Election 2021: Bedrooms are for People chance of passage dims

BOULDER  — As the clock turned over to Wednesday morning, vote tallies continued to favor opponents of Boulder’s Bedrooms are for People measure.

Of the 19,281 votes counted as of 12:47 a.m.,11,154 (57.85%) were against Ballot Question 300 and 8,127 (42.15%) supported it.

“If we defeat 300, we look forward to working with the new City Council to create an ordinance that ensures greater access to housing that will be affordable and will protect our residential neighborhoods from exploitation by rental housing investors,” Lisa Spalding, a member of opposition group No on Bedroom$, said in an email.

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Bedrooms for People would roll back the city’s occupancy rules that restrict homes to no more than four unrelated people living under one roof regardless of the size of the home.

The measure is a result of a successful petition by citizen group Bedrooms Are For People that advocated for improved housing access in the city, one of the Front Range’s most expensive.

University Hill residents wary of student party houses joined slow-growth proponents in opposition to the measure.

The Bedrooms are for People measure was endorsed by a diverse swath of local organizations from the Boulder Chamber to the Democratic Socialists of Boulder County. 

“Clearly, the early voters showed some skepticism about the initiative and likely there are some folks who would support something that had different limits on bedrooms as well as some affordability provisions,” Chamber CEO John Tayer said Tuesday night.

Supporters were holding out hope Tuesday night for a change of fortunes.

Bedrooms are for People organizer Eric Budd said in a Twitter direct message just after 9 p.m. that he’s “still optimistic at this point [because] many of our supporters didn’t vote until the last few days.”

Tayer agreed that the yet-to-be tabulated ballots could turn the tide.

“Many of [the voters who submitted ballots later] are going to be younger voters and folks who may be more preoccupied with work and other obligations who waited until the last moment,” he said. These voter groups could tend to favor Bedrooms are for People.

Additional vote tally updates are expected Wednesday afternoon and evening. 

“Either way this goes, this is a discussion that will continue,” Tayer said. “… If it doesn’t pass, is there an opportunity to work with the City Council to bring something forward that is a better option for our community?”

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