[BoulderCouncilHotline] Additional information on the Large Homes and Lots project

[Guiler, Karl]

Dear Council members,

Included with this email is some additional information compiled over the last few days relevant to the upcoming Large Homes and Lots project discussion on May 28th. They include recent input from the 1) Housing Advisory Board (HAB) comments on the project from May 22nd , 2) Written public comments from the May 13th open house, and 3) a data table indicating the number of lots per select square footage increments and greater. HAB comments are below and the data table and the written public comments are attached.

Best,

Karl

Karl Guiler, AICP
Senior Planner/Code Amendment Specialist
[City of Boulder Planning+Sustainability]
O: #303-441-4236
guilerk at bouldercolorado.gov<mailto:guilerk at bouldercolorado.gov>

Department of Planning
1739 Broadway, 3rd Floor, Boulder CO  80306-0791
Bouldercolorado.gov<http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/>

Housing Advisory Board (HAB) comments on Large Homes and Lots project - May 22, 2019

  *   Board members expressed concern that a statistically valid survey has not been done as part of the community engagement process. Some felt that a survey should be done and should be inclusive to the entire community and not just be targeted to areas that may be impacted by zoning changes. Broadly sending the survey would capture those residents that may be in need of more housing options.
  *   Board members emphasized that with the new land use options, we have to know what we, as a community, will be getting. The goals for the project should include specific metrics and outcomes to determine success. Will we be truly getting more affordable units or more smaller sized, yet still unaffordable homes? Members requested that there be data on what the new, smaller units would cost and have an understanding of property value with the new options.
  *   Some on the board felt that much of the single-family zoning is largely exclusive and needs to be changed to be more inclusive. One member acknowledged that the existing residents of these neighborhoods that had an expectation of a more rural character and open feeling should be factored into any zoning decisions.
  *   While the reception was mixed, there was an openness to the proposed different housing options included in the Large Homes and Lots memo. Some board members felt that neighborhoods are already experiencing change as a result of the larger homes. One member felt that allowing additional density should be up to the individual neighborhoods. Some felt that affordability should be ensured through deed-restrictions and one felt that just getting more, modest sized homes even without deed-restriction is a good outcome. One board member found that the options in the middle (Options B, C, and D) were the better options.
  *   The board was mixed on a hard cap alone, although most of the board agreed that floor area or floor area ratio (FAR) should be reduced on these large lots. One board member felt that the best approach would be to do a hard cap now and then allow subcommunity planning in neighborhoods to determine whether density should be increased to allow more, smaller units on a neighborhood by neighborhood basis. Similarly one board member felt the issue of large homes was being conflated with increased density potential.
  *   Most of the board supported the phased approach. One member iterated that the city needs to rethink how it provides housing to face up to climate change and land use practices that have not been inclusive for decades. The community has to change to adapt to current global challenges.



-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.ci.boulder.co.us/pipermail/bouldercouncilhotline/attachments/20190524/aabc0562/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 3751 bytes
Desc: image001.jpg
Url : http://list.ci.boulder.co.us/pipermail/bouldercouncilhotline/attachments/20190524/aabc0562/attachment.jpg 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Number of lots over SF thresholds 05.24.2019.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 66974 bytes
Desc: Number of lots over SF thresholds 05.24.2019.pdf
Url : http://list.ci.boulder.co.us/pipermail/bouldercouncilhotline/attachments/20190524/aabc0562/attachment.pdf 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 05.13.2019 Large Homes Summary.docx
Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
Size: 26768368 bytes
Desc: 05.13.2019 Large Homes Summary.docx
Url : http://list.ci.boulder.co.us/pipermail/bouldercouncilhotline/attachments/20190524/aabc0562/attachment.bin