March 25, 2026 — Housing Advisory Board Regular Meeting
The March 25, 2026 Housing Advisory Board meeting featured a substantive presentation on the draft Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan (BVCP) update and board discussion aimed at forming a formal recommendation to City Council. The board reached rough consensus on a simple, powerful recommendation to add language explicitly supporting increased housing supply — described as something Boulder has never formally committed to before. A vote on the final resolution was deferred to the April meeting to allow new board members to participate.
Decisions & Votes
| Item | Outcome | Vote |
|---|---|---|
| January 28 and February 25, 2026 minutes | Both approved | Unanimous |
Key Topics
Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan (BVCP) Draft Review City Planner Tess Shorn presented the draft BVCP update, now in public review before summer 2026 adoption (June+). The plan is adopted by four bodies: City Council, Planning Board, Boulder County Planning Commission, and the Board of County Commissioners. The update represents a major philosophical shift — from a prescriptive, regulatory document to a vision document — removing work plan-style policies and giving the zoning code (Title IX) more freedom to evolve. HAB discussed the previous BVCP's specificity being used to constrain zoning reform, and viewed the new approach as unlocking that.
- Policy 79 (Housing Diversity & Supply): Board consensus formed around recommending one added sentence: "The City supports increasing housing supply." Members noted this is historically unprecedented for Boulder and, precisely because it is short and unambiguous, is more powerful than longer language susceptible to debate.
- Support for new land use approach: Board strongly supports the shift from regulatory to vision document, viewing it as necessary to enable Title IX reform and more aggressive zoning changes.
- Policies 77–82 (Special populations, affordability, age-inclusive housing): Reviewed homelessness/supportive housing (77–78), manufactured housing (80), the 15% permanently affordable housing goal (81, unchanged since 2017), and age-inclusive housing (82).
- Transit corridors: Philip Obern raised whether Neighborhood 1 designations along transit corridors misalign with recent state transit-oriented development law; staff noted hub concentration is intentional over corridor spreading.
- Agricultural workforce housing gap: Policy 96 covers ag workforce housing support but the rural lands section may not explicitly address farmworker housing — flagged as a potential omission.
Process discussion: Board discussed open meetings law constraints on collaborative drafting. Chair Hoskin will prepare a resolution shell; members review individually; vote at April meeting with new members (David, Garabed, Brandon Selby) participating.
Public Comment
| Speaker | Topic |
|---|---|
| Bridge House representative | 30-year history of day services for unhoused residents; "Ready to Work" program provides up to 1 year of housing + job training |
| Lynn Siegel | City-administered energy retrofit on her home botched — $55K of equipment installed 2+ years ago, still not functioning; freezing indoor temperatures in winter |
| Mark Fuhrer (TAC, BHP Board Commissioner) | Planning Board held extended discussion on Area 3 reserve and housing types; encouraged HAB to monitor and potentially collaborate |
Key Actions & Follow-Up
- Chair Hoskin to draft HAB resolution on BVCP: (1) affirm plan reflects HAB priorities; (2) express strong support for new land use approach; (3) recommend adding "The City supports increasing housing supply" to Policy 79
- Members review draft individually; vote at April HAB meeting
- Staff follow-up: verify rural lands section adequately addresses farmworker housing (policy 96 area)
- BVCP adoption: Planning Board and City Council formal hearings anticipated June 2026+
Date: Wednesday, March 25, 2026 Body: Housing Advisory Board Schedule: 4th Wednesday at 6 PM
Recording
Documents
- Laserfiche archive — meeting packets and minutes
Notes
View transcript (137 segments)
Transcript
[MM:SS] timestamps correspond to the YouTube recording.
[0:03] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Bye. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Hello, everyone. I'm Karin Hoskin, Chair of the Housing Advisory Board. This is our monthly meeting. Today is March 25th, 2026. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Roll call, Lauren Chavez? Here. Chip Hennessy? Here. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Phillip? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Just log in. Awesome. Philip Obern? Present. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Caleb. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Awesome. And Michael LeChazi, who is not here, but this is his official last board meeting, but he's not here. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And then we have ML. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: our planning board liaison, and we have 3 new board members that will be sworn in next month. We have David. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Garabed? Garabed? Brandon? Selby. Selby. Okay. Well… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And we have a test for the test. Anyway, okay, so, on tonight's…
[1:12] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Agenda, we'll go over approval of minutes, and we'll have time for public participation matters from the board, which is… it includes a presentation of the Boulder Valley Comp Plan. We'll have some discussion around that. We'll review the have work plan. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Any matters from the staff? We'll have time for final thoughts or suggestions, and then adjourn by 9. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: All right, so the minutes, we have two different minutes. God bless you. The January 28th, 2026 meet, minutes. Were there any comments? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Or further corrections to make? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Can we just approve them both at the same time? Perfect. So, February 25th, 2026 minutes. Any comments or corrections that need to be made?
[2:06] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Okay. I'll make a motion to approve both January and February minutes. I'll second. Awesome. All in favor? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: None opposed? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Approved. Okay, public participation, is there anybody? Tiffany, online? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We've got several members of the public. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Hands raised. There are hands raised. And will you read the rules? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I will. Hold on one second. Thank you.
[3:05] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Alright, I wasn't expecting, folks from the public. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Must be really excited about the agenda. All right, so, the city has co-created with the community, a vision for productive, meaningful civic engagement. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And this vision supports the physical and emotional safety, for pretty much everybody. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: For more information, you can go to our website. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The following examples, decorum are found in the Boulder Revised Code. Other guidelines will support the vision. They will be upheld during this meeting by our chair. All remarks and testimony shall be limited to matters related to city business. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: No participant shall make threats or use other forms of intimidation, obscenity, racial epithets, and other speech or behavior that disrupt or otherwise impede the ability to conduct a meeting are also proposed.
[4:01] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And participants, we are required to use the name that they were commonly known by, and individuals must display their full name. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Before being allowed to speak online, currently only audio testimony is permitted. That's it. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, first, public commenter is William Sweeney. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: William, you should be allowed to unmute yourself. Thank you very much, and good evening. I, I am, William Sweeney. I live here in Boulder, and I am an executive with the, Bridge House. A, a public charity that supports Persons who are exiting homelessness. Through employment and housing. I, first, want to apologize. Our CEO was invited to speak in this, time…
[5:01] And he is unable to attend tonight, and asked me to attend on his behalf. I have, I've been with the Bridge House, associated with the Bridge House for about 20 of its 30 years, and before that, I have worked with, various, Homeless, matters for a couple of decades before that. So I'm familiar with the, not only the scene of the homelessness scene in Boulder, but, in the Denver metro area generally. Bridge House, is pleased. To have gotten to where it has gotten to. We started 30 years ago in a, ramshackle house, now destroyed over near, Boulder High School. At that time, the, The niche that we were, fulfilling was some sort of a day meeting, day services center for unhoused purposes.
[6:01] The Boulder Shelter, had, At that point, not its new building, but a prior building. And, they were open only at night, and so we began offering day services. We went forward from there. The business grew. Along with the population of unhoused people. We moved into an outbuilding called the Carriage House. on the campus of, First United, Church, FCC. And, we at that point changed our name to Carriage House. And we merged with another, another group called Community Table Dinner, which had been feeding weeknight dinners to anyone who needed a dinner. And we have continued that service. That began in 1996, and we have continued it now, right to today.
[7:01] So we continue to serve every weeknight. Usually sited at a downtown congregation. Our principal, work. is our program called Ready to Work. Ready to work. It's designed for people who are self-motivated. Ready to exit homelessness. And who have a vision for how they want to re-enter society. We provide them with, up to a year of housing and training. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Michael? We provide them with up to a year of housing and training. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Well, I'm sorry to interrupt. So, during the public comment, people are limited to 3 minutes, and, 3 minutes goes really fast, I'm sorry about that. But, thank you for reminding us that you're here and starting on the history. I would encourage
[8:02] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: you and the CEO, if you have any 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: thing in particular that you would like have to be thinking about, or be reminded of, in regards to, housing solutions for the homelessness, or anything housing-related, you're welcome to reach out to us via email. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah. Well, thank you. We will, and I was part of the drafting of the papers that were joint between HAB and HRC a few years ago, and we still stand by those papers. Thank you. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Thank you. Thank you for your time. Can I make a comment and ask a question? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah. I just wanted to, also reiterate, thank you for your service. I… it's… I lived near, the current location for… that's at the… near… nearby the Moorhead Post Office. For years before I realized what was in that building. I found that out through, a wonderful, Bike-to-work day, booth that you had set up there, and, had a really nice conversation with someone, outside serving,
[9:18] treats, to… to people cycling to work. So thank you for that. My question is, did you have anything specific you wanted to ask to have tonight? No, we are here because Stephen invited us to make this presentation. Oh, gotcha. But we're more than pleased to speak up. Yeah, great. Thank you. Thank you. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Any questions for him? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: No, I think… thank you for speaking, and we encourage all members of the public to speak. I think, you know, the role of these advisory boards and commissions as Boulder is for us to listen to the public, and then, you know, formulate that into advice to City Council and the City Manager.
[10:03] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So if you have any ideas or thoughts on, you know, what the city is doing well, what the city perhaps is not doing well, and where the city can improve in the future, those are the sorts of comments in the future we encourage you to come back and to provide to us, so we can discuss it, and discuss policy, and advise City Council and the City Manager in that regard. Thank you very much, we will do so. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Thank you. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: There are no other hands raised for public comment. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Take that back. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Lynn Siegel. Who wrote the 602 comment? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Board Secretary. Is that her name, Bored?
[11:00] Is it a he or a she? And their name is Board Secretary? Who is the person that wrote the 602 comment, please? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It's Tiffany Baller. Do you have board comments, Lynn? Thank you for finally answering. It took 30 seconds. Yeah. The City of Boulder administered energy retrofit on my house. After 25 years, I've been waiting to get geothermal heat pump. And I thought I was maybe gonna have a little bit of… Warmth. For a little bit of time. I'm almost 73. But I guess not, because they didn't allow me to have anything to do with the retrofit, and it's completely botched. Every single part of it
[12:03] is I don't use… it's $55,000 worth of stuff that I waited a year to determine if I was even eligible for. So it's been 2 years and 5 months, and they haven't fixed it yet. And I'm completely disgusted. Someone brought up, like, do you have any problems with the city? Yeah, I do. You know, housing. You're the Housing Advisory Board. I'm housed, but I'm freezing cold all winter. And I'm hot in the summer. I'm 54 degrees. To keep my water from… freezing, and in the part of the house where I live, I'm about 40 degrees in the winter. So… That's not really living. I just hibernate. And I'd rather not. But… The city cannot completely incompetent. The city is not an HVAC vendor.
[13:04] And yet, they left me out of my own retrofit. Are you curious why? Probably not. But I'll tell you why. Because the county energy smart, I was doing 10 years ago for an energy retrofit. And I talked to one of the vendors and really liked them. I checked back with the county, and they said, oh, we dropped that vendor. And I said, why? And guess what? They wouldn't tell me. So I called the vendor, and I found out why. Corruption. They were having a solar install that they were forcing the vendor to do against the vendors, own… liability. So, I can't trust anybody. Done. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Thank you, Lynn. Did anybody have any questions for Lynn?
[14:01] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Okay. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And, then we have Mark Fuhrer. Okay. Howdy, folks. I assume you can hear me? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yep. Yep. Okay, good. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: sleep. Congratulations to the new board members that are coming on. It'll be nice to see the room full again. When, at the next meeting, you've got more members. My quick comment is, I attended the last planning board meeting a few days ago. They had a very long and interesting discussion on the Area 3 reserve especially around housing. And the kind of housing, and whether or not they should even continue with their recommendations to the city. I don't know if you all have been, monitoring that, but that's something I would encourage you all to do, is
[15:01] And be part of the discussion when it gets to that point. It's gonna be a while. If it moves forward, and that's… there's still an if to that. But, there's certainly a lot of discussion about the kind of housing that they want to have there, and how they're gonna get it. So, I'd love to see some… Collaboration between you and the planning board, perhaps, on that. That's it. Thanks. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Mark, I have a question for you. Sure. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: You're on the… is it the Tenant Advisory Committee? Good memory, yes, that's exactly the name of it. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Okay, my question for you is if the Area 3 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: does move along, is there a particular type of housing that PAC would 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Support or be interested in seeing being created? Well, I have to see the… and of course, I don't speak on behalf of TAC, but TAC is really about tenants, and we advise about eviction issues, because that's our main
[16:13] issue, although we're trying to get to more issues beyond eviction. But I do sit on the Boulder Housing Partners Board of Commissioners, and that has more relevancy, I'd say, to the kind of housing we'd like to see there. Although we have not discussed it at all, I should say, BHP. But if it does get to a point where it's gonna go forward, then I think we will have some recommendations, is my guess. But again, we haven't talked about that at all, but that's where the discussions would probably happen. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Okay. Thanks, Mark. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Sure. Anything we also have questions for Mark? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: All right, anybody else? Tiffany, with a hand raised?
[17:01] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I'll close this portion of public participation. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Next up, matters from the board. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: our tests. One and only. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: See if I can do this right. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Second. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I apologize. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That's not it? Oh, there, okay, great. I was like, it wasn't showing up behind me for a second. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Okay, perfect.
[18:03] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Hello, everyone. Good evening. Now it's showing your, notes, which is interesting, huh? I don't know! This is new. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I'm sorry. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Let's try this again. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Hit it. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Great. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: No, I don't see my notes on my screen. You don't need a presenter mode? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It's not. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Okay. The student changes things on the side. I know, I'm super used to Teams. Okay.
[19:00] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, if I share… Right? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Typically. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I do not, but then… That's in presenter… that's in presenter mode for the viewers online. I'll just… I'll just point out. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Okay, well… Maybe I'll just spit off then. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yes, I could… if you send me the link, I could present your presentation, and then you can follow along in your safety ideas. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Do you want to do that? Sure. Sorry about that.
[20:00] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Okay… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: There you go. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Alright, why don't you get started while I, pull the… Great! 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Alright. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Good evening, HAB members. Sorry for the, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: delay, but my name is Tess Shorn, and I'm a City Planner with the Comprehensive Planning Team, in Planning and Development Services, and I'm thrilled to be here today to share an update 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: On where we are at the comprehensive planning update process, and also give you an overview of the draft plan that was just released to the public. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Really close. It's making me feel better, too, yeah.
[21:02] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Alright, so for tonight's agenda… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We will be giving you a quick project update, sharing where we're at in the process, walking you through the draft comprehensive plan, kind of what's changed, what's evolved, and how we've structured it. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And then also, showing you how to review the full draft plan online. And then finally, we want your feedback on the draft before we prepare 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That recommended draft for adoption. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: As a reminder, the key questions for tonight are, does the draft plan overall reflect the community and the Housing Advisory Board's priorities and aspirations related to housing in the Boulder Valley? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Which components of the draft plan does the board strongly support, and does the board recommend any revision to the draft plan?
[22:12] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Okay, so, I just wanted to take a moment and remind everyone what the role of boards and commissions are in this process. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Boards serve in an advisory capacity. Your role is really important. You help us identify areas of focus for policy and land use guidance. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: You help staff determine where policies may need refinement, where there are gaps, and where there isn't… is or isn't alignment with City's housing goals. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Your feedback also helps shape any recommended changes to the plan. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And during the adoption process, you have the opportunity to provide a formal recommendations to Planning Board and City Council, if you so choose. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: which, become part of the public record and help inform their deliberations. And just as a reminder, the four formal adopting bodies for the comprehensive plan
[23:07] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: our City Council, City Planning Board. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: the County Planning Commission, and the Board of County Commissioners. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So now that we've laid the groundwork on where we are in the process, we want to take a quick look back on the process as a whole. In October of 2024, we began with a Boulder Today, which focused on orienting community members to the project and understanding current conditions. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Grounding the work in data, trends, and what we're experiencing as a community. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: From there, we moved into a Boulder Tomorrow, in early 2025, where we worked with community members to determine a shared vision and identify priorities. That phase was about listening and understanding to what people want Boulder to become.
[24:02] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Next came a bolder direction. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Where we translated that vision into policy options and a preferred direction. This is where staff discuss trade-offs with community members and policy makers. It is also the phase where key choices began to take shape. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And now, We're in a bolder future. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The phase started in January, and we've taken all that we've learned from all the previous phases and prepared the draft plan that we are now asking community members, boards like yourself, and policymakers to review, so we can make final refinements before the final adoption process occurs, this summer, starting in June. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So first, let's do a quick run-through, and kind of highlight, again, what the comprehensive plan is, and where it sits in the grand scheme of things, so we're all on the same page.
[25:00] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It documents and sets the community's 20-year vision for the Boulder Valley, providing long-term direction for how we grow, change, and invest over time. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It is intentionally broad because it guides decisions from many different city and county programs and actions across a variety of subject areas. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It acts as a framework to inform development, sub-community, and department plans, as well as budgeting and zoning decisions. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The comprehensive plan is not meant to be extremely technical in nature, and does not replace these other tools, which are meant to be the places where policy and land use strategies are operationalized, and details of exactly how to work towards or reach the community vision are worked out. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: In short, it's our roadmap for long-term evolution of Boulder Valley, guiding decisions, future work, and community expectations. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: As we mentioned when we were last with you, which I know we have some new board members, but we are focusing on several key goals for this major update.
[26:10] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We want the plan to be clearer and more straightforward, so we are limiting redundancy and unnecessary complexity. We are also simplifying language to make the plan easier to read and understand for everyone, whether community members, developers, staff, or policy makers. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We are ensuring that the plan is focused on that 300,000 foot level, setting direction, and providing a policy and land use foundation without prescriptively stipulating exactly how all departments meet the plan vision. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We are working to balance aspiration and action, so the plans inspires the community, but also points to improvements we'd like to see. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And finally, we're making the plan more adaptable and flexible so it can respond to changing conditions over time, staying relevant to our needs, technologies, and priorities as they evolve.
[27:08] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Tess, you mentioned this is a 20-year look ahead. Is the plan updated every 5 years, 10 years? So, it has a major update every 10 years, and then every 5 years between those 10-year updates, we do a minor update and revisit it. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So before I share what's in the draft with you, I just wanted to mention that your feedback, on 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: and Housing and Human Services staff's input has been instrumental in helping us shape the direction of the plan. Some key themes you raised when we last discussed the update with you back in September of 2025 included strong overall support for the new direction of the land use map. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: desire for clear communication about next steps, especially potential zoning updates and what HAB's role would be moving forward. Board enthusiasm for flexibility, creativity, and community-oriented potential this approach would introduce.
[28:09] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We looked… we took this feedback along with community member input and policymaker direction to prepare the draft. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And that was posted on March 3rd, and will be up for public comment through April 6th. And we're hoping you've had a chance to take a look at the project website and the draft itself, but if you haven't, no worries. Later in this presentation, I'll walk you through how to access it online. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, moving on to the… a summary of the contents of the plan. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We entered this project with a goal to make it the most inclusive engagement effort to date. We had 69 engagement opportunities of all shapes and sizes, and from all this engagement, and our fellow department's input, the draft plan bloomed.
[29:03] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The feedback received… Next slide. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The feedback received from community members helped shape the community vision for the Boulder Valley. At its heart, it's about working together to ensure everyone belongs, creating opportunities for all who live, work, or visit here, and sustaining the health of our community and environment for generations to come. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: This vision guides every aspect of the plan, from policies to actions, and keeps us focused on what matters most to our community. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, we heard a lot of ideas from the community throughout this process, and here are some of the major ideas, kind of new ideas we're carrying forward and emphasizing in this new draft plan. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: There was generally a desire for increased social connection, as well as connection to the natural world, which pushed forward many of, policies and land use ideas you can see above.
[30:03] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Excellent. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: While in many ways, we are reimagining the plan and updating its goals, some foundations remain as strong as ever. We continue to value a compact community surrounded by open space, protecting the lands, natural systems, and scenic vistas that make Boulder so unique. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Strong neighborhoods and a sense of place remain central, giving residents a connection to their community. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Climate leadership and environmental stewardship continue to guide our decisions, reinforcing our commitment to sustainability. And collaboration between city and county remains key, ensuring that our planning is coordinated and serves the broader community effectively. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The draft plan has two major components to it, the policies and the future land use. First, I will focus on the policies, and as a reminder, we were guided by these three main principles when drafting these policies.
[31:06] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Through work with community members and other city and county departments, we were able to create a list of 102 policies which are clear, straightforward, and resilient. They focus on the what and why, while leaving space for other city departments, policy makers, and community members to figure out the how. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Here are just a taste of the many housing-related policies within the draft Comprehensive plan. Just a little preview, there's plenty more to read in the plan itself. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But I did want to highlight… next slide… That… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: this 15-minute neighborhood policy, which came from the tremendous work done by Boulder's first-ever community assembly, which was one of our big engagement efforts with this plan. And they provided us at the city excellent groundwork to continue to push this idea forward, and we folded many of their ideas into many policies and land use changes we implemented in this plan.
[32:11] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Moving on to the land use strategy. So, this section of the draft plan, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We had, just as a reminder, we had some goals for this section, and it was to right-size, differentiate, and create adaptability. The former land use map had 26 land use designations, and this new draft map 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Now has 4 classes and a total of 12 designations. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And we hope the new structure provides community members and decision makers clarity in expectations, while also allowing space for adaptability to unique needs in a variety of locations. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, each designation, has a… in the plan, has a full-page description, like the one you see here. And this description says what it is, why it matters, and what you can expect.
[33:07] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And in the What You Can Expect section, there are sections on uses, both primary and supporting, urban design, and mobility. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: These descriptions are meant to give the user an understanding of the general feel, and expectations in these different areas of the city, while also not being overly prescriptive. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And then the renderings also give a real-life feel, too. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, linking land use and policy. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The future land use strategy is very closely tied with the plan's policy, and here's an example of how these two components, policy and future land use, are linked in to create the future, that reflects the community's vision. This is an example along Broadway, which is… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: basically right where we are right now, and it includes the Western City Campus and the Ideal Market Area. It envisions an active community hub supported by Neighborhood 1 and 2, and includes greenway and park systems.
[34:15] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: This approach creates the opportunity to place more people closer to the goods and services, transportation options, and other amenities. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And this makeup is supported by and helps to implement policies on 15-minute neighborhoods, integrated land use and transportation, vital and productive retail base, housing diversity and supply, as well as many others. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So what happens next? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The implementation of the plan will unfold over time. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And we have an implementation chapter in the plan as well. So this plan is a, as I said before, is a 20-year plan, so change will happen gradually, guided by zoning and other regulatory updates, area and sub-community plans, and other capital investments.
[35:04] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Every city and county department has a role, and partnerships within the community are essential to making it work. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The plan also connects to the citywide strategic plan to ensure coordinated action. Ultimately, this sets the direction, and its future decisions will bring it to life. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, we want to hear from you, as well as all the community, and I just want to, who has already had a chance to look at our website and the draft plan on there? No worries if you haven't, I just want to… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Okay. So, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I… as soon as I finish these slides, I'll do a little demo before we go into questions, just to show you how all the online feedback works and where you can find everything. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But I will continue with the slides for now.
[36:01] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Next slide. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, looking ahead, there are several key milestones before the plan is adoption. This includes upcoming meetings with all four approval bodies, where the plan will be reviewed, discussed, and refined leading up to the first public hearing between City Council and Planning Board on June 4th. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The window for community feedback is April 6th, and we will work to bring together all that feedback and the feedback from all the boards, including yours. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: To create the final adoption draft. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And this is a reminder of key questions, but before I do that, I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen for a second. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: see if it works now. Okay, so if you go to this… Website…
[37:05] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: of olderfuture.org, and these slides will be shared with you, but you can also remember the 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: a boulderfuture.org. And this has everything about our project, but on our main page, if you scroll down, you can review the draft plan. If you click on this link, that takes you to the PDF of the full draft plan that you can read through in PDF form. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: If you want to just respond, and then you can, give feedback on that here, but then if you also want to just respond to specific focus areas of policy, you can click on here. For you all, Livable will have most of our housing policy in it. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And you can share feedback, and that'll be an online survey with each policy there. And then you can also continue to scroll down for this, land use review. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: This… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: has, the future land use strategy, so these are all of our land use descriptions. And then here is the map.
[38:06] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That you can explore, and I think this is set up really nicely, where we have side-by-side 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Of the current future land use map and our proposed future land use map. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And then you can scroll in, and they're tied together, so you can compare side-by-side wherever you want in the city of what the land use, that is in the current plan versus our proposed land uses. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And you can provide feedback here. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And then you can also look at our Area 123 map and all the other, maps included here. So, there's a lot of different ways you and any community members, can provide feedback, as individuals, and then you as a board 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And provide a formal recommendation to Council and Planning Board. That…
[39:01] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: to make it into the… our next memo for them would need to happen probably by your next meeting. May might be too tight, so in April, ideally. So if we… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: adopt a recommendation at our next board meeting that would… would be able to make it into your notes? Okay. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Any questions about this website side of things before I scroll off of it? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Okay, and then a reminder of the questions. I can… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So these are the key questions for you all tonight. Oh my gosh. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I give up on… And
[40:00] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: If you have any questions for me, we'll start with that, and then we'll move on to this… these discussion questions. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I just have a general question for you, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: In feedback so far that you've been receiving from the public, what… what are the… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Things that people are most supportive of, and what is the most controversial. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I… we've heard definitely, a mix, and I think people are super supportive of, like, the clarity and length of what they're reading. They feel like they understand it maybe more than the past iterations, which is great, because that was one of our goals. So that's a positive piece of feedback. I think 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: There is some nervousness about Opening up, well, basically, our… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: getting rid of the former density limits that were part of the, former land use designations. We've heard kind of both sides. We've heard concern, we've really positive feedback, so kind of a mix.
[41:13] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I would say those are probably the two main ones. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think we've heard a little bit, from some other boards. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That there were… the policies got maybe too high level, and not as, specific as they would like to see. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But we've also heard the other side. So, yeah, but I would say those are the main touchpoints that we've been hearing. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, I skimmed through the 100-page PDF, and it seemed like a lot of, like. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Aspirational, kind of wordy stuff, and… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Like, concretely, what are the big changes? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, I think, one, like, one major change is this whole new approach to land use. We've been operating, with a land use system where we kind of just keep adding different land uses, and it got really parcel by parcel and specific, and,
[42:14] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: was conflicting, or just very similar level of detail to our zoning code, so bringing this up to a higher level, where we're looking at it at a neighborhood scale, versus kind of looking at it parcel by parcel, was a huge shift, I think. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: our policies around… the plan historically never stated, increasing… like, explicitly stated a goal to increase, and diversify housing supply, so just… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: saying that right out is a move. Diversity was in there. Diversity was in there. That's new. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I would say the framing around equity, we've never had a policy specifically about equity before, and then also our implementation chapter has a huge section on how all of our implementation steps are intended to,
[43:15] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: consider equity within those, decisions. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think, as far as housing. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: With end use, the big… bigger changes is moving away from… we had very low density, low density, medium density, high density, mixed density, as all housing-specific 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: land uses, and now we're moving to Neighborhood 1, Neighborhood 2. And really, Neighborhood 2 are areas of the city that have the larger lots that, like. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: are appropriate for bigger apartment building design, and then you'll see on the map a lot of the city's Neighborhood 1, and that would allow, because there's no density limits.
[44:07] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, it would allow those missing middle-type housing typologies to potentially happen, through, you know, zoning considerations. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And so, there might be, opportunities for duplexes and small, like, house-like multifamily units, that still have the neighborhood feel, but, allow for more density in those areas. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And also, allowing commercial in, residential areas. So the idea with that is 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: People are able to, maybe start smaller businesses from their homes, or do other things, and it creates more of the 15-minute neighborhood idea as
[45:00] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: You know, maybe there's some commercial that happens in these residential areas, and then all areas that were formerly, the land use was 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: commercial? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: are now all in some level of hub, which allows, residential as a primary use, along with all these commercials. So, basically, allowing residential in all the super commercial areas, and then allowing some commercial in some of the residential areas to kind of balance those scales. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Two questions. Yeah. Allowing commercial and residential areas, is that all residential areas? Yes, it's allowed as a supporting use, so… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: What that means is, you know, when 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: projects come up for rezoning, to a city council and planning board. You know, as a supporting use, it's not going to be the… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: as more and more happen, it's not going to be the primary purpose, but, you know, it allows a little bit more flexibility in that decision-making. Okay. And then in areas that are currently commercial, that are going to become hub.
[46:10] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And residential is now going to be only allowed use. Are there going to be commercial requirements related to 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think that'll come within the, zoning. Okay. You know, I think within our zoning, we have some of those mixed-use requirements for ground floor, different things, but it'll… it'll be at the discretion of that zoning. Okay, thank you. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Max, good question. Did I just get called on? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yes, go ahead, Phillip. Yeah, so, well, I had a couple comments that were related to, Chip's question, so maybe I'll, pause… I'll circle back to that. I had one… I mean, what kind of… can I ask, like, very specific questions, or is this, like, a free-for-all, or are you kind of wanting more…
[47:08] High-level stuff, or… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: You can ask a specific question, and I will try my best to answer it. So, one question, this, this was something somebody else, brought to my attention is, with… with the recent, transit-oriented development, law passed at the state level, is there… is there any reason why there should be Neighborhood 1 designations along transit corridors, or should it all be Neighborhood 2? It seems like there's a misalignment there. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah. Perhaps. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: he, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Tried out a couple different versions of this map where we had a little bit more of a corridor approach, but we were finding that, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: the… Ideally, like, the neighborhood one, because it allows
[48:01] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: a lot of mixed types of, potential development, that the, like, around transit quarters, we see a… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: potential future where that is, zoned a little bit higher. And then we were finding that the hubs where the transit really comes in and out would be places of higher development. Okay. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Can I add to that a little bit, Phillip? Yeah, please. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think that's also part of the argument, too, is trying to create more hubs. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: As opposed to, you know, spreading it out and diluting that. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That neighborhood, too? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, that's another sort of way to think about it. I wanted to, reply to Chip's comment, and, and, our question, and just say that, just, just as a little bit of historical review of, of what HAB has observed,
[49:07] Gosh, Jay, what's the guy's name? Carl Geiler, sorry. You know, we've had a couple different times where City Council has said, hey, we want, zoning that allows for more density, more housing. Carl and staff, can you guys go off and, update the zoning code so that, we can have what we want? And Carl goes off and makes some updates and comes to Housing Advisory Board and presents what he's so that, you know, we can get feedback before they go to City Council. And we're like, well, why can't you do something radically better than this? And Carl says, well, because the BBCP keeps us from doing that. And so, kind of historically, the BBCP has been used as kind of, like, the, you know, along with Title IX and the city code, as, like, two sets of zoning
[50:10] regulations that have to be aligned, and the one can constrain the other, and so, Carl's message was basically, well, you know, would you please, if you want more aggressive or more liberal, you know. more changes to the zoning code, you know, this… we have this BBCP process coming up. I'm not sure if he said this, but this has been part of the narrative of HAB for a couple years, is we have the BBCP coming up, and if… If we could be rewritten so that it kind of got out of the way, so to speak, then that would go a long way towards, city staff and city council being able to pass a set of zoning changes that would be more aggressive. And, I think it's also worth pointing out that, this is one of the few top priorities that City Council has, identified, is working on Title IX and the City Code, which is the zoning ordinance. And,
[51:16] So, you know, if the BBCP gets updated and Title IX gets overhauled, there could be a lot of real change to the zoning codes. And so, I know that BVCP… sorry, that this iteration may seem kind of hand-wavy and aspirational. But there is kind of something sort of specific going on here, which is, by backing off and not being so prescriptive, it allows the city council to do the… and city staff to do the work that they want to do. Is that… is that… does that… does that sound true to you, Jay? And, Guest speaker, I forgot your name already, I'm sorry. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: No, you're good. Yeah, because I, you know, I've only been with the city for 2 years, but, I think that is, spot on from my… Yeah, I mean, I would agree, Philip, and it's basically turning it from a regulatory document into a vision document.
[52:17] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Setting the vision and relying on these other tools to actually regulate land use. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, yeah, it's a whole different approach, and it provides additional 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Freedom, I guess. And thank you for not ascribing that view to Carl specifically, because… Yeah, sorry. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: He could get in trouble with me. to do that. If Danny were here, he would… he would be raising his hand, and he would say, well, just remember that the BBCP is not binding law, and nobody has to listen to it, and I can't remember under which context he's… he's most adamant about saying that. There's some case law that relates to this, but, when you have a four-body,
[53:02] Four-body review, and everyone agrees that it's… it's the law, and that we're gonna, follow it and respect it. then it behaves that way. And so, Anyways, so… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But a very… I appreciate your comments, Philip. At a very high level. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: what I'm hearing here is that 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: you know, the Comprehensive Plan acts as a check on the City of Boulder's ability to change its zoning code. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And the comprehensive plan's written by the county and the city, so isn't this just a way of the county to act as a check on the city's ability to do its own zoning? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The original purpose of… and most, comprehensive plans in most cities don't have a county and city for a body approval process. This was originally, instituted in the 70s because of the,
[54:00] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The city's desire to keep an urban growth 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: boundary and have the open space land. So, because it's the valley and not just the city, the county does have some say, because that was the way we were able to, slowly acquire all that open space, in the city over these years, by that agreement that the county wouldn't do leapfrog development into those areas. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The city, or sorry, the county actually, unless the policy says city and county, the county doesn't, have a say in that policy. The land use 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Kind of similarly, other than the land use that's in the county, and that's why you'll see rural lands as one of the designations, and that's all the, rural lands in the county that are not, our city-owned open space. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And that's kind of up to their purview.
[55:01] So, another, One kind of specific thing I'm excited about, I don't know if this has been in previous plans, but Priorities 91 and 92 are local food production and access and urban agriculture, and I'm all about… I'm very interested in participating in, being a consumer in regenerative farming food products. I was kind of curious if there's any provision for housing for, farm workers? Yes. Yeah, like, I know AgriVillages is kind of a buzzword that gets thrown around. Is there any, how does that get accommodated? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, so in our agricultural workforce support policy, we talk about, I believe, housing support for agricultural workers.
[56:00] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The how still has not been worked out, but the… the goal is there. Okay. So, sorry. that bullet point, agriculture workforce support, there's a paragraph in the BBCP. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yes, yeah. fair? Okay. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think it's… It must be around those same policies. It must be policy 90-something. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But you'll find it in that same area. Okay. Oh, yeah. 96. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Thank you. Okay, yeah, it says increased housing opportunities. I just wonder if the, the… the rural land designation, if… or… is… because that's where the agriculture would happen, right? That's what rural's for? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Well, we have a lot of agriculture on our open space lands as well. Oh, right.
[57:05] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But there is agriculture on that rural lands. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: maybe some would happen. That… those lands are county-owned and county zoned, so, you know, we are working closely with the county, and they have, goals with their agricultural, support as well, and, you know. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We're working with them to figure out the how in the next years, but it's definitely something that we've heard from the community and has been on our minds. Okay. It just seems, just at first glance, I'm, like, looking at page 98, rural lands, and I don't see anything about housing in there. farm workers, so that might be an omission that might need some attention. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Okay, good, good note, thank you. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Can you speak a little bit towards revisions and the permanently affordable housing goals, if there have been revisions since the last iteration? I think that policy reads pretty much the same. I think our metric number is still the same of 15%. We didn't change it. Okay.
[58:19] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It was rewritten, but it's basically the same intent. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And he was wondering if he's allowed to speak. Yeah, of course. Yeah, question of, like. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The 2017 plan, like, just thinking about, like, what the potential impact of this one could be, like, you know, to the extent you know what was, like, the most significant change in that plan, and, like, did it kind of bear fruit? Like, did it have a concrete impact? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, Tess? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Let's see you, Jay? Back when I was a babe. No, I think…
[59:03] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That one definitely had some metrics around… that was the first time we had the affordable housing goals, right? So, you know, and we've seen strides because of this team here, with getting closer to that 15% affordable housing. So, like. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: instituting the Maud Housing Factory and, our affordable housing program, both rental and, ownership. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And all of those things, I think, blossomed potentially out of that policy. I don't want to give too much credit to the comp plan, but I think that was a big move that was seen. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So that's where the 15, like, the 15% originated in that plan? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: No, it was, sorry, but it used to be 10%. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, I can't remember exactly when. I'd have to go back and look at the histories. But we increased it to 15 to include, middle income component. So middle income was definitely one of the big changes in 2017.
[60:07] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Bumping it up to 15%. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: You know, that update had all the same aspirations of simplifying and making it more readable. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So if you can… you can go back and read the different iterations. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But I think it was also a very different political climate in 2017, and the composition of Black and Gordon 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: City Council was very different. So there was sort of a limit as to how far, the comp plan could sort of push. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Oh, I think, sorry, another one is the climate initiatives as a department. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Came out of… the big… a big push of that plan was climate, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: stuff. It was right after the flood, and there was a lot of concern around climate, as there still is, but, kind of the whole department and work plan of climate initiatives came out of, that previous plan.
[61:13] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Jessica, do you speak a little bit more about the, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, allowing commercial and residential, balancing out residential and commercial, what do you mean by that? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Balance, what's the… I mean, I guess balance maybe is… but, a community hub is, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: where we see this maybe happening to the biggest degree, which… so, our primary uses there would be both residential of multi-unit and group living types, and then commercial, with retail, personal services, and food and beverage being primary. And then you have all these supporting other uses. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But, you know, I think a lot of those areas 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That, on the map, are kind of our… Community retail areas, with…
[62:10] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I guess Alpine balsam, but also, like, down, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Where we have, like, kind of big box grocery stores and other strip mall type development. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And the thought there is opening up to some residential and maybe, you know, retaining those businesses, and especially the grocery stores, but also allowing there to… there to be some upbuilding so that people live close to those, essential services, and potentially 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: You know, depending on who owns it, like. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Some parking lot fill-in, but we'll see. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Are you asking more about the neighborhood one, and introducing commercial into a place where 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: may not exist today. I mean, that's a part of it, too. It sounded like you were kind of…
[63:03] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, and… Yeah, so Neighborhood 1, you already see examples. We heard from community members about, like. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: someone having a bakery out of their garage that there's wine out the door for bread somewhere in the neighborhoods that exists somewhere? It's off of where 90s turns into 20. Love it. And, you know, we have, like, Alpine Modern, that little, you know, and those… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We hear from community members over and over again how, like, essential they are to their enjoyment of the neighborhood, and we just want to allow that to 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Organically happen, potentially in more places, throughout the city, to create those little 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Initially, in our plan, we had a local hub designation, which was, like, an even smaller scale, like, hub than community that had commercial and residential. But when we brought that to the community, everyone was like, we love the idea, but we don't…
[64:09] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: know where to put these, and it also felt like maybe overly prescriptive, rather than just kind of allowing, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Businesses and people to choose and flourish where they are. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I mean, that definitely feels like that's… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Well, on the way to the 15-minute neighborhood. Both family-friendly, whatever that's called. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I love how this hand raised. Yeah, what's… I'm sorry, I don't remember the name of the guy with the flannel shirt. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Brendan. Brendan. Brendan. Hi, Brendan. I'm Philip. Nice to meet you. Who's to your right? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I'm David. Hey, David. Anyways, Brendan, your question sort of, raised a couple thoughts in my mind about the BBCP. I actually kind of heard in my mind, I heard David Adamson just jumping out of his, out of his shoes, screaming that, no, the BBCP
[65:13] doesn't matter, because, you know, he worked so hard to get some specific language in there related to housing pilots. And then he went and tried to execute a housing pilot and just couldn't get it off the ground because of all the red tape. And it's too bad, because it was a super cool project in a really hipster neighborhood, and it would have really added value to the community. And, So I… I know… so there's… I mean, people have a lot of feelings about, the value of the BBCP as a… as a document, as, as, you know, whatever it is. Another, another example that sort of, surfaced for me was thinking about, the airport neighborhood… airport neighborhood campaign, which, frequently quoted there was a section in the transportation… buried… buried in the transportation section about how when the… the next time the airport is
[66:14] is gonna have a community review process that it would be assessed for housing potential, and that's something that a former city councilperson worked really hard to get some language in there, and so everyone on that campaign, quoted that thing often. And so, in some ways, that… that little bit of verbiage in there, shape some narrative, in Boulder around that issue. But I guess… I guess my question that I'm… I'm circling towards is, are there… are there… Examples of that kind of specific language in this document, or has that been kind of weeded out? Do you have… do you have people lobbying for very specific things they want put in here? Or is that… has there been kind of more deliberate,
[67:05] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Have you read paragraph 76, Philip? About the airport? I have not, actually. Is that in there? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It sounds pretty pro-airport to me. The city's talking about, building relationships, or the city is forward-looking as aircraft electrification becomes reality. So, the city's gonna support electrification, I guess, at the airport of electric airplanes when that happens. Okay. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: B. I, I, as a… as a… yeah, whatever. I'm wearing my HAB hat tonight, so maybe I shouldn't comment on that. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I mean, I think… I think there's… to be critical of this process, and not of any specific person, but just this process, is, like, a lot of these policies in here are just very, like… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I don't know, general generic stuff,
[68:00] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: you know, housing diversity and supply, the city promotes a full spectrum of housing types and price points throughout the city that enable people to remain in the community as their needs, incomes, and household compositions change over time. I just don't know if that's, like, a policy. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It's… it's just like a statement. And perhaps, you know, it's like, why do we have this Boulder Comprehensive Valley Plan? I think it's to serve as a check on development and the city's ability to change the zoning code. And I guess the read I'm getting on this is we're making it just more generic. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: general language, like, there's nothing the city can do to violate that policy on 79. You know, and… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I don't know, if we're trying to water down the… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: comprehensive plan so that it doesn't restrict the city's ability to develop, then perhaps that's a good thing. I just think it begs to ask, why do we have a comprehensive plan to begin with? Well, Chip, I think that that's what we're saying, is it's not a regulatory document. It's not to be designed as a
[69:07] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: guardrails for what we can and can't do. It's to set the vision. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: What kind of community do we want to be in 20 years? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And then, through the zoning and all these other tools. That's how you get to the specifics. I would just say I love this document, and I enjoy reading it, and I'm super excited about the vision, and I think it's been a lot of political shift and political will to get to a point where we're, like, talking about, all these values that, You know, we're not a given 20, 40, 60 years ago at all. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: ML, do you mind if we answer Philip's earlier question first? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Do you wanna… do you got an answer for that one? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: What was the question? Yeah, what was the question? Well, so the previous comp plan had a lot of very specific things that the city wanted to accomplish.
[70:07] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, I mean, we've worked throughout this process with all of the, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Subject matter experts, which are our other city departments, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: To really bring them along in the process and come to some compromises, and… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: reorients the level of detail that the plan should be at. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think we will also see, as it gets closer to adoption, what comes out of the woodwork. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That's a good observation, Philip. Yeah, there were a lot of policies that read more like, this is a work plan item for the city. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And a lot of those have been removed.
[71:00] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And part of it is also, a lot of those have been accomplished. Yeah, except the housing pilots. Rest in peace. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Well, so… We'll talk about that one later. What I would throw out there as a practice for our board, if we want to vote on a recommendation at our next meeting, perhaps we focus, you know, to offer something specific. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: in addition to saying, like, we like the plan or something like that, perhaps we focus on policy number 79, housing diversity and Supply. That's probably where we're most suited to speak as a board, and propose some additional language 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: In addition to a one-sentence of, the city promotes a full spectrum of housing types and price points throughout the city that enable people to remain in the community as their needs, incomes, and household compositions change over time. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I'm fine with that language, I think that's fine, I don't think that's very controversial, but perhaps we want to consider adding something to that, and making the recommendation that something be added to it. And I think that would be a good place for our board to weigh in. There was also 78 and 81 that referred to
[72:07] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: special populations. Yeah, so 78 is housing and supports for people experiencing homelessness, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And 81 is permanently affordable housing goal, and 80 is manufactured housing. And then 82 is age-inclusive, so I guess it's… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: There's also 77 is, like, housing and supportive services. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Which I think probably falls within our purview as well. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So I think if there's anything we should debate and focus on, it should be Policies 77 through 82. I think, I wouldn't mind having a paragraph that reiterated what I said about, Carl Geiler's team trying to amend the zoning and how
[73:02] We support this revised approach so that City Council and city staff can have more leeway. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I agree, Phil. changing Title IX. I mean, I know it's been kind of repeated a lot, but I don't mind reaffirming that we're on board with that, because it's a major theme to this update. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And Tess, are we cutting into your presentation? I feel like we're just discussing it now. You're welcome to start your discussion. Do you all need a refresher on the questions, or just, want to discuss? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: A refresher on the questions, but that's fine. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, they are…
[74:05] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Does the draft plan overall reflect the community and the Housing Advisory Board's priorities and aspirations related to housing in the Boulder Valley? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: What components of the draft plan does the board strongly support, and does the board recommend any revision to the draft plan? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Which you were starting to get into. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Our goal is to maybe make… vote on a recommendation at the next meeting, so if that's the case, our new members should weigh in on this process, be voting on it. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Thanks model. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So what I've heard from Philip, and I think 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: What we have some consensus on is that,
[75:01] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: we have, I guess, Housing Advisory Board had concerns that the prior or the existing comprehensive plan restricted, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The city… the community's ability to engage in the zoning process. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And… You know, the more… Affording the city more flexibility to change its zoning code is 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: A positive development associated with the new drafts. Yeah, I feel like, in short, the answer to one is yes. And we could add a little substance to that. The answer to number two is, we've started discussing And 3 is probably a yes, and we could probably… Come up with some… some recommendations by next time. Hold on. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, so looking at 76 Municipal Airport,
[76:01] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I mean, if it's the board's position that housing should be considered as an option, then perhaps a sentence could go in there. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: 77 Housing and Supportive Services. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: You know, do we have any specific thing we would want to recommend adding with regards to 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: supportive services. Again, these are all… it's all general language, so if we're going to make a recommendation. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We kind of, on something more specific. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: You know, one thing I would suggest all of us to consider 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: His 79 says, the city promotes a full spectrum of housing types and price points throughout the city that enable people to remain in the community as their needs, incomes, and household compositions change over time. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Is there a specific housing type or price point, perhaps, the city should encourage? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And would we want to add a sentence on the city should encourage the development of X, Y, and Z in that one, as opposed to, we support everything, but we should… is there something we want to prioritize or encourage?
[77:13] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think every… my personal opinion is that everything is really important to having an economy that… that functions, right? But we are calling out specific 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: communities elsewhere. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I don't know, I think… I don't see a problem with 70-90, but… I guess my feeling about this discussion is if… if we're just gonna riff, and then start editing, and start creating a document, that's maybe not the best use of time. You know, like, Maybe we could do this offline and go back and forth through email, but… It's just my two cents. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: What if… what if, like, we did for the…
[78:03] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: council memo that we created earlier, we… Karin and I can take a stab at a first draft and circulate, and 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I don't know, a week and a half? I think my concern with all that is we're supposed to, like, engage in board business at a publicly noticed meeting when we're together, and I think we need to be mindful of openings laws. point, okay. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But we would… we would be communicating via email, so that would be public, right? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Well, so what you would do is summarize what you heard here tonight. Yeah. And then share that with the group to say, does this reflect what everyone was saying? And then you would talk about it at the next meeting. But I think if we're going to have a substantive discussion or debate about what goes in it, that has to happen at a meeting. Yeah, Chip's… Chip's right. I'm sorry, I kind of forgot that major detail. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The burdens of being government. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think that's what you're doing at this meeting and the April meeting, so…
[79:03] Yeah, I was trying to… I was trying to avoid doing it in the meeting in real time. Well, I'll just offer this. I'd be happy to write a paragraph about, The, the, the thing about, make… greasing the wheels for city staff and city council to improve zoning. For $2,000. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Grant… grant the city more autonomy to… revise on a… Right. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I mean, how much when Planning Board debates zoning, how often are you guys turning to the comp plan, saying, can we do this, can we not? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Appliance with the comp plan is a part of every site review. Yeah. That's one of the criteria. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And, one of the challenges has been, the maintenance. So, one of the things that,
[80:02] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: we have been… I have been asking for, and I see that some of the council members have as well, our joint meeting with them is tomorrow night, is the implementation 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Process? And how do the policies trickle into actionable Oh. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Code? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We don't have that. We currently do not have that, and it's, I think, been a challenge for a planning board to, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: it's vague. It's like, on, you know, in general, does it meet BBCP? And you can't say no to that. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: You know, it's too vague, so we're asking for more specificity. But that's… doesn't that give you more autonomy? It's sort of like a constitution. It's like, does it violate the Constitution? No, then we can pass whatever law we want, as long as it doesn't violate it. Correct. It's not supposed to tell you necessarily what to do, it's supposed to restrict your ability.
[81:02] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Well, one of the roles of site review is to 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Check the application against the criteria, which are Guiding the outcome. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And at the end of the day, are we getting the kinds of projects we want in the City of Boulder? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, you know, that's kind of the path that we are in the process of managing this. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: if we… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: If this criteria directs this kind of a building, is that the kind of a building we want? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: At the end of the day, are these the kind of buildings, or public spaces, or sidewalks, or open areas, all of the things that are governed? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And so it… it's, it's difficult to relate it back to the Boulder Valley Comp Plan values. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: If there isn't… I love this, and that was going to be my question, was this implementation, which I think… is that new in this BDCP? Has there always been an implementation sort of chapter?
[82:07] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I believe it's new. I think so, and it's really very exciting, because I think that is… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Where the values begin to, be accountable to outcomes. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And right now, we can't… we don't have that. We don't have that means, which is the whole big debate about why aren't we getting what we want, why are there so many people that can't afford to live here, all of the issues that have addresses. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The whole debate with Area 3, can we supply what we need? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think that they're very interconnected with… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: what are those, like you said, the hows are out here somewhere, but there's got to be a little root. You know, there's got to be something that triggers a relationship between the value and, the actionable
[83:02] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: use… use… use standards or zoning standards, and I think that that is, gonna be a big part of the discussion tomorrow night, just because it's new, and it gives us an opportunity to say, okay, we know this is an issue, let's try to give it some, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: some direction. I think your perspective's very helpful. I mean, it's sort of the opposite of what we were talking about just now, is you're saying, like. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: the processes you go through say you must consult with it, and is this consistent? And if it's so vague, it's like, how do you check that box? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: As part of that process. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I don't have… I don't think the planning board necessarily… I can't speak for, you know, any personal opinions, but in our process. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I don't think that there is a challenge with the fact that it's aspirational. The thing is. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: how does that aspirational actually hit the pavement, as it were? And it's hard to trickle it down. Well, ML, so if you're reviewing a, you know, a proposition to build some sort of housing, and you turn to the comp plan, and it says the city promotes a full spectrum of housing types and price points.
[84:18] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: throughout the city that enable people to remain in the community as their needs, incomes, and household compositions change over time. Are you basically saying, like, that gives you absolutely nothing to work with? Like… It… the way it's currently referred to is the applicant and the staff will identify 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: the Boulder Valley Comp Plan values policies that are being supported by the project. In other words, it's giving us that. But you could… you could say that… I agree. …for any project. Which is why we're looking for roots, we're looking for a trickle-down, and I love this implementation. I think that's where the power is going to be to the comp plan. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Did it accomp- is it going to be able to accomplish these aspirational goals?
[85:03] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think there has to be a relationship between… well, it's just kind of like, as a parent, right? You want your child to be kind. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: what things you put in place to be able, you know, and one is you get model behavior, you know? So there are actionable things that can be, referenced. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Down here. What I would suggest to our board is, like, if we put together a two-page memo, my concern is, like, it's gonna get lost in the weeds with this 100-page report, all the different boards that are commenting on this. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And if we could come up with, like, very specific language. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: like, one or two sentences to add into here, and that's our recommendation. I think that sends a much stronger message that 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The powers that be would hear.
[86:00] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And for example, I'll just throw this out here. Paragraph 79 says, the city promotes a full spectrum of housing types and price points throughout the city that enable people to remain in the community as their needs, incomes, and household compositions change over time. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Housing Advisory Board recommends the following sentence be added to paragraph 79. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: and I'm open to discussing that, but I feel like that's a prime place for us to… What are you specifically trying to get at? Yeah, I think the city should prioritize housing types for low- and middle-income people, and… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: is there a way we can say that that's more… I mean, I think that's pretty specific, but, like, is there a way we can frame that, like, attached housing, or dense housing? Townhomes, condos? Isn't that in 79, or is that, like… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: 81 specifically talks about affordable housing. Well, 81 speaks about permanently affordable housing goal, the 15%. That speaks to affordable… affordability, i.e, like, deed-restricted, or… Yeah. Yeah, whereas I think 79 speaks more to housing types.
[87:13] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And I think we all know, even if we're looking at, like, free market, like, the townhomes are going to be more affordable than single-family house, typically. Like, are there housing types that we want to recommend? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And, like, I would like to… personally, I would like to see Boulder… I would like to see in Boulder more free market housing that's smaller and more affordable. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: for those who don't qualify, there's a lot of people who don't qualify for the permanently affordable housing programs in this town, and the only other option is a billion-dollar single-family house. So, is there a housing type that we want to encourage the development of? I just think that… It's a diversity of housing types, yeah. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, that's, that's, like… To your point, there's… there's the one… One thing I was looking… when I first read this was, you know, and I don't even know how to address this, but, you know, we never talk about the housing market, per se, and how to make it a healthy housing market, and
[88:08] you know, 79, it could say something along the lines of increased housing supply, but it doesn't actually say increased housing supply, it just says a full spectrum of housing types, so… And I don't know how you have a full spectrum of price points without a market that sort of provides that, and we have a market that's totally… lopsided and distorted in a variety of unhealthy ways. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And I think that's great, Philip. I don't know if we have to be in the weeds on tight, but to ML's point, if they're sitting there doing a site review, and there's this acre property, and someone's proposing they put in two massive penthouse condos, and they point to 79, and they say, well, one of the city's goals here is increased housing supply, so… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: maybe something with 4 units would be preferable, or something like that. Like, how do we maximize the number of homes in the City of Boulder
[89:04] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And I think that's… that's our biggest problem in this town, is we don't build new housing units. Just point out, 79 does not say build new housing units. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: No, it doesn't, and that's something maybe we recommend they add. Is that what you're suggesting? That's what I was suggesting, yeah. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I thought, Tess, in your presentation, you mentioned that there is somewhere where it references increasing housing supply, and that was the first time I'd ever did that. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yes. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: If maybe that language 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: was taken out of that policy recently. I… I thought it was gonna be in, like, the land use section, or… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We… well, okay. And I apologize, these policies have been through, like, a lot of iterations, but I know that 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That was…
[90:00] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: part of the policy, and I will definitely bring that back to my team. I thought you were saying something along the lines of, like, the current draft has a restriction on density that is going away. Yes, it is. So that… that's in the land use section, and I also want to say that 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The former land uses had basically density limits in one sentence, and now the new land uses describe a lot more of, like. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: the… the feel and, like, the middle housing types we're wanting, so there might be a little bit more of using both policy and land use when making these decisions, but… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think, also your comments are very valid. Well, to Philip's point here, too, without, you know, picking winners and losers, when we went on that tour yesterday, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: this conversion of an office building to apartments, they're all high-end luxury apartments. It was not dense, low-income housing by any means.
[91:04] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But it creates new housing units, and that takes people, perhaps, out of more affordable single-family homes. That opens up housing, then that person maybe comes out of. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: a condo, and then that person comes out of BHP, like, it creates housing supply and opens up space for more people, even in lower income brackets. So, I don't know if we have to wade into, like, a classism or typology debate, but I like where Phillip is going with this, which is… and I think it's a very powerful statement for us to make, which is, at a very short sentence and paragraph. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Graph 9, or 79, stating the city should prioritize increasing housing supply. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: For what it's worth, I really like that idea. Yeah. And I also wonder about, like… Like, whether you could say something about, like, in parallel, about, like, reducing
[92:01] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The obstacles or burdens that prevent building new housing, like, kind of… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: You know, because it's… the issue is not just, like. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We need to build, but also we need to, like, remove the obstructions to be able to… Like the development review process? Yeah. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: streamline that a little bit? So, yeah, like, something about, you know, reducing, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: administrative, administrative, bureaucratic, whatever. And then when the planning board does their site review, they're gonna be like, well, we can't deny this. It says we should get rid of administrative burdens, which we are. One of the things you mentioned, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Was the idea of housing Score footage maximums. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And that has been a conversation that has never gotten any legs for some reason. But if you say, you know, you can't build houses bigger than this in the city, that starts to produce the smaller houses that potentially have an audience that has a more affordable
[93:03] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: end product. Yeah, and I agree with you. I don't know if we're in the place here, or if the… this document is in the place to, like, impose square footage requirements. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But when you're talking about increased housing supply and maybe add various sizes… But I guess what I'm saying, though, is if we put that in there, that sends the message to the policymakers at B when writing the zoning code, well, should we approve 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: you know, this transportation corridor density zoning change, and they look at the comp plan, and it says we should increase housing supply. The answer is. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, that's consistent with the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Because, you know, we don't want to cut short, like, the democratic process where people weigh in on zoning and have the… this is supposed to be, I think, a higher level document, but it's also, like you're saying, it should give a goalpost. I think increasing housing supply, that's a very… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: tangible goal. People know what that means, and when they're developing a zoning code, and they say, well, should there be a 1,000-foot maximum or a 12-foot… 1,200-foot maximum? Look at the comp plan. I mean, you can still debate that and have public comment and all of that, but it says we won't increase housing supply.
[94:15] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: well, which one's going to increase the housing supply more? So that's… I love this idea. So one of the things that has happened 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: in, in… applications and projects coming through Planning Board have been the, very large student housing. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And so they're bringing forth thousands of bedrooms, housing for thousands of people. It's one demographic, right? It's students, and generally they're high-end. So the idea… this idea that, yes, housing is being increased, and it's being increased by a lot. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: on those student housing projects, we're seeing some very large populations getting housed, but it's a population. I hear that, but like… But does that open that up first? It opens it up. Like, yeah, it might be this luxury housing that the college kids whose wealthier parents are paying for it, those kids might be moving out of the cheaper houses. See, that's the logic, but that is not… that is not what happens in the
[95:19] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: at the grassroots. Well, I don't think the university's getting bigger. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I don't know, they've got… they came… They came here a while. They came here, right, and showed us all the housing that they're going to be providing for their staff. We also can't discriminate on who's living. That… I mean, all I'm saying is that that statement 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: it's, you know, there is a lot of housing being built right now. There is a lot of housing being built. It's just being built for a specific 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Population, so we still have middle income that does not 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: getting served, which I think ends up being kind of the… in the crosshairs of most people's thinking design. Well, and that's… that's why I like keeping the existing sentence in 79, as it says we promote diversity of all types for all people, but we should increase it. Like, that's what I want to add.
[96:07] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Just to get consensus, does everyone feel comfortable with a statement that we support increasing? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, the City of Boulder should, or the City of Boulder prioritizes increasing housing supply. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I mean, that's kind of how things are written here, right? The city commits, the city support. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Does the city support, the city values, the city manages, the city and county collaborate. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And then… To get to the statement of we incur… like, we should encourage certain types 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I mean, maybe we want to stay on… Like, attached product type? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Or do you want to… I feel like that's a… that's a technical question. Like, if someone finds a way to make 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: bunch of single-family homes in a dense space as a condo, or cottages, like… And maybe that gets to the land use section as well. I was… I was thinking about the, like, the obstacles, just because, like, I feel like a lot of what is preventing building the smaller ones is, like, you're not allowed to build… like, you're traditionally allowed to build
[97:18] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The larger houses and single-family homes were prioritized, but there were all kinds of obstacles to prevent. Whereas, you know, if you want a diversity of housing, that means you have to open up what you're able to 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: What you're able to build. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So I think one sentence is, the city, supports increasing housing supply. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That's a very simple sentence. I don't think that was Lauren's question, though. I think she was just. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Well, no, but to answer her question, that's the next one. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Do we want a statement saying we encourage a certain type of development? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Like, the city prioritizes would be the next sentence after that.
[98:08] I don't think so. I think it would just be… just something about increased supply. Honestly. I mean, it's coupled there with a diversity of types, so… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I do see the value to building, even if we're building luxury housing, like, where there was a, you know, I don't want to see the city tearing down low-income housing and replacing it with luxury housing. But if we're building more luxury housing, you know, there's going to be cash in lieu, there's going to be additional tax revenue that's going to free up 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: you know, upward mobile people, you know, and open up space below. So, you know, building all sorts of housing, there's so much factors that go into it, but increasing the supply, I think that gives a goalpost when policymakers are making decisions, whether it be planning board or city council or staff. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: you know, do we want to make the transit corridor 300 feet from the roadway, or 400 feet from the roadway? Well, what's going to increase the housing supply? It would be 400 feet, right? Like, I think that gives a very goalpost, like, when you're making decisions, do we want to cap this neighborhood at 1,000 square feet per unit, or 1,500?
[99:15] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: 1,000 would increase the housing supply. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So I think that is, like, a broad aspiration that can… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That doesn't, like, tie anyone's hands, but it… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It can factor into a lot of decision-making across the board. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And I think it's short and concise, which makes it almost more powerful. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Okay, I think we're all in agreement on that. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I wanted to circle back to the other thing you were talking about, is… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: There is… 81 is capital A affordable, deed-restricted affordable. Do we want… To suggest anything about… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Naturally occurring affordable housing, middle… Middle-income housing, anything like that.
[100:03] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Middle income is in there. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Okay. Yeah, but it's the… I view that paragraph as referring to income-qualified housing, like, either deed-restricted or… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: affordable. I think what you're suggesting is, like, free market housing, correct? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Do we want to pair… I'd be up for a sentence or two, in 79 addressing that. I think… I think to kind of, like, mix that in with 81 feels like the wrong place for that, but yeah, I think… I think when you say in 79, if you say something about, We'd like to see, supply increased and, improved naturally occurring affordability. Those… those two things just are coupled together in my… in my sensibilities.
[101:02] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: How would we rephrase that? Like, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Naturally occurring is like… I don't know, I know what you're talking about. That's the technical term. Is that the technical term? Yeah, that's what's… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: As opposed to, like, free market. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, it's Naturally Occurring Affordable Housing, NOAA. I think free market is super problematic term, because I guess naturally occurring also is in its own way, but market rate would be… market rate would be another way of saying it. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: One… another way to think about this, 79 is about housing types. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It's not about income. Job. Whereas 81 is about income. I mean, we're basically… when we say naturally occurring, or whatever, more affordable, we're talking about small houses, or condos, or townhouses, right? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: There's not going to be a naturally occurring, affordable, free market house on a one-acre lot with one house in Boulder.
[102:04] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, is there a typology we want to prioritize? I mean, it's sort of… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Anything that's brand new is not going to be naturally affordable anyway, to be honest. I think you're right, except with regard to size. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But it's still gonna be, like… It'll be more affordable. Size is the market's answer to affordability. Yeah, it'll be more affordable. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And whether they're attached, like, plexus. But I think… I think if we just stick with housing supply, that almost accomplishes that, because, like, how are we going to increase… no one's proposing that we, you know, build house… condos in Chautauqua. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But, like, it… what does increased housing supply mean? It usually means taking a place where there's one house now, putting in two or three. That's… that's the reality of it, right? When we go to bulldoze a house and put in a new complex, we're putting in increased supply.
[103:05] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I know that one recommendation's very short, but I think it's also very powerful. I'm cool with it. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think it's actually… it's very powerful. Like, that's sort of headline-worthy. I don't think Boulder has ever committed to increasing its housing supply before. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: How's it? No. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Maybe we don't want to dilute that with anything else, and just leave it that. Yeah, we usually… we usually dilute our statements with lots of words. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I guess the only thought of… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: You know, what you could say in terms of… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Allowing different types of housings, like, something like all of the above housing strategy to increase housing, or something along those lines of, like.
[104:02] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Indicating that you want to… Open up. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: kind of… any type of… Increased housing that is… Possible, and kind of… Not limit options. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That's… that to me is, like, going to the naturally occurring. So, all housing types? Yeah, all housing types, or… That's kind of already in there with the first sentence. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And I'll just note, like, Boulder has a lot of single-family and a lot of apartment, and not a lot of in-between, so when the statement says all, like, create housing supply for all types, like, that's, I guess. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: the… where we're lacking right now, so that would… when that policy is there, right now, it's implying 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: let's build the middle to, like, have all housing types covered. Yeah, I think that's a good point. I mean, how do we increase the housing supply in Boulder? We're not going to be building more single-family houses that… that won't accomplish that. It's…
[105:11] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: by inference, or by necessity, it means denser housing. And then, like, apartments versus condos, people don't really build apartments. I mean, some buildings are built to be apartments, but, like, I live in… I rent a condo. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: you know, it was built as a condo, but it's being rented. Like, you know… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I feel like a lot of the… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Lower density attached product is… is market-driven, too, though. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And that's why it's not being built, right? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Say that again? Market-driven, like, it's just really hard to make a pencil. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: No, no, no. Attached. Like, like townhomes. Like, the ones on violet… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: there's a lot on Broadway that are currently being built, but they're all… $2 million, right?
[106:06] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But it's relatively more affordable. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The development of single family. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, or even, like, again, this is… this is an aspirational document. If we're talking about someone wants to split their home, you see a lot of this in Boulder, where it used to be a nice, expensive house downtown, and it's been turned into condos inside. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That's something that would go to Planning Board, probably, if they're doing a major gut of a building and additions to turn up, you know, an old house into a condo complex. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: If Planning Board is sitting there and it says the City supports 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: increasing housing supply, that weighs in favor of granting this modification to the property, right? They're trying to take a house that was with 5 bedrooms that was built for one person and turn it into a condo. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That would increase the housing supply.
[107:02] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: These are the things that get, made possible and promoted. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Through the flexibility in the neighborhood, in the neighborhood designations, land use map? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And in the, uses allowed in zones, I think the transit corridor hasn't… we haven't begun to see how that's going to play out, because basically, those are small parcels, so we're talking duplexes. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It's two units, duplexes or two small houses on that, and that's a lot of properties 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: could be impacted by that, and those big developers, big profits, are not going after those small projects. So… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Talking about, naturally, what's the market gonna do, because we've got these new, and this has just happened last year, these new upzoned opportunities in what were single. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: in zoning, that… Would definitely play into creating more housing.
[108:07] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And a range of housing, which is kind of… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I love your conversation. I think that you are spot on in… Less said, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: becomes more powerful if it's something that, oh, there was a gap, there was a little blind spot here. Yeah, I mean, the other thing is the city supports increasing housing supply. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That says one thing. If we start adding stuff to it, then that creates room for debate. People say, oh, they're prioritizing this demographic over this demographic. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And maybe it just doesn't ever find its way into playing. Can I ask a higher level question? to give… to give Tess what she wants in these key questions. I wonder if it would suffice to just be, like, for number one, yes. For number two, love the new land use approach.
[109:05] Number 3, we'd love to see, you know, let the writers and crafters come up with something, but maybe we could just make a statement saying, hey, we'd love to see something about increased housing supply in 79. And then, you know, our work is done here this evening. That's sort of one thought. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I would… I would propose a final debate and vote at the next meeting and allow the public to weigh in on this. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: but a resolution from the Housing Advisory Board that states… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The Housing Advisory Board recommends the City Council and City Manager add a sentence to Policy 79 in the draft Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan, stating, the City supports increasing housing supply. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think it just sends a very clear and concise message. I think they are looking to understand what other components we're supportive of, right?
[110:06] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: a memo identifying… I think for number 3… Okay. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Number three could be increased housing supply, right? But I think we do need to answer the other two questions. Okay. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I just don't want to get lost in the weeds. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: If there's one sentence they're gonna read from us, what should it be? I don't have anything new to add. I'm still, you know, I'm happy to help, as I've offered previously. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Stop at a drug.
[111:03] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, I think… I think… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think to what you're saying, Chip, I think both can be said. I think there can be one really clear, simple statement, but I also think we can address some other bullet points with the discussion from tonight. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: To answer, number 2. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We can keep it very clear in the letter. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, I mean, I just… I think if we're gonna have additional things, we need to talk about it tonight. It shouldn't be through emails and drafts of letters. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: what… what components will let's… let's list them? I mean… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: If we're… if we're, like, if we're proposing something concrete, in theory, the public should have an opportunity to come to our meeting and comment before we vote to recommend, and it should be on our agenda for the next meeting. So I think we should… What's the plan? Yeah, so I think we should try to, like.
[112:07] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Have a shell of what we're gonna vote on at the next meeting to put on the agenda and put the public on notice. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So one is… You know, we're gonna recommend the… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: draft plan be amended to add the following sentence to paragraph 79. The City supports increasing housing supply. What else do we want to include in that resolution? Well, I think it'd be nice to answer the first question with an affirmative, because the city staff asked us that specific question. So we could… we could say yes to number one. And then, I don't know, do we need to… do we… so the question is, like, what do we want to do for number two?
[113:02] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Is there anything… any specific policy points? I think we can articulate, like, support, like, you know, and then say, like, additionally, the Housing Advisory supports. Yeah, I mean, for me, to me, for number two, the thing that I want to say is that we support the land use, the approach to the land use, and… we strongly support it. I don't think it needs to be much more complicated than that. I had kind of previously offered to, like. You know, go into detail about how the previous comp plan, restricted innovation in the zoning codes, but I don't… I mean, I'd be happy just to say, like, we really like… like the current approach, but we could do something more detailed if you wanted. If it feels helpful.
[114:01] And if people are interested in doing that. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: What if people, like. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Took time to review it, and came to the next meeting with, like, a couple of points that they felt 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: They strongly support, and we kind of shared them, and people could… and the ones that we all 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Because people agree on, we could, I think, consider listing separately. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So I think what we've found is that 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: these open dialogues are kind of challenging to get consensus right at a meeting, so I think if… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: if we could take a stab at a first draft, circulate it, people can redline it, and then we can come to the meeting and discuss, and then adopt. That sounds great to me. I don't know what the rules are for the open meeting, as well, I think, but I, you know, assuming it's within the 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: the rules unfolding. Your HAB email is… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It's a public record anyway, so that speaks to open records and not open meetings. But we would be discussing and adopting the letter at the next meeting. Yeah, you just need to make sure the communication is one way.
[115:08] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, you can't have an exchange back and forth? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Because that's not open in the public. My understanding of our open meetings laws is that for this type of board, we can meet one-on-one to discuss policy, but if there's… basically, if there's three members present. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Then, it's a meeting, and it needs to be open to the public, and noticed. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So… and I think… make a comment about this? This was one of the things that was super unintuitive to me when I first joined HAB, so it's kind of nice that we're circling around this. And I kind of made a mistake earlier, because I'm part of another board where it's not a city council-related anything, but we're really trying hard to avoid the kind of meeting like this, where a bunch of people gathered
[116:02] together, and we, like, riff and try to edit a document in real time with each other, because it feels… not very efficient, and so I was kind of… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Philip, government's not efficient, but it has to be. No, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not… that's not my point. That's not my point. I'm just saying it's easy to, to think, oh, well, this would be a lot easier to do offline, we'll send drafts back and forth. But I think… I think what is possible, based on what Jay just said, is if, Lauren, you do what you just said, come up with a draft, send it out, we all do our homework and come to the next meeting with proposed edits, we do another revision, and then, we can vote on something then. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Are we… what do you mean by one-way communication? So could… yeah, so as… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Can it work in Google Docs? Cannot work in Google Docs. Google Docs, okay.
[117:01] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: All right. So exactly what Philip just described. So you send out what you heard. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: As a draft, everybody works on it on their own, and then comes to the meeting and shares their feedback, and you finalize it at the meeting. So no red lines emailed around. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Preferably not. Could there be… could there be a step before that, where, now that we had this great presentation, everybody knows how to access it, if they didn't already. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: could… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: send a one-way email to Lauren saying, I want to include this point and this point, in case you didn't hear that in our discussion tonight. And then she sends… Or, like, if it sends it out, is that still considered a one-way? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It's getting a little gray there. Okay. If Philip wants to draft the response for number 2, could he email that to us? It can… I mean… To the whole half. The way I view it, if we're talking about, like, logistical stuff, like what time our meeting is starting, or something, or it's snowing.
[118:10] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I don't think that's considered, like, policy debate, so we can send emails, but if we're talking about, like, a substantive policy we're debating. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It should be one-on-one with one person, like, you can talk to me, you can talk to Corinne, you can talk to Philip, but you can't be… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Sending it out to the group and have an ongoing email chain, because that's considered a meeting. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And it needs to be open to the public. So, like, that's why, like, City Council, they do email back and forth and debate policy, but they do it on the hotline. Anyone can sign up and be on the email chain. Okay. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So if we're basically collaborating as a body, as opposed to one-on-one over coffee, and certain boards can't even do one-on-one, but I think ours can. Is it, like, a written guidance document on this? No, there's gotta be rules.
[119:02] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: You're gonna get a city clerk's office that's gonna go over all of that. It's the open meetings law. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Cool. CRS2464… So the other thing to keep in mind, too, so we try to adhere to this, but you're not making a recommendation, or you're not making a decision, I'm sorry. You are making a recommendation. This applies mostly to 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: a decision that could potentially be appealed. So… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I'm just saying… Anything we do can be appealed, because we're an advisory board. Yeah, sorry. But someone could try. They could try. But anyway, I mean, I don't want to… I try to be as open as possible. I mean, just… I don't want to… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Say you can't do anything, or you need to adhere to the rules, closely, because you're purely advisory. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think, you know, the overall purpose of these open meetings laws is transparent government and making sure that, you know, process is followed, and I think if
[120:01] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: if we can debate when we're together to make sure, you know, people aren't being sidelined and the public can weigh in if they want, that's just a good thing to aspire to. I realize if we were a private business, Google Docs is way more efficient. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But we're not a private business for the government right now. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, I want to make sure, though, that, Anything has been said tonight. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: for you to have enough information so that we're not doing this again next month. I mean, I think… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think what we heard was pretty clear. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I guess there's a… we know on this increasing housing supply, we support the plan, and we can hammer out the concrete language, people, if they want to come and stuff, but I think if there's other, like, specific points in there. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We should probably… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: mention it, or do we just want to leave it… the other stuff out, and limit it on… I mean, I think I would be in favor of just keeping this concise and clear, because I think the goal of increasing housing supply in Boulder is a pretty, like… that's a change.
[121:14] Yeah, like, to give… to give one example, I made a… I asked a question about, housing for agriculture. you know, I assume Tess made a note, and if she wants to raise that in whatever follow-up meeting she has, she can go for it, but I don't feel like our board needs to, like, debate that and agree to some… some statement about that, because I haven't, you know, I haven't really thought about it, I don't know if anyone else has really thought about it. It doesn't seem like the sort of thing that needs to be prioritized. And so, you know, like, yeah. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: You might… I'm not sure if. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, I think to Philip's point, like, this… we all could have certain opinions. I think if our board says one sentence, it sends a very strong message, and again, we're just advisory, and my concern is if we spend a two-page paper or something, like, it'll just get lost in the news.
[122:15] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Especially on this one, because we're asking to, like, amend the plan, as opposed to, like, tell Council what policy decisions they should make in the future or something, right? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, I would support a one-sentence. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Do you mean there's one sentence just for 3, or just one sentence for 1 through 3? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I would support a resolution that says Housing Advisory Board recommends… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: To the city council and city manager. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: that Policy 79 and the draft Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Be supplemented with the following sentence. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The city supports increasing housing supply.
[123:02] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Tess, did we answer your number 1 and number 2, or does that need to be more? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Official piece. If we want City Council. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: to hear it, though, from us, I think we need to answer one and two. Yeah, I guess I'm in disagreement with Chip on this. I think we ought to address 1 and 2 and 3. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: If we're gonna do that, then can we put that recommendation first, three first, increasing housing supply first, and then address the other stuff after it? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Sure. There's a way to do that. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, as a private convention. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I can, but what I have to say as a practice system is not as powerful as the board after we debated. I'm just saying you also can't. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I'm sure, I'm sure… Have you done it already? He's gonna have things to say about the airport, but maybe not through the board. That's… not to call you out, Philip. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Bye. I said what I wanted to say about number two. I'm not sure if I should repeat myself. I feel like we've been repeating ourselves over and over again, so…
[124:04] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We got it. We got it. We move on. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Well, I think we can articulate an affirmative answer to one. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think we're… I think… That's also repeated, that's been said several times. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: What's… what… is there anything specific we want to listen to? We've heard it from Philip, I'm hoping this to other people. Bring it. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Liz, thanks. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Or do we want to just keep it with that 79 change? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Let's get a draft in front of everybody, we can bring it back, and we can have final discussion. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Does that work? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: There's one other one that we haven't talked about. I thought I heard it mentioned in one of the 80s, something about manufactured housing. That seemed very strange to me, to have that be in the comp plan, to prioritize manufactured housing. Do we have an opinion about that? I do, but does the board?
[125:02] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So we had recently, someone came in, we've looked into manufactured housing. There's several mobile home parks in the city of Boulder, and one of the mobile home parks in North Boulder, the city's been going through, I guess, a renovation project. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So it has been on the city's agenda. These mobile home parks, tend to be a large source of housing for 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Latin. Is that what it means, or does it mean modular construction? Let me pull it up. It says manufactured housing. The city and county support the 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: protection and rehab of existing manufactured homes. Oh, so, okay, so… Yeah. So I… my… over the last year, my eyes have been… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I'm really open to… Okay, sorry, I thought I was talking about modular, and I thought that would be weird for the comp plan to talk about construction techniques. Sorry. I think there's a sense that, like, you know, we do have these historic mobile home parks, and they provide a unique sort of housing for a unique demographic.
[126:06] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And I think the city feels, and I think most people on the board agree, that that is something we want to continue to protect. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: and support. So, I don't really see the need to make a change there. Is there any others that caught your eye? That was the one that stuck out, and again, I misinterpreted it, so sorry about that. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It'd be great to have time to… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: review and digest it further. I don't know if we… where we landed on the idea of emailing. Yeah, I mean, I haven't read it yet, because I didn't know… I didn't know about it, so… Here's what I'm interested in, she can put together a draft based on that. Yeah, totally happy with that. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: If you have questions, too, feel free to reach out to me. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Or Tess? I think maybe what we shouldn't all endeavor to do is it sounds like we're sort of in agreement on this… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: A recommended revision of three is to increase housing supply. We're all in agreement on some sort of sentence on one, we support.
[127:05] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: You know, the plan reflects the community, yes. And then, I guess, I think we should all come prepared if we want to propose identifying specific components that we strongly support. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Maybe if there's something that stands out to you, we can all show up with a short list. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: discuss that next week, we have time to debate this, right? I think that's what Lauren said. Yeah. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That was the plan. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Okay. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: S. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Should we be asking you any other questions, or do you have anything else to share with us? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I don't think so. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Thank you so much for letting me present, and this… Good discussion, and… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, I have increased housing supply highlighted in bold in the notes. We mentioned that we think there should be more. Okay, I'll get that. But no, thank you all, and I… that's super valuable feedback, that I will…
[128:09] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: for sure, convey to the team, and I hope you all convey to any board and council, and… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We'll keep this moving. I… I am impressed with this. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: streamlining and condensing, and I think y'all went from, like, 200 pages to 100 pages or something, and a bazillion policies to less. Yeah, nice job. Thank you. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Thanks for spending your evening with us. Yeah, of course. Thank you all. It was lovely being here, and dinner was great. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Feel free to have more. Okay, are you ready to move on? Are you ready, Phillip? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Are you ready? Okay. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Fab work plan. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So… April, we'll be welcoming new members officially, and there's going to be presentation from Boulder Housing Partners, yes?
[129:08] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: As well as an EU update. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: May, we're looking at, hopefully there'll be a panel, or a presentation, regarding the topic, Housing for Older Adults Needs and Options. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And then, in June, we have a retreat and a tour, excuse me, of cohousing in North Boulder. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And then June, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: How's everybody feeling about canceling the… did I say June? I meant July. Now I'm talking about July. How's everybody feel about not canceling a July meeting, or is there anything that we need to have on the agenda? Thoughts? Opinions?
[130:04] Sorry, what's the rationale for canceling a meeting in July? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Quite a few people are out of town, and nothing pressing on the agenda. Gotcha. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: many people around. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I don't remember off the top of my head. I don't remember ever canceling a meeting, because we didn't… people were out of town, or we didn't have enough. I mean, usually we have enough on the agenda, and stuff… stuff comes up, but… Is there a precedent for that? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I remember there being some cancellations, and Jay said that as well. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I feel like it was, like, once a year. I don't love the idea of just canceling. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: You want something on the agenda for July? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Maybe something comes up. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I don't know. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I think we are required to meet. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: No, you're not.
[131:04] What did Jay just say? We're not? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We're not recorded to me. Okay. Okay. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And just FYI, City Council and Planning Board take a break in July as well, just… Okay. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That's impressive. That's a precedent, as far as I'm concerned. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: They also need, quite a bit more than Housing Advisory Board. I know, but maybe if they need a nudge, I'll take them one thought. I won't… I won't officially propose it yet, but think about that. Okay, 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, the idea was just to throw it out there. If people aren't comfortable with it, and if there's something that people really want to talk about, absolutely, we can meet. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Jay, matters from the staff? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Can't think of anything. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Any questions? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Everybody listen to the, Council Study Session? March 5th? Anybody?
[132:06] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Oh, I just knew a little bit of it. It was pretty much the same presentation, right? That you got? Yeah, very good. Yes. Jay, were you gonna say something about housing pilots? Can't remember. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: No, not tonight. Oh, not tonight. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I'll chat with you anytime about housing pilots. What? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I'll chat with you some other time about… Yeah, okay. I thought you said something when I brought it up earlier, that there was something else to say about it. Sorry. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But yeah, this is an opportunity for you guys to ask questions, too, about what's going on in the city. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: For things you might want to learn more about. When are we getting the data for ADUs again? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: That is, April. April. Sweet. Maybe we just covered that, sorry. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Yeah, Lisa's gonna come and give an overview of, how we've been doing in terms of production and the changes to the regulations over the years.
[133:06] Awesome, can't wait. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Is that coming to Planning Board as well? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The ADU update? No. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Are you staying as our liaison, or are you leaving? I am, I've been two years, they're usually one year, and I will… I've asked for… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The liaison appointments to be part of our First meeting in April. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: And hopefully you guys can get some fresh person to the dining board. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But I'm going to come to the April meeting, because I want to hear the AEU presentation, so you're not totally rid of me. You can also participate in public comments. Although, who knows, last year, didn't you say you were leaving us, and then you showed up again, and you said, I'm the liaison again. But you're not believing me. I have no credibility. You'll be back. Jay, the City Council Planning
[134:03] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: thing tomorrow, is that, live? Yes. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: We can participate virtually, or view it. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Luck. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It's a study session, right? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: There's no public participation? There's no public comment, right, but you can watch it. That's… I caught myself. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I'm just curious if there… is there, like, like, polling, or like… Reliable information about, like, what folder. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: residents want to see on the housing front? Like, do you track that in some way beyond, like. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: comments, I think, are… can be unreliable, but, like, something that's more reliable. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: So, the comp plan did a statistical survey, of all of residents of Boulder, so you could read through that, there's actually quite a bit on housing. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Sort of gauge people's, interests, concerns.
[135:02] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It depends what it is, so there's also a community survey that's done every year, probably. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: There's lots of data. Where is the best place to find that? Oh, online? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: But I can go over it with you, and so we'll do a, sort of a… our own… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: sort of onboarding exercise, so I'll give you a whole 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Dog and pony show about the history of affordable housing, and where all the resources… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: It's also why you're here. It's a Citizens Advisory Board. You are the citizens. Well, yeah, right? We are. I'd like to know what the… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: There and ask, ask people, I guess. Okay. But if you go, sorry, if you go to the comp plan website, you'll, you'll find it in there. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: The Comprehensive plan? Boulderfuture.org. BoulderFuture.org. I just have a real quick pitch, I think I made it last minute, keep doing it. I encourage everyone to, invite people to participate in public comment, who have things to say. I think…
[136:12] 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Since what we're discussing right now, that's a good way to help us learn what the community wants, and… 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: it's a good opportunity, and I think it empowers people, so if you know anyone or anyone who has opinions on housing, I think we all should encourage them to attend public comment. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Anything else from anybody else? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: I'll make a motion to adjourn. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Second. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: All in favor? 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Alright. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Approved. Thank you, everybody. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Bye, Philip. 03.25.26 HAB Monthly Meeting: Bye, Phillip. Bye, Phillip.