Boulder leaders want to dig deeper on ‘intriguing’ Diagonal Plaza mixed-use proposal

BOULDER — With a potentially workable plan to redevelop a portion of Diagonal Plaza in hand, Boulder leaders are loath to let the opportunity to address one of the city’s most blighted and underutilized retail districts slip away.

The Boulder City Council voted Tuesday evening to call up a concept plan to turn a shuttered Sports Authority and underutilized parking lot space at 3320 28th St. into affordable and workforce housing. 

A “call up” will allow the council an opportunity at a later, yet-to-be-scheduled meeting to work through some zoning and land-use issues that have the potential to derail the project.

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The developers — a partnership between Boulder Housing Partners, Trammel Crow Co. and Coburn Partners — and city leaders have two options to consider: The first option includes 177 workforce apartments within five buildings and with 9,942 square feet of amenity space, a shared deck and a clubhouse, and 58 permanently affordable apartments, according to Boulder planning documents. 

The second option matches the first but includes additional residential units with approximately 195 workforce apartments and 64 permanently affordable apartments. It also includes a fourth story on one of the buildings with an additional roof deck. 

One of the major issues relates to the property’s zoning classification, under which open space requirements would allow the construction of only 56 new residential units on the site — hardly enough to make a dent in the city’s housing affordability crisis.

Theoretically, the City Council could opt to rezone the site, but “rezoning is fairly atypical in the city of Boulder,” Boulder planner Elaine McLaughlin said. City officials typically shy away from piecemeal rezoning of individual properties in favor of broader neighborhood and area planning efforts. 

To further complicate things, the unusual nature of the site, combined with the specifics of the planned project raises questions about whether the redevelopment proposal meets certain standards for rezoning.

An area plan could be developed, but that is a time- and resource-consuming process. 

The goal of the developers and planning staff is to provide “onsite additional housing without a lot of additional process,” McLaughlin said.

The question, she said, for city leaders is: “How can we … provide density and maximize the opportunity there?”

City Council members eagerly called up the project, not wanting to miss the best chance in years to address both a nagging blight problem as well as a nagging housing affordability problem.

“It’s an intriguing project and one I think we want to dig into,” Councilman Bob Yates said.

He called the issue “one of the most consequential land use matters that this council will be called to weigh in on.”

Councilwoman Mary Young suggested that if city leaders and the developer can find a path to success with the proposed project, “this particular site would be a sort of catalyst” for additional redevelopment at Diagonal Plaza. 

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