Boulder’s modular home factory sparks community debate

A new modular home factory being built in Boulder has stirred up excitement as well as a healthy dose of controversy among members of the community.

The city announced Monday that construction on the factory is due to start this month. City officials who have championed the project say the factory — which is expected to eventually produce up to 50 permanently affordable homes every year — will be a game changer in terms of creating more affordable housing in Boulder. They also say it will provide an unparalleled hands-on learning experience for students in a local construction program.

However, numerous residents in the nearby neighborhoods have vehemently opposed the project for a variety of reasons. Some are concerned about the potential for extra noise and traffic, while others worry about the environmental impact of the factory, which will sit adjacent to Sombrero Marsh, a protected wetland and habitat conservation area.

The factory site at 6500 Arapahoe Road is a large plot of land owned by the Boulder Valley School District. In December, Boulder City Council unanimously voted to annex 48 acres of BVSD land for the factory.

The project is a collaboration between the city, BVSD and Flatirons Habitat for Humanity. The city is providing funding for the factory’s construction and purchasing necessary tools for the facility. BVSD has supplied the land for the factory, which will be used as a hands-on learning facility for students in the district’s Technical Education Center construction class. Habitat for Humanity will staff and manage the facility, acquire materials and be the certified manufacturer.

Jay Sugnet, a senior planner for Boulder and the project manager for the modular home factory, said construction is expected to start in mid to late August and is expected to take at most 10 to 11 months. The construction work should be completed in a relatively short time frame because the factory itself will be a modular building.

Once the factory is completed in 2024, it can begin producing modular homes. It is expected to produce 12 to 15 homes per year in its first few years of operation, but eventually will ramp up its production to up to 50 homes per year.

‘Creating lifelong places for people to live’

Up to 73 of the first homes produced at the factory will go toward renovating North Boulder’s Ponderosa Mobile Home Park. Sugnet said the community was heavily impacted by the 2013 flood, and that many of the mobile homes are old, unsafe and not very energy efficient.

Boulder obtained federal funds to buy the park, and existing residents at Ponderosa have been given the option to purchase a modular home. Sugnet emphasized that no one will be required to purchase new homes or forced out of their existing homes. Construction of the new homes will be partially subsidized by the city through both local and state funding, and homeowners who buy homes will make payments of no more than a third of their monthly income.

Sugnet said that although there was initially skepticism and concern about the plan among Ponderosa community members, many are now excited about the redevelopment. Fully transitioning the area to modular homes could take 10 to 15 years, depending on whether residents choose to buy new homes or stay in their existing ones.

Outside of Ponderosa, there are other Habitat for Humanity sites in Boulder and Boulder County where more modular homes could be assembled, but specific sites haven’t been chosen yet.

Sugnet, who has been involved with the project since its beginning, said the project would help “provide a path for us to help address some of our affordable housing challenges” as well as creating “a whole new generation of workers who can have the skills they need to help us build and construct and renovate housing.”

Mayor Aaron Brockett, who has supported the project, said, “Once those modular homes start coming out of that factory, each one of those is going to be the home for a family. And so, one by one, we’re going to be creating lifelong places for people to live. And that’s going to be transformative for each of those families. And as we get dozens and dozens of them over the years, that’s going to make a huge positive impact on people’s lives.”

‘There is probably not a worse place around’

However, some residents who live near the project site are unhappy about the decision to place a factory in that location. Marc Rosenberg, a resident of the Reserve neighborhood just south of Sombrero Marsh, said “opposition is unanimous” in his area.

“No one is opposed in principle to creating low income housing. What people are opposed to is building a factory in the middle of a residential neighborhood,” he said, adding that the project site also borders on the Sombrero Marsh property and environmental education center.

“If you were looking for a place to put a factory, there is probably not a worse place around.”

Rosenberg said neighbors are concerned about noise — not only noise generated from within the factory, but also from trucks coming and going during the construction phase. He expects “literally thousands” of truckloads of material will need to be hauled in to build the platform on which the factory will rest.

Sugnet said the city has agreed to keep the factory doors closed while it’s in operation and to disable trucks’ backup signals to reduce noise, but Rosenberg expressed skepticism about how effective or feasible those measures would be.

Additionally, Rosenberg said there were some neighbors worried about the environmental impacts to the marsh. A group called Sombrero Marsh United has coalesced for the stated purpose of helping save the marsh.

“Sombrero Marsh is a saltwater marsh, and it’s one of only three in the state — the only one in the county,” he said. “At the far northeast of the open space, there will now be this huge factory. So it’s an open question: What effect will that have on the marsh? And what effect will it have on the wildlife on the marsh?”

Rosenberg also cited a flawed initial environmental assessment of the area that was later redone. That assessment was part of the catalyst for a Code of Conduct complaint filed in April against three city employees, including Sugnet. The complaint was reviewed by Senior Investigator David Vogel, who wrote a report in mid-July stating that he believed the city employee who had done the assessment had simply made a mistake.

Additionally, two residents earlier this year filed a lawsuit to halt progress on the modular home factory, alleging that manufacturing uses are not allowed by the zoning in the land where the factory will be located.