[BoulderCouncilHotline] In support of a temporary suspension of occupancy regulations rationale and proposal

[Joseph, Junie]

Dear Colleagues and Community Members,

After reflecting on the hundreds of emails sent to City Council by community members who are either in support or in opposition to the suspension of our occupancy laws, I do believe we can find a middle ground on the occupancy issue, and I would support a temporary suspension while we work on it. Here is my rationale and proposal for moving forward.

In October the organizers of Bedrooms are for People (300) reached out to me for an endorsement. Endorsing ballot initiative 300 was a challenging decision as I believe many of the people who endorsed and voted for me are opposed to relaxing our occupancy regulations. As I was examining the choice to endorse or not to endorse, I begin to reflect on my prior engagement with our community on progressive issues. I observed that as a community we want diversity but not too much of it, we want inclusion just enough not to make us uncomfortable whether socially or economically. That is the conflicting reality we live in every day.

I was deeply worried about my political standing as I was making that decision, but ultimately after considerable deliberation I chose to say yes to endorsing the initiative. I chose to say yes because access to housing is the bedrock of many human rights. It is very unlikely that a person will be able to contribute substantially to our society/community economically and politically if they are housing insecure. So, with that said, I believe City Council should direct staff to begin working on an update to the city’s occupancy ordinance(s) as a high priority item.  The goals of the update I envision would be to:


  *   Allow better utilization of our existing housing stock by permitting a few more people to live together, ideally without regard to their formal relationships;
  *   Implement mechanisms that proactively address possible impacts of an update, such as limiting the addition of multiple bedrooms to existing homes, improving responsiveness to noise and other quality of life complaints, and expanding neighborhood parking permit programs where appropriate; and,
  *   Demonstrate our community’s ability to resolve a hot-button issue through compromise.

With the strong community engagement around the Bedrooms Are For People vote, I believe the issues have been thoroughly identified and that the update effort should focus primarily on implementing options that respond to both the hopes and concerns of community members.  I would like this to be a project completed in a few months and will support a temporary formal suspension of occupancy enforcement during that time.  Suspending enforcement allows all community members to participate without fear of immediate consequences.  A precedent for this enforcement suspension was set during development of the cooperative housing ordinance a few years ago.

In making this proposal I would like to address the idea that discussion of occupancy issues was settled by the recent election.  The vote on 300 followed more than two years of community discussion.  Many comments were made that our occupancy laws should be changed, but 300 as a ballot initiative didn’t adequately address potential negative impacts.  I believe that we can find a middle ground acceptable to, or even embraced by, a significant majority.  In addition, I believe that we council members have been elected to provide leadership in developing positive and collaborative resolution to issues, especially those that demonstrate our commitment to an equitable and inclusive Boulder. The work for a more equitable and inclusive Boulder should start today, not in the future. Making changes require that we accept some level of discomfort.  I welcome questions and further discussion.


Thank you for considering this proposal,


P.S: Once transmitted this email may have formatting issues.


Junie

Junie Joseph
Council Member
MA Human Rights/J.D.
[cid:de0850d3-096c-48fe-bd0e-f79a112dd0f9]<http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/>

Phone: 720-789-3234
JosephJ at bouldercolorado.gov

City Council
1777 Broadway Street Boulder Colorado 80302
http://www.bouldercolorado.gov<http://www.boulderparks-rec.org/>
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