How slow-growth Boulder got behind Colorado's land use bill

Jul. 14—A sweeping and controversial land use bill proposed by Gov. Jared Polis in this year's state legislative session had the potential to change the landscape of housing development across Colorado.

If it had passed, it would have enabled denser housing to be built in some cities and towns (particularly near transit hubs), allowed accessory dwelling units to be built in certain areas, and loosened regulations on manufactured and prefabricated homes. It would have also given the state more control over housing development in cities. Many of the bill's supporters were hopeful that it would pave the way for higher density and more affordable housing, while many detractors feared that control over land use and zoning would be stripped away from municipalities and handed over to the state.

Polis introduced the 130-page bill in March. The Colorado House and Senate each passed differing versions of the bill, but lawmakers in the two chambers could not agree on what the bill should and should not include, and the bill finally died on the last day of the 2023 legislative session.

Despite the fact that it did not pass this year, the bill found an unlikely ally in Boulder, a community that has historically resisted new development and embraced slow growth. Boulder's city council supported the bill while asking for several amendments — many or all of which were added to different versions of the bill — in an apparent turnabout that many people didn't see coming.

"It was really fascinating to watch. ... Boulder (is) the only city in the state that formally endorsed the bill," said Andy Schultheiss, a former Boulder city councilmember who has lived in the city since 1999. "There were plenty of individual councilmembers in different cities that endorsed it, but (Boulder was) the only city to do it formally, which surprised a lot of people."

In the minds of many, Boulder is a city that tends to oppose growth and affordable housing projects, but Schultheiss said Boulder and Boulder County have been pushing for affordable housing for decades.

"It's fighting the market, and it's really hard to do. It's pushing a big boulder up a really steep hill because (of the) conditions in Boulder," Schultheiss said. "But the city ... and the county (have) been trying for decades on affordable housing, and I think (the city's) endorsement of the bill was just another statement that's basically saying, 'Yeah, I know we have a really big problem, and we're serious about it.'"

Affordable housing is not exclusively a Boulder problem: It exists at a regional, statewide and nationwide level. Sonja Trauss, a housing advocate with YIMBY Law based in San Francisco, said "opportunity rich" areas such as San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles have continued to draw more people even as the cost of living rises and housing becomes ever more scarce. She said she sees Boulder following a similar trend.

But in addition to Boulder being a desirable, opportunity-rich city to live in, it has some unique conditions, like building height thresholds, restrictive zoning and growth boundaries, that contribute to a lack of physical space for building new housing.

The city has a building height limit of 55 feet. According to the University of Colorado Law Review, 80% of Boulder is zoned for single-family homes, and no mixed-use building or denser housing can be built in those areas. And per the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan, nearly the entire city is surrounded by a rural preservation area where development is not allowed. Occupancy limits have also prevented more than three unrelated people from living together in most parts of the city. These limitations, combined with a high demand for real estate, have contributed to skyrocketing property values, and Boulder has become one of the most expensive cities in the region.

There have been pushes recently in Boulder to loosen some of these constraints. The Bedrooms Are For People ballot initiative, which would have allowed one person to live in each bedroom of a home instead of limiting how many unrelated people can live together, failed by a 52% to 48% vote in November 2021. Recently, City Council has discussed making changes to the city's zoning laws that could allow more housing units to be built in low-density parts of Boulder and removing some barriers to additional housing units being added to higher-density residential zones.

But Matt Appelbaum, another longtime Boulder resident who served two stints on City Council, noted that there is a sizeable contingent of Boulder voters who want no new development in the city whatsoever, and the city has encountered strong resistance to implementing some of the changes that have been pursued.

"I've known for 45 years, probably 30 to 40% (of people vote) no on anything anywhere, anytime, no matter what," he said, adding that there's been similar pushback to growth in many other middle-income suburban communities.

And on a broader level, Appelbaum expressed skepticism that Boulder has truly drifted away from its slow-growth roots enough to fully support the land use bill. He noted that the city asked for numerous amendments to the bill, many of which were "pretty substantive and critical."

"My understanding of it is that, yeah, the council supported it. I think that was a strategic decision on their part," he said, adding that nominally supporting the bill might have given councilmembers leverage to ask for the amendments they wanted (there were nine in total).

Boulder Mayor Aaron Brockett said many of these amendments were designed to protect certain local policies and programs that are specific to Boulder. For instance, one of the amendments would have amended the bill's definition of "middle housing" to have a maximum of three-unit (triplex) or four-unit (quadruplex) buildings. City Council has discussed allowing duplexes and triplexes in low-density residential areas, but has not formally approved an ordinance to that effect. The original bill would have allowed middle housing to include up to six-unit buildings, which the council has not discussed as an option.

Another noteworthy example was an amendment regarding occupancy limits. Boulder City Councilmembers asked for an amendment to allow local communities to continue enacting occupancy limits, with a state minimum of family members plus two unrelated or four to five unrelated people allowed to live together. The original land use bill would have prohibited local governments from setting occupancy limits based on familial relationships.

But even though the city council did not fully embrace the land use bill without amendments, Schultheiss noted that the council was willing to sacrifice some local control to gain the benefits from the land use bill, and Brockett said he believed the bill (with the council's proposed amendments) would have benefited Boulder.

And Appelbaum acknowledged that voters seemed more willing now than in years past to elect councilmembers who were "vocal and straightforward about the desire to create more housing."

In a statement, Polis wrote, "Changing the status quo isn't easy and I am grateful to all of our partners — including Mayor Brockett and the City of Boulder — for having the courage to fight for the rights of property owners and to increase housing choices for every Colorado budget."