing uses in areas zoned as industrial service, industrial general, industrial manufacturing and industrial mixed service. Updates to the ordinance include allowing residential development in both IG and IM districts; limiting offices in IG and IM districts to 50,000 square feet; and updating the names of “manufacturing use” to “light manufacturing,” and “manufacturing use with potential off-site impact” to “general manufacturing.”

During the meeting, the City Council also agreed to have staff look at adding a sentence in the land use table ordinance, which reads “The lot or parcel is located within one-quarter mile of the Boulder Junction transit station,” to instead say “The lot or parcel is located within one-quarter mile of the Boulder Junction Transit Station or Boulder Valley Regional Center.” The request was first suggested by City Councilmember Lauren Folkerts, but ultimately Folkerts and City Councilmember Nicole Speer voted against having staff spend time evaluating whether the area should qualify for residential use.

Staff will tack the City Council’s request onto its work for phase three, which will begin in a few weeks. This step intends to encourage 15-minute neighborhoods, which provide people access to all or most of their needs within a short walk or bike ride from their home, as well as a mix of uses along transportation corridors.

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Annie Mehl
2023-02-03 06:16:10
Boulder Daily Camera
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