[BoulderCouncilHotline] 311 Mapleton

[Yates, Bob]

Council Colleagues:



In preparation for our public hearing on the call-up of the site review for the project at 311 Mapleton Avenue, Council Member Sam Weaver and I want to let you know that that we have met on several occasions with representatives of the applicants and with neighbors who have expressed concerns about the application.



Our respective discussions with the neighbors focused primarily around concerns about construction on that portion of the property having the Open Space-Other land use designation. At those meetings, we heard largely the same things that council heard at the public hearing on the OS-O issue on April 3.  Other subjects heard during these meetings with neighbors included concerns expressed by neighbors over construction impacts, building sizing and massing, fire evacuation, lack of affordability at the Mapleton site, and parking and trailhead access for the Sanitas trail system.  Many of these concerns have been aired at public hearings as well.



The purpose of our meetings with the applicant's representatives was for us to try to understand whether permanently-affordable housing units could be placed at the 311 Mapleton site and, if so, what impact that would have on the applicant's proposal to fulfill its permanently-affordable housing obligation offsite, at the Fruehauf's location on 33rd Street.  We also asked whether placing some market-rate units at Fruehauf’s would help locate permanently-affordable units at 311 Mapleton. Finally, we asked how the activity programming would be handled between the two sites.



The response we received from the applicant's representatives at those meetings was the same as that heard by city council at the public hearing on the call-up of the Fruehauf's concept plan on May 15: That for every one unit of permanently-affordable housing placed at the 311 Mapleton site, there would be a reduction of multiple units of permanently-affordable housing at the Fruehauf's site. We were advised by the applicant's representatives that the principal reasons for this were (a) the loss of the "buy in" payment for market-rate units at the 311 Mapleton site displaced by permanently-affordable units; and (b) the difficulty in obtaining LIHTC financing for a small number of permanently-affordable units at 311 Mapleton. The applicant's representatives further explained to us that, if there was a corresponding replacement of market rate units for permanently-affordable units at Fruehauf's, it would be difficult to split the LIHTC funding, except on a per-building basis.



These were fact-finding meetings for us, and no offers or commitments were made by any participant to the meetings. We do not believe that these meetings will prevent us from being fair and objective in hearing the site review call up of the 311 Mapleton application next week. We will be as interested as the rest of council to hear what the applicants ultimately propose for each site, and what reactions are expressed by community members at the public hearing.


Best,


Bob
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