County puts pressure on Boulder to reduce jobs in comp plan

BOULDER — As more jobs are created and more people commute into Boulder to work, Boulder’s city and county governments seem determined to reducing what they call a jobs-to-housing “imbalance.”

Boulder’s jobs-to-housing ratio currently is approximately 0.96-to-one, or almost one job to every resident, said Paul Danish, county commissioner. “You normally would consider an average of two-to-one or two people to every job to be more typical,” he said. “In the next 20 years it looks like the ratio will increase to one-and-a-half jobs to every person; man, woman and child. That struck us as high.”

Because of concerns about the ratio, the commissioners asked Boulder city council to consider adjusting the comprehensive plan to address the issue, Danish said. “The city needs to come to a determination of how big it wants to be,” he said.

SPONSORED CONTENT

Commercial Solar is a big investment, but not an overwhelming one

Solar offers a significant economic benefit for commercial property owners while also positively impacting the environment and offering a path to compliance for new municipal requirements like Energize Denver. A local, experienced solar installer will help you navigate the complexities of commercial solar to achieve financial success for your project.

The Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan is a joint plan between the city and Boulder County that was adopted in 1978, and any changes to it require approval from all four “signatory bodies;” both planning boards, the city council and county commissioners.

City council recently drafted and approved a new policy in the comprehensive plan that states the city and county recognize an imbalance between population and employment in the Boulder Valley and intend to take action to reduce potential non-residential development. In addition to council, the city and county planning boards also approved the policy.

The county commissioners, however, did not approve it because they want to see a definitive goal of a maximum jobs-housing ratio of one-to-one included in the comprehensive plan, said Pete Fogg, manager of the long range division of Boulder County land use. “The commissioners wanted to set a specific number so future studies would have it as a goal,” he said. “If the number could be achieved, that would be the objective. If, after the public process, the number was not possible, it could be changed.”

Boulder’s council, however, proposed a more general policy because it did not want to create false expectations, Fogg said. “City staff had tossed around the idea of putting a number in but didn’t want to give a false sense of expectation,” he said. “The city did not want to lead people to think there’s one major number that’s gonna’ be magically brought out.”

After the commissioners approve a new version of the policy, it will be sent back to the county planning board as well as the city planning board and council, Fogg said.

Meanwhile, the city has sent the jobs-to-housing issue to the planning board for a one-year study, naming it the “Managing Commercial Growth Project.” As the city conducts the study, the county will participate in any way it can to assist city staff, Fogg said.

In the process of examining the issue, the city has come up with several numbers in an attempt to define the problem. These include a projected increase of commuters from 53,000 to 93,000 if businesses are allowed to redevelop to allowed limits. These numbers, however, have been questioned both by members of Boulder’s business community and by city officials themselves.

“The problem is based on faulty assumptions and projections,´ said local developer Lou DellaCava.

Boulder Chamber President and Chief Executive Stan Zemler expressed his opinion on the issue in a recent chamber newsletter.

He said council has been attempting to act without enough participation from members of the public and the business community. “The lack of public process and ?behind closed doors’ discussions we have witnessed of late are uncharacteristic of Boulder, and are very disturbing,” he said. “The absence of any ?independent’ analysis concerning the economic impacts of council’s proposed jobs reduction strategy is unacceptable. It is clear that the Chamber must remain vigilant in pursuit of city council’s actions and true motives in this area.

“Yes, we are prepared to engage constructively toward meeting city’s infrastructure and planning goals. However, we also will serve notice that the entire business community is watching and is poised to respond if the current pattern of independent action continues.”

The city needs to get a clear understanding of the problem before coming up with solutions, said Gordon Riggle, council member. “We need to get a very clear, explicit understanding of what the problem is we’re trying to solve,” he said.

Earl McLaughlin, president of Boulder Tomorrow, used the analogy of several people on a train to Abilene. “Somebody said, ?Whose idea was it to go to Abilene?'” he said.

The city planning department met recently with the city planning board to begin to set parameters for the year-long study, said planning board member Mark Ruzzin. The main thing that came out of that meeting was an agreement on the need to get the public involved in the process from the beginning, he said.

Members of the planning staff and planning board will appoint citizen committees, Ruzzin said. “We might have a technical committee made up of five or seven people,” he said. “The first step might be to get the numbers a little more solid.”

Another committee may be appointed to work on the process to be used in carrying out the study, Ruzzin said. “We want to leverage the expertise that is in the community right now,” he said. “We are also considering hiring an outside facilitator to provide some stability to the process so it is not so much one part of the community against the staff.”

The city planning staff plans to work out a rough plan for selecting committees and may have a list of potential committee members for the council’s June 19 meeting, Ruzzin said.