East Boulder 20-year plan draft: Neighborhood could add 5,000 homes

BOULDER — East Boulder, the neighborhood generally north of Arapahoe Avenue and east of Foothills Parkway, could add as many as 5,000 new homes in the next 20 years, a figure that represents more than 10% of the city’s overall housing stock. 

Boulder officials are in the process of planning for growth in the area, and city staff met with Boulder City Council members Tuesday to provide an update on the East Boulder Subcommunity Plan, a project that’s about 90% complete after three years of work. 

The 20-year plan is meant to guide land-use and transportation connectivity decisions.

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Of the 5,000 new homes the plan contemplates, staffers expect 1,200 of them to be affordable, representing a 32% increase in Boulder’s affordable housing stock. 

In all, the neighborhood could see 11,000 new residents over the next 20 years. 

With those residents, city officials are also expecting about 2,700 new jobs in East Boulder by 2042. 

Zooming in on the region, here’s the by-neighborhood breakdown of where those homes and jobs are expected to be added:

• Park West: 375 jobs, 1,300 homes
• Park East: 125 jobs, 580 homes
• 55th Avenue Corridor: 200 jobs, 1,170 homes
• 55th Avenue and Arapahoe Corridor: 2,000 jobs, 2,050 homes

“The vision for East Boulder is to evolve into a thriving industrial area with interesting places to work, live, play and do business,” Boulder principal planner Kathleen King told City Council members Tuesday. 

As staff near completion of the East Boulder Subcommunity Plan, members of the working group assembled to advise on the project have urged its writers not to overlook “incentivizing affordable commercial space and to address business displacement,” according to a city memo.