[BoulderCouncilHotline] Fw: PLEASE REVIEW: The Hopper, follow-up on moratorium restrictions

[Brockett, Aaron]

Hello Hotline readers. Council received the below email earlier this evening from Kristin Lawrence, the CEO of The Hopper, an innovative non-profit that is working on opening an interactive STEAM experience for children and their parents in the City of Boulder. Unfortunately, they have been caught in the Opportunity Zone moratorium and can't move forward at this time. This is the case even though their project only involves the renovation of an existing building because their plans involve the removal of some existing floor area on the second floor of the structure, which is forbidden by the terms of the moratorium.


Council has on our agenda Tuesday night a "clean-up" of some details of the moratorium on our consent agenda. I would like to request that we add to that clean-up an exemption for projects that are renovations of existing buildings, as my understanding of the intention of those in favor of the moratorium was not to prohibit renovations from proceeding during the moratorium period. So I request that planning staff bring language for council's consideration to the meeting that would accomplish that.


I also propose that museums be exempted from the moratorium, as they seem to me to be a desirable use that should not be discouraged.


Thank you for your consideration,

Aaron Brockett

Council Member, City of Boulder

brocketta at bouldercolorado.gov

(720) 984-1863


________________________________
From: Kristin Lawrence <kristin at hopperboulder.com>
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2019 7:32 PM
To: Council
Subject: PLEASE REVIEW: The Hopper, follow-up on moratorium restrictions

City Council Members,

As you know, we have been following the recent moratorium in the Opportunity Zone closely as our project, The Hopper is located within this designated census tract.   We left the hearing on December 18th with the understanding that the ordinance was designed to allow community serving, non-profit uses like the Hopper to pursue its Use Review and building permit. However, upon closer examination and discussion with Staff, we have determined that we are prohibited to continue due to specific language drafted in the ordinance.


We understand the intention and goals of the moratorium and respectfully request that you fine tune/amend the language to reflect the intent of Council to allow the Hopper to proceed as a community serving Museum use. The proposed Museum will bring significant community benefit to the City of Boulder. This project will NOT create office space or remove residential uses.


We plan to adaptively reuse the existing building to support the STEAM program and improve the public health and safety of the building. More specifically,

  *   We have to replace the existing staircases as they are not enclosed and do not meet current fire code. Due to the building size, we would like to convert and relocate the two interior open stairs into one interior enclosed stair/elevator shaft & one exterior stair that could access a future rooftop deck.

  *   In addition, we would like to remove ~1500 sqft of the second floor to create double height spaces to accommodate the indoor interactive climber and allow for line of sight between parents and children. These small changes to create an atrium, which are necessary to the safety and operation of the Hopper, would result in the removal of nonresidential floor area.

  *   While the necessary circulation upgrades, including the addition of an exterior stair, would add nonresidential floor area. These structural and safety changes are needed in order for us to proceed with the project, however, the way the BRC calculates floor area prevents both of these changes from happening under the current ordinance language.

  *   In addition, while the Hopper will be a non-profit entity, the building is owned by a private LLC in order to provide liability protection for the non-profit who will be the long term tenant of the building. The ordinance language is specific to only the owner of a building and not the tenant.


We respectfully request a simple amendment to reflect the intent of the ordinance to allow uses, such as the Hopper, to proceed. This amendment could except out Museum uses within the Opportunity Zone, or more specifically IS-2. The Hopper is classified as a Museum use by the City of Boulder land use code and is zoned in IS-2, which allows for a Museum with discretionary Use Review.  In fact, Museum uses are only allowed by Use Review in all zone districts, so discretionary review would be required for any future use like the Hopper. Which would allow Boulder planning to still have oversight on any possible project (including ours) that are exempted from the moratorium.

A copy of this letter, the relevant ordinance and BRC language is attached to this email.


Sincerely,

Kristin Lawrence

--
[https://drive.google.com/a/hopperboulder.com/uc?id=13VGfPVNvdS4nlZwbTrLXKIzBSATdlgKl&export=download]<https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/YVynC2kDlJuprGrjun6sLt?domain=hopperboulder.com>
Kristin Lawrence
CEO
720.774.9094
Kristin at HopperBoulder.com
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