Daily Camera guest opinion: Guest Barry Weiss: 'Activists to Destroy Your Neighborhood'

Sep. 14—By Barry Weiss

Bedrooms Are for People (BAFP) is the most dangerous, misleading ballot initiative I've seen in over 20 years in Boulder and should be renamed "Activists to Destroy Your Neighborhood" (ADYN). It would allow blanket, unregulated density increases creating unpermitted "boarding houses" in every Boulder neighborhood without regard to sane planning considerations.

Let's consider the consequences of BAFP:

* BAFP would not improve availability of rooms for rent. In the first nine days of September, Craigslist shows nearly 100 rooms for rent already — there is no supply issue on rooms for rent.

* BAFP does not impose any affordability requirement. The current market rate for rooms for rent averages $1,000/month and nothing in BAFP would impose affordability limits. There is no data or logic suggesting that an increase in supply would encourage landlords to voluntarily reduce market rents. If BAFP really cares about affordability, try working with Boulder's affordable housing program instead of blowing up the whole system.

* BAFP falsely claims it would reduce traffic, yet more individuals crammed into houses will increase traffic and parking in that neighborhood, and without increases in public transportation (not addressed by BAFP at all) BAFP would change concentrations of traffic but would not reduce overall traffic and would exacerbate local neighborhood traffic and parking.

* BAFP falsely claims it would enable people to live with whom they want. People can already choose to live with whom they want subject to sane planning considerations. Co-housing is already legal and available in Boulder under Title 4, Section 4-20-69 subject to sensible location, parking and permitting considerations. BAFP would blow away the need to consider anything other than building health and safety — no consideration for what it would do to your neighborhood. BAFP wants to turn every neighborhood into a density free for all.

* BAFP also would create at least two important, unanswered landlord issues. First, it would possibly override a landlord's ability to limit the number of residents to whom they wish to rent, thus destroying a landlord's legitimate right to control his or her property. Second, opportunistic investor landlords will start paying market premiums for single family homes, knowing they can make minor modifications to cram in more bedrooms increasing total rent under BAFP's permissive occupancy policy. This will effectively increase market prices for single family homes as boarding houses, making such houses even less affordable to single family occupants.

Kudos to the BAFP team for creating a progressive sounding name for their regressive, destructive, poorly considered initiative that would bypass sane planning considerations and the existing cohousing and affordability programs, destroy Boulder neighborhoods, make single family houses less affordable, and do nothing to address affordability. When you have the chance to vote on this, don't be fooled — it should really be called "Activists to Destroy Your Neighborhood" and I encourage everyone to oppose the ballot initiative.