Proposal to turn Boulder car dealership into apartments wins Planning Board nod

BOULDER — A plan from a local developer to turn the former Foundation Hyundai of Boulder site on 30th Street into multifamily housing won a favorable recommendation Tuesday from the Boulder Planning Board, but the board’s blessing did not come without its fair share of drama. 

This week’s site review was actually a rare rehearing, essentially a do-over of a February meeting that ended in a stalemate after a shorthanded Planning Board voted 3-3 in its recommendation to Boulder City Council.

“We haven’t done this in a very long time,” Boulder senior planner Alison Blaine said. 

A development team led by Element Properties LLC plans to demolish the car dealership at 2555 30th St. and replace it with a four-story, 111,495-square-foot apartment building with 142 studio, one-, two-, and three-bedroom units. The developer is seeking a handful of variances to Boulder’s land-use codes and guidelines related to building height and size, parking and setbacks.

“The vision for this project … (is) to create much-needed housing, and not just any housing, but convenient and affordable places to live and work in central Boulder,” Element co-founder Chris Jacobs said. “And when you do venture out for errands or entertainment, it’s an easy decision to walk, bike or take the bus.”

Michael Farrington, a housing advocate, University of Colorado Law School student and Broomfield resident, spoke in favor of the project, referred to in city planning documents as 30/Bluff, and said, “I, like thousands of students and part-time workers, go to school or work or both in Boulder, but cannot afford to live here.”

Part of the reason for the city’s affordability crisis, he said, relates to years of adherence by Boulder officials to old land-use policies that restricted construction of new units. 

“This project fits perfectly into the vision that aligns with the goal of creating a Boulder that works for everyone,” Farrington said. The development “will replace a car dealership. This isn’t a park that the community is being asked to give up. It’s not a greenfield development that would take down old-growth trees. It is a project that takes one of the worst land uses in the entire city — a car dealership — and replaces it with a place where 142 people and their families can call home.”

Margot Smit, during public comment, expressed concerns about “permanent loss of natural habitat” if portions of the site that abut the Goose Creek Greenway are developed. “This proposal has been moving along quickly without adequate public visibility,” she added.

In addition to redeveloping the shuttered car dealership, Planning Board member Mark McIntyre said the housing project would replace other nearby “outdated and outmoded and not-particularly successful single-level strip retail” businesses.

Planning board members skeptical of the project noted that their hesitance to support the plan doesn’t stem from lack of desire for new housing, but from concerns about certain specific aspects of the developers’ proposal and its compatibility with land-use guidelines.

There was a somewhat philosophical debate among the members about the mission and mandate of the Planning Board. On one side were members who seem to generally believe that it’s the body’s job to help move forward projects that meet Boulder’s goals — in this case, increasing the housing supply — and on the other side was a camp arguing that the Planning Board’s main function is to consistently interpret and faithfully apply the city’s land-use documents, including city zoning codes and area plans such as the Transit Village Area Plan, which was developed more than decade ago to help guide land-use decision making around the 30th Street site.

“We all support housing at this site,” Boulder Planning Board member Laura Kaplan said. “And for those of us who have objections to the project, it literally is about the quasi-judicial function of trying to make it very clearly meet our site-review criteria.”

During the process of voting on a series of amendments that would condition elements of the development plan, the conversation — about four hours into Tuesday night’s meeting — between members was briefly testy. 

Other concerns from some members of the board related to the proposed building’s size, massing and design, as well as the developer’s commitment to activating ground-level retail space that is accessible to the public, rather than merely serving as an amenity for the project’s eventual residents. 

“I think (the developer) could go away and come back with a better design,” Kaplan said, “and I hope they do that.”

The Planning Board’s approved amendments would, if Boulder City Council agrees, require that at least half of the ground-floor square footage along 30th Street be used for public-facing retail storefront — the developer has proposed a coworking space and coffee shop — and limit the height of certain portions of building that front 30th Street to no more than three stories.

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