Boulder Planning Board moves city-owned Alpine-Balsam site plans forward

BOULDER — Despite reservations, members of the Boulder Planning Board voted Tuesday to forward a limited Alpine-Balsam area redevelopment plan to the Boulder City Council for consideration.

The scope of that plan, as approved 5-0 by the board, is limited to the city-owned former Boulder Community Health hospital site and does not include a wider privately owned area around the BCH site.

For months, city leaders have been contemplating the adoption of the Alpine-Balsam Area Plan, which establishes a framework for redevelopment of a 70-acre parcel roughly bordered by Broadway on the east, Ninth Street on the west, Balsam Avenue on the north and Portland Place on the south.

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That broader area includes both privately owned properties and the former BCH site, which was purchased by the city in 2015 for $40 million. The property could include new city and county government offices, retail and commercial spaces, and residential units. 

City leaders have the option to implement the entire area plan, implement the plan in phases over a period of years, remove commercial centers from area plan, reduce the scope of the area plan to include only city-owned properties, or scrap the area plan entirely.

The council has pushed forward a version of the plan that includes only land-use changes for the city-owned site, while the planning board has favored broader changes to encourage more housing diversity in the wider neighborhood. Some residents have expressed concerns about increased housing density, and some have come out in favor of any plan that increases housing affordability in the city. 

If the wider neighborhood is included, it could result in the construction of more than 600 new housing units. The city-owned site has the capacity for up to about 260 new units. City and county leaders will continue discussions of the possibility of relocating certain county departments to the former BCH site, which would decrease the total number of housing units possible.

Tuesday’s joint session between the two bodies was meant as a way to bring both sides to the table. 

Planning for the area “has been a large investment from the council members and planning board members and the community in terms of time and energy,” Boulder assistant city manager Chris Meschuck said. “… We’re trying to work together to find areas of common ground between the planning board and city council.”

Despite their vote to move the limited area plan forward, planning board members were critical of council’s preference to focus solely on the city-owned parcel.

“I think it’s going to make everything more expensive to not deal with [developing a plan for the entire area] now,” board member Peter Vitale said. 

“I think this was an example of really poor communication,” he said “… But it would just be picking another fight and trying to clean up all the blood” if the planning board sent the broader scope plan to the council.

The council “will now deliberate another evening,” Mayor Suzanne Jones said.  

A date for the full council’s discussion and vote on the Alpine-Balsam plan has yet to be set, but it could occur as soon as Oct. 7, according to city staff.