Housing toolkit

BOULDER — Prior to COVID-19, roughly 60,000 commuters would travel to Boulder daily for work. Living there wasn’t in the cards.

While, given the shift toward working from home during the pandemic, there are likely fewer commuters traveling Colorado Highway 119 and U.S, Highway 36 to earn a living, the idea of living in Boulder has increasingly become something only the very-well-compensated can do.

But there is plenty of movement in that space that has opened up Boulder as a place to work and live, says Boulder Mayor Aaron Brockett. At present the city has 1,000 new affordable housing units in the pipeline, and whenever there is a new residential development 25% of those units must be designated affordable, or a developer can contribute cash in lieu that goes into a fund dedicated to building affordable housing throughout the city.

“There are three projects being completed in the next six months” that will bring on those 1,000 new units, he said.

“It is making a dent,” Brockett said. “We actually recently passed a milestone of building our 4,000th affordable housing unit in Boulder. Over 8 percent of our residents live in affordable housing.”

Boulder also has changed some of its zoning regulations to allow residential uses in previously commercial or industrial settings. One project that is taking advantage of the new zoning is the Diagonal Plaza in north Boulder “which was a blighted parking lot for decades” will soon become new housing, he said.

Boulder also has welcomed alternative dwelling units, and more recently adopted its own program based on a new state law that will allow more dwelling units in transportation corridors.

Boulder housing activist Eric Budd, who has been with Better Boulder for 10 years, while also working with Boulder Progressives on community issues in Boulder, said he believes all changes the city has made are moving the city in the right direction, but they are only small tweaks in the overall picture.

Budd said the city’s look at reducing parking minimums will make some more headway allowing more space for housing rather than cars. By helping reduce transportation costs as well as housing costs, Budd said the city would make more headway.

“I think there’s a toolkit of housing things we should do, and most of the tweaks we’re talking about are relatively small. But when added up in total, they will make a real impact.”

Nobody is saying Boulder’s affordability problem can be solved easily or quickly.

“The need is great,” Brockett said. “I don’t know this is a problem we’re going to solve anytime soon, but we are making a difference. We’re keeping some prices from going higher and creating new opportunities for people. Even if you haven’t solved the problem, for every new unit you build (represents) a family that now has a place to live.”

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A glimpse at Boulder’s future

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