03.20.19 HAB Correspondence DaiiyCamera
OPINION : GUEST OPINIONS
"Boulder Housing: Let's Innovate, Not Gentrify!" 3-10-2018
Scott Holton and Allyn Feinberg
The average single-family housing price in Boulder now tops $1 M. Said differently,
most neighborhoods are unattainable to middle-income families as 83.5% of
residentially-zoned land is single family-only. Market-rate rental housing is being
upscaled beyond their reach also. While we have built 4,000 units of low-income
housing over the decades, we annually lose a net of 900 previously affordable low
and middle income housing units to price inflation on resale or remodeling. A
majority of all workers-teachers, firemen, police etc.-50,000 people-cannot afford
Boulder and must commute. Our well-intentioned land use policies are building a
wall around Boulder that few of anyone's children can scale.
Some resignedly see "natural" market forces at work and believe there is no viable
solution to a problem afflicting many growing communities. The founders of our $1 B,
150,000 acre, 50 year City and County Open Space program, who saw Boulder's
special natural setting slipping away due to market forces beginning in the late
1950's, were not handicapped by such a lack of civic imagination. We can emulate
them. We can have a vibrant, sustainable, diverse city with a high quality of life for all
by taking bold steps on housing and transportation NOW.
A new local community land trust, Goose Creek CLT, saw the need and convened
some odd bedfellows in .dune 2016 on the back porch of a local coffee shop to seek
common ground. We "Back Porch Group" members work with local advocacy
groups, non-profit and for-profit affordable housing developers. Others are business
advocates and former local officials. Many collegial discussions later, to our
pleasant surprise, we find broad agreement about how to create durably affordable,
socially just and beautiful human habitat to match our gorgeous environs. These
agreements (see our White Paper) don't provide THE answer but could add urgency
and strategic shape to what must be a vigorous community initiative:
An economically diverse population is critical to maintaining the desirable character
and prosperity of Boulder. Inaction will not preserve "neighborhood character" but
accepts its destruction through inevitable gentrification. The current system is
broken: affordable housing funding and quantity can't depend on building ever
more high end housing and more commercial space. Sub community planning
will not meet our critical housing needs. Nor will a market rate construction binge
Boulder must rapidly scale up permanently affordable middle income and workforce
housing. This must ALSO meet Boulder residents' justified concerns about quality of
life impacts. It is possible to accommodate population growth and reduce our
absolute environmental impact. Successfully tackling the combined challenges of
inequality and climate-sustainability will helpfully inspire other communities and
boost our economy. We know Boulder has the talented, creative citizenry needed.
Therefore, to transcend our polarization, we ask you, renters and owners, young
and "more experienced", to urge City Council to:
1. Set a measurable, time-limited goal to durably house a diverse, socially
equitable community in Boulder per the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan's values.
This goal will be much more ambitious and achieve results sooner than the current
Middle Income Housing Strategy.
2. Report quarterly on progress towards this goal.
3. To get it right, let's experiment and learn together first. Let's undertake a 24
month "Innovate for Impact Challenge" to stimulate "out of the box" proposals from
neighborhoods, businesses, and developers. An independent citizen team like the
Boulder Energy Challenge (which provided Carbon Tax funds to innovative business
proposals to save energy) can vet these pilots with public discussion. Set a goal of
200 units sprinkled throughout the City. Enlist an independent third party to glean
lessons learned and which approaches merit significant emulation.
Let's recruit community experts to support project proponents and solicit proposals
that can enjoy broad appeal, like:
- Projects that permanently preserve the remaining affordable housing,
particularly in multi-family projects now requiring updating.
- Projects demonstrating "community benefit"- permanent affordability, net zero
energy usage, alt-mode transportation, parking minimization- that merit
simplified or reduced permitting procedures and fees.
- Projects from neighborhoods charting clear alternatives to the active
gentrification of the middle income character of many neighborhoods.
- Commercial projects providing all generated housing demand on-site and most
access by alt-modes of transportation.
- Projects that contain entirely deed-restricted units or are owned by land trusts
to ensure affordability for future generations.
Let's work together — the community, city government, and people of all walks of life
— to address Boulder's housing needs before it's too late. The time is now. Who's up
for the challenge? Other Back Porch Group members: Leonard May, Dan Powers,
Leslie Durgin, Roger Lewis, David Adamson
Links: net shed rate: https://boulderhousing.org/news/2014-strategic-plan White
Paper: http://goosecreekcit.or_. /q back-porch-consensus-suggestions-on-affordable-
housingl
Contact: david@goosecreekclt.org
Guest commentary
Benita Duran and David Adamson: Let's get our money's worth at
Alpine-Balsam
By Benita Duran and David Adamson
Boulder Daily Camera
Posted:Thu Nov 15 18:29:43 MST 2018
Editor's note: This story has been updated with the correct name of the book 'The New Geography of Jobs."
The 8.8-acre Boulder Community Health property we purchased for$60 million can be a beautiful, vital,diverse, sustainable
"urban village." It can contain enough housing(at least about 50 units per acre)to support transit. It can make a dent in
citizens' No. 1 priority: permanently affordable, mixed-income homes. It can demonstrate innovation in urban development and
house innovators. Innovativeness helps us address the deluge of social, cultural, economic and environmental change we face.
It is Boulder's competitive advantage.
This approach, if compared to most of the city's Alpine-Balsam development scenarios(not No. 5),optimizes our public
investment. It heeds the recent UN climate report requiring we immediately shift our way of life. If skillfully implemented, this
approach is a win for the whole community, including future generations.
We ask you, the owners of this opportunity,to contact City Council to make sure Alpine-Balsam expresses our values fully by
considering the following:
Process: Evaluate development options with social return on investment.The city's scenarios generally don't capture sufficient
community benefit.Ten units, 55 units or 130 housing units, at the$164 per square foot land cost, do not"pencil"for the
public.The concerns of some neighbors about noise, pollution, congestion, safety, and views are valid (we neighbors share
them), but reducing community benefit shortchanges us all.
Partnerships now—set construction date:Craft a request for proposals to rapidly engage a master developer who, with
.ocal affordable housing developers and the community,can skillfully execute an innovative project by a set date. Project
completion could have been scheduled three years and many interest payments ago. The city is not an innovative developer but
can find one.
Site city and county(Iris and Broadway offices) east to Boulder]unction: Build an exciting urban civic campus to
enliven Boulder]unction, which is easily accessed from elsewhere with its existing regional transit, instead of drawing many
employees and government service seekers all the way to the western edge of Boulder.
Making Alpine-Balsam an amenity-rich, lower-traffic place, and not a destination for city-county services, may help those
concerned about adding lots of housing appreciate the value of adding people but not cars. People who are their employees,
teachers,first responders, friends, artists, musicians, baby-sitters,care-givers and adult children.
Mix of uses: Alpine-Balsam can sustain our innovative, prosperous culture by making it cheaper for change-makers and
supporting employees(see the book"The New Geography of Jobs") to live here. Prioritize mixed-income (not tow income and
"market rate," aka "currently, or soon-to-be, unaffordable" housing), permanently affordable, for-sale housing,especially for in-
commuters.Our single-family zoning and other land use policies force 60,000 of 100,000 employees to commute. We get their
traffic, carbon and toxic emissions but mostly miss their civic contributions(e.g. political engagement and volunteering)and
sales and property tax.
Provide permanently affordable work space especially for vital non profit/social enterprises and start-ups(whose often young,
public-spirited employees also must live elsewhere). Promote a vibrant urban setting with ground-floor retail that serves the
local community and lively public outdoor spaces. Such a local"caf6 culture"fosters a community connectedness that enhances
innovation and well-being.
Urban form:This large site can accommodate taller buildings(the existing building is over 60 feet) while minimizing loss of
views. Let's analyze how buildings of different heights can improve social and financial returns. Buildings can beautifully
complement their setting (e.g. NCAR).The recent Alpine-Balsam presentation presents a false choice between greater or lesser
density and height. Return on investment in meeting our values(diversity, sustainability, beauty with financial feasibility) should
be the overriding metric.
Access, mobility and parking: On-site car-bike sharing and transit passes built into each unit price with little resident parking
(for gas cars especially) means higher returns for the community(more saleable housing and commercial space)and more
affordable living for residents. Neighborhood parking permitting zones around the site will dramatically reduce overflow parking.
Connect the site to Sanitas Open Space, Mapleton Hospital redevelopment, Boulder Junction via an extended Goose Creek path
to the site, downtown and North Boulder via Broadway with reinvented park-like streets and paths prioritizing pedestrians, bikes
and electric buses to create safe, healthy, beautiful mobility and recreation.
Flood mitigation: Daylight Goose Creek from underground to the surface from North Boulder park to its emergence at 19t'i
Street and Balsam.
To get our money's worth, let's innovate to make Alpine Balsam a neighborhood that inspires the world like our open space,
Pearl Street Mall,greenways and NoBo community.
Benita Duran and David Adamson live in Boulder. Other signers on this commentary include Jerry Shapins, Roger Lewis, Steve
LeBlang and Richard Foy, who live in Boulder.
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