[bouldercouncilhotline] Hotline: FW: Comments for your consideration on the proposed height limit moratorium

[cmosupport at bouldercolorado.gov]

Sender: Shoemaker, Andrew

Planning Staff, please be prepared to address the following this evening: What sort of outreach was done to industrial park management, property owners and tenants in connection with the proposed height moratorium?  The emails from Avery and Sea to Summit (see below) suggest a lack of knowledge.  How closely has planning staff looked at the impacts on our industrial sector (as well as the impacts of 55’ buildings on the community when in industrial parks)?  
Thank you,
Andrew Shoemaker


From: Shelley Dunbar <Shelley at seatosummit.com>
Date: Thursday, February 26, 2015 at 2:34 PM
To: Council <Council at bouldercolorado.gov>
Subject: Comments for your consideration on the proposed height limit moratorium

Dear council members,

I'm writing about tonight's special meeting concerning the proposed moratorium on building height variance applications. As you may know, my husband Andrew and I have a business here in Boulder. We are a wholesale distributor of
 outdoor gear, that means most of our operation's focus is warehousing, shipping and receiving. Despite how expensive it is to be right in Boulder, we have endeavored to keep our company based here and are proud to employ about 25 people. 

Recently we bought our own commercial building here in Boulder. It's located in a business/industrial area just east of 55th St. The area is called Flatirons Park and it is home to about 47 buildings including the Boulder County
 sheriff's office. It's an industrial park that's run somewhat like an HOA, in that there are covenants and rules that dictate aesthetics and design of the buildings and landscape. Because of that, the area is spacious and attractive with wide avenues and lots of open space around all the buildings. The building we purchased however was really ugly – hideous, actually -  having been a vehicle maintenance depot for Century Link for nearly 25 years. It was pretty much the eyesore of the park. But, it also sits on over four acres of land (albeit four acres that were pretty derelict and covered with asphalt). It was because of this land that we were most excited to acquire this property. We envision creating a large park–like green space around the building for our employees and their dogs to enjoy and that would also be open to the other businesses in the area. We currently have plans into the city now for this and will be starting that transformation this spring and summer. With UpSlope Brewery and Ozo Coffee across the street
 we feel we're going to be adding something unique to the area. 

As for the building itself: it's current height is about 20', which isn't actually high enough for a warehouse and wholesale operation. We decided we could get by in the first year or so with doing a serious renovation of the interior
 of the space and then, when we could afford it, we planned to raise the roof for the ground level warehouse to 30' and put a second story on the building for our offices, for a total height of about 42'. This would accommodate our growth and would be more efficient. It would also allow us to keep our footprint smaller and not sprawl onto the rest of our lot – which, would mean giving up precious green space. And, frankly, when you're that far east, a 35 foot building with a wider footprint would take up more visual space than creating a slightly taller building.


Well, we just found out two days ago that the city is considering a moratorium on any building applications – even in industrial zones – requesting to go beyond the "by right" height limit. I urge you to consider what the impact
 of that action would be on businesses like ours. We aren't developers, but are owner- occupiers who are wanting to grow our business here. If our property had been purchased by a developer it would likely have been scraped and a much larger building, built out to the set-back lines to maximize the rent they could get, would surely have been under construction right now. My husband and I, on the other hand, invested in this property not for direct profit, but to create an amazing workspace for our employees and to create something of value to our business neighbors in Flatiron's Park. I would also like you to consider that this is a business/industrial zoned area with buildings as squat as ours to buildings that are three or four stories already. There are no homeowners that are impacted by the park's buildings or traffic, as the park's main loop is only connected to 55th St. The rest of the park is bordered by the bike path, the Stazio ball fields and the Boulder Creek itself with lots of un-developable land all around.

I've attached a map so you can get the visual.

I hope you will consider that a diversity of types of companies in Boulder is a good thing. Outdoor companies, organic food companies, breweries, climbing gyms – we're valuable to the community too and we may need a bit more height for our type of business operations. We may not employ thousands, but the ones we do are employ are smart, young, environmentally-minded, ride their bikes to work most of the time and bring a vitality to our community that is hard to measure. 

Lastly, I understand that under the current process it's you, city council, who already hold the power to approve or reject any height variance application. So, you can always say no to a project you don't deem worthy of being taller.
 So, please, consider exempting this area for the moratorium you're considering tonight. I don't think it merits such an extreme measure.
 
Thank you for your consideration. Please feel free to call me if you would like to discuss my comments. I can be reached at 303-888-2806.

 
Sincerely,
Shelley Dunbar

Shelley Dunbar, Marketing Director | Sea to Summit
303-440-8977 | fax 303-440-8995 | shelley at seatosummit.com | http://www.seatosummit.com
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