|
PLAN-Boulder CountyThe Boulder County Peoples Advocate July 1, 2007Boulder County public affairs news and analysis |
In this issue
Boulder County Commissioner Tom Mayer died June 22 from cancer at the age of 56. Mayer was elected to the County Commission in 2002 and easily reelected in 2006. Previously he had served eleven years as a member of the Louisville City Council. Prior to his election to the County Commission Mayer worked as a software engineer at NCAR in Boulder.
Colorado state law requires the vacancy caused by resignation or death to be filled by the political party of the former commissioner within a brief period. The Boulder County Democratic Party's executive committee is scheduled to meet on July 2 to select a successor to Tom Mayer. The new commissioner will serve until the 2008 general election, at which time Boulder County voters will select the person to fill the remaining two years of Mayer's term.
PLAN-Boulder County Makes No Endorsement for
Boulder City Council Vacancy
The board of directors of PLAN-Boulder County decided not to endorse any of the 14 candidates running for the vacant Boulder City Council seat in the July 10 special mail ballot election.
PLAN-Boulder County bases its endorsement of candidates on a combination of factors, including experience, community involvement and support for our policies and principles. Candidates are also evaluated on their participation in public forums and their answers to PLAN-Boulder County's questionnaire on important community issues.
During the campaign for the vacant seat PLAN-Boulder County, in conjunction with the Indian Peaks Group of the Sierra Club, sponsored a candidate forum on June 6. Ten of the fourteen candidates attended. Angelique Espinosa was unable to attend due to a family medical emergency out of town. Eugene Pearson was in California participating in a fundraising event for AIDS charities, an activity to which he had committed long before the death of Councilman Tom Eldridge required the special election.
PLAN-Boulder County also submitted questionnaires to the candidates seeking information on their stands on various issues and their record of involvement in community affairs. Ten of the fourteen candidates responded.
The PLAN-Boulder County board of directors felt that five candidates, Matt Appelbaum, Angelique Espinosa, Eugene Pearson, Susan Peterson and Ken Wilson, merit consideration because of their experience, knowledge of Boulder history and government and support for PLAN-Boulder County's positions and policies. The board, however, was not satisfied that any one of the five was better suited for a seat on the Boulder City Council than the others.
Instead of endorsing one of the five best candidates PLAN-Boulder County encourages Boulder voters to educate themselves about each in order to make an informed decision.
Responses to PLAN-Boulder County's candidate questionnaire (pdf document)
Candidate Endorsements by Other Organizations
The following organizations made endorsements for the July 10 special election to fill the vacant seat on Boulder City Council:
The Progressive Majority, which endorsed Angelique Espinosa, is a political organization with chapters in eight states, including Colorado. The organization supports liberal candidates for local offices. It recently endorsed several candidates for seats on the Denver City Council and the Fort Collins City Council.
The editors of the Boulder Daily Camera decided not to endorse a candidate. Instead, they made favorable comments about six of the fourteen people seeking election. Those included in the editors' list were Alan O'Hashi, Matt Appelbaum, Ken Wilson, Angelique Espinosa, Shawn Coleman and Eugene Pearson.
The Daily Camera's sister paper, the Colorado Daily, endorsed Matt Appelbaum, citing his experience as a previous member of Council and his willingness to question conventional wisdom and challenge orthodoxies. The newspaper's editors also had praise for Eugene Pearson, suggesting that he might be a more viable candidate in the November general election when at least six seats will be contested.
A draft environmental impact statement for proposed changes to US-36 between Boulder and Denver will soon be released for comment. The study is required for large transportation projects, which in this case involves adding two or more lanes for bus rapid transit, carpoolers and possibly toll payers along the busy thoroughfare.
City of Boulder staff members gave Council members an update June 5 on the status of the study and the process by which the City and the public may offer comments. The project will likely be constructed in phases with the bus rapid transit service to the RTD stations at Table Mesa Drive, downtown Boulder and the proposed station near 30th and Pearl streets to be in operation by 2016.
The project team preparing plans for the highway includes the Colorado Department of Transportation, RTD and the Federal Highway Administration. Much of the funding for the US-36 project will come from the federal government. Although local governments may make comments about the project the final decision on scope and timing rests with the project team.
City staff asked Council to provide guidance on three issues:
On a motion by Shaun McGrath, Council voted unanimously (with Mark Ruzzin absent) to approve the staff's suggested guidelines for the City's response on the three specific issues. McGrath's motion was expanded at the behest of bicycle interests to support a direct bicycle path along the highway if the path's effects on open space can be mitigated.
Council Struggles With Transit Village Plan
At their June 5 meeting members of the Boulder City Council attempted to finalize the schedule for action on the proposed Transit Village area plan. The plan, under consideration for several years, would cover future development in an area of about 160 acres surrounding the proposed RTD bus and rail stations in east Boulder.
Council had intended on holding a public hearing in conjunction with the Planning Board on July 17, with final approval of the area plan in August. At the June 5 meeting, however, most Council members voiced concerns about unresolved issues, especially those involving financing options for infrastructure.
After extended discussion the Council decided that the July 17 meeting would be a study session, with a public hearing on the final plan set for late August. The schedule change will likely mean that Council will still make a final decision on the area plan by the end of the year.
Boulder Joins Municipal Wireless Consortium
The City of Boulder will join with nine other regional municipalities to create the Colorado Wireless Communities consortium. The organization will operate as a single entity on behalf of its municipal members to contract with a service provider that will create a ten-city broadband wireless network. The consortium will also monitor the quality of service provided by the chosen wireless company.
Boulder City Council members voted unanimously on June 5 (Mark Ruzzin absent) for a motion by Andy Schutheiss for an intergovernmental agreement to join the consortium. Plans currently call for municipal wireless Internet service to start in mid-2008, with complete regional coverage by the end of 2009.
Council Takes Its Summer Break
As is traditional, the Boulder City Council did not hold a second meeting in June, allowing Council members and City staff to have a summer break from immediately pending City business. The Council will resume its normal twice-monthly business meetings on Tuesday, July 10.
With no second Boulder City Council meeting in June the amount of news about local government is somewhat limited. We thought this might be a good opportunity to update our readers about some of the major development projects in various stages of consideration by Boulder planners. With the number of projects in the mill the City's planning staff will certainly be busy this summer.
There are several substantial projects currently under construction in Boulder, including:
A number of projects are in the planning or approvals stages, listed by section of town:
Downtown
- 1095 Canyon Boulevard, a 78,052 square foot building by Tebo Development incorporating ground floor office and restaurant space and two floors of residential units.
- 1580 Canyon Boulevard, the current site of Robb's Music, proposed for 10 residential units and 3,758 square feet of retail space by Brian Joseph.
- Trinity Commons, 26 for-sale units (half permanently affordable), community and office space at 2200 Broadway, by Trinity Lutheran Church.
- The Walnut, a 34-unit condominium building at 1655 Walnut Street by MCV Walnut Investments.
North Boulder
- 3120 Broadway, 26 affordable rental units proposed by Boulder Housing Partners.
- 4403 Broadway, a development on the site of Blue Spruce Auto Sales by Gary Calderon with 25 residential units and 12,500 square feet of commercial space.
- Cedar Commons, the redevelopment of the historic Washington School at 1215 Cedar Avenue by Wonderland Hill Development Company, 34 cohousing units, 6,800 square feet of office space and six single-family houses.
- The Condominiums at NoBo, 23 units at 1820 Mary Lane in the Holiday neighborhood by Paragon Builders.
- Dakota Ridge, another phase of the large residential community at Broadway and North Foothills Highway (US-36) by Markel Homes, 18 condominium units and a 2,500 square foot community building.
- Forest Glen, 13 single family houses by 3945 Broadway LLC at 3945 Broadway
- Harper Hollow, 57 residential units on 9.9 acres at 3015 Kalmia Avenue by Gary Calderon. The project is proposed to include 31 single-family lots, 14 duplex units and 12 units in three fourplex buildings. .
- Uptown Broadway Phase 3 will consist of 55 townhouse and condominium units to be developed by Village @ Uptown Investors. The first two phases of Uptown Broadway at Yarmouth Avenue and Broadway include retail space with condominium and apartment units
- Violet Crossing, 4474 Broadway, 78 residential units and 9,400 square feet of commercial space by Terry Palmos, just south of Uptown Broadway.
- Valley Labs is requesting approval for a 60,200 square foot office building to accommodate the company's expansion at 5920 Longbow Drive in Gunbarrel.
- Mark Young is proposing to develop 13 single-family houses at 1960 to 2066 Violet Avenue and 2005 Upland Avenue. The site is an enclave surrounded by the City of Boulder and will need to be annexed.
East Boulder
- Crossroads Commons shopping center at 30th and Pearl streets may undergo a major expansion and renovation involving a doubling of the size of the Whole Foods supermarket and the relocation of the Barnes & Noble bookstore into a new building on the corner. The center is owned by Regency Centers of Jacksonville. The company has agreed to help pay for the move of the historic Boulder Union Depot, which may become the centerpiece of the future RTD commuter rail station across 30th Street.
- The possible redevelopment of the First Christian Church property at 950 28th Street. Historic Boulder, Inc. is attempting to convince developers to retain the distinctive sanctuary in construction plans.
- Urban Frontier LLC and Boulder developer Lou Della Cava propose to redevelop the property at 28th Street and Canyon Boulevard, currently occupied by the Golden Buff Motel and Eads News. Plans call for 309,500 square feet of office and retail space in two 4-story buildings atop two levels of underground parking. Eads New would return to occupy space in the retail section of the project after temporarily relocating during construction.
- Landmark Lofts Phase II, 130 residential units and 2,000 square feet of retail space by Jim Chanin at 970 28th Street. Phase I of 105 units next door at 1000 28th Street has been approved but not yet started.
- Redstones, 29 townhouses and 276 condominium units at 1685 to 1775 38th Street in the East Park office and industrial park north of Arapahoe Avenue. Bancroft Capital bought the 156,000 square feet flex/office building on the site and will replace it with the Redstones project. The California firm is currently developing the nearby Peloton condominium and retail building at 33rd Street and Arapahoe Avenue.
- 2525 Taft Drive, redevelopment of a former apartment building for seniors into 117 units of senior housing, plus community facilities, by MGL Partners and Leisure Care.
- The Village Shopping Center, 2525 Arapahoe Avenue, the replacement of a vacant restaurant with a 67,825 square foot, three-story building with retail space topped by a hotel. Other construction is underway at the center, including the replacement of the former motion picture theaters with a Sunflower natural foods supermarket.
South Boulder
- Boulder Creek Commons, formerly known as the Hogan-Pancost project, 80 single family lots and 54 units of duplexes for low-income seniors at 5399 Kewanee Drive, south of the East Boulder Community Center, by Boulder Creek Commons LLC. The property will require annexation before development can be approved.
- Table Mesa Housing, a 40-unit residential community on the site of the vacant U. S. Army Reserve Center at 4640 Table Mesa Drive by Peter Stainton.
There are a number of other possible projects for which plans have not yet been filed with the City of Boulder nor officially announced, including at least one substantial downtown mixed-use building.
Council Voting Records Available Online
PLAN-Boulder County has been tracking since 2005 all votes by members of the Boulder City Council. Often amendments and procedural motions are as important as final decisions on major issues and we wish the people of Boulder to know how their Council members vote on issues of importance to the community. Included in our tracking is how Council members voted on appointments to City boards and commissions.
The votes are recorded on a spreadsheet that can be found on our website, www.planboulder.org. PLAN-Boulder County encourages you to keep informed about how Boulder's City Council represents you and your views.
PLAN-Boulder County is pleased with the response from Boulder County residents to the Peoples Advocate. We'll keep working to let you know how your city and county representatives are voting on important issues, and we'll continue to provide detailed information on the nuts and bolts of public process.
In order to spread the word we encourage those of you who are receiving this publication to pass it around. Please forward the Peoples Advocate to your friends and associates. Encourage any community organizations in which you are a member to distribute the Peoples Advocate to their membership.
If you like what you read, please sign up to receive the newsletter directly to ensure continuity and simplify our process by contacting PLAN-Boulder board member David Cook. And most importantly, let us know what you think about the publication and the issues we cover.
| The Boulder County Peoples Advocate is published monthly by PLAN-Boulder County and distributed free to persons interested in local public affairs issues. Eric Karnes, Editor |
To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send an email to Morgan Rogers.