Mixed-use project in northeast Boulder headed to city council for concept review

BOULDER — Developers of a proposed mixed-use project that would bring 378 apartments to Boulder’s northeast “gateway” will present their plans at a special city council meeting on Thursday night.

The concept review is a preliminary stage in which developers can receive feedback about projects before submitting a more formal site-plan review. Thursday’s meeting will also include a public hearing on the project.

The project, dubbed Alexan Flatirons, already drew plenty of criticism from the planning board and surrounding residents during a concept review and public comment period before planning board earlier this year.

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The development, brought forth by Boulder-based Coburn Partners and Dallas-based Trammell Crow Residential, is slated to include 295 market-rate apartments and 83 permanently affordable senior housing units. That’s in addition to 54,000 square feet of commercial office and retail space.

The project sits at 3600 Colorado Highway 119, a 20-acre strip of land on the northeast side of town. More specifically, it’s the land roughly bordered by eastbound 119 on the east, westbound 119 on the north, Foothills Parkway on the west and Independence Road on the south.

The site, owned by Birch Mountain LLC, has been the subject of multiple proposed projects in the past that never came to fruition. An office and hotel development went before planning board for concept review in 1998 before a site review for five office buildings in 2000 was withdrawn. Another mixed-use development went through concept review in 2006.

The latest proposal raised multiple red flags for the planning board and nearby residents in the spring. The property is zoned Business Transition-1, which technically allows for multi-family housing. But during the planning board concept review, the question was raised as to whether the site — surrounded by highways — is suitable for such dense residential development. There were also concerns raised about traffic impacts in the area and parking on the site.