Boulder city staffers have presented several potential scenarios for the future of a 493-acre pocket of land just north of the city. If one of those scenarios ultimately comes to fruition, it could see the creation of anywhere from 4,300 to 6,700 new housing units and 1,900 to 3,100 new jobs.
The Area III Planning Reserve sits northeast of U.S. 36 between Broadway and Jay Road. While there are parts of the Planning Reserve that will likely be preserved as rural, the city and county have earmarked the area for possible future urban development.
The area presents a unique opportunity for Boulder to expand outward instead of redeveloping existing city land. The relatively flat land in the Planning Reserve also makes the area a good candidate for development, transportation and recreation purposes.
But in order to develop the Planning Reserve, Boulder would have to find ways to route city services and utilities there, according to a city staff presentation. Currently, there are no city waterlines, wastewater infrastructure or floodplain mapping in the area, and transit options are limited. The closest fire station is a half mile away, and the nearest police station 1.4 miles away.
Importantly, not all of the land in the Planning Reserve is up for grabs. The city owns 219 acres of the land, and 189 acres of that tract have already been reserved for use as an urban park. Five acres of the land are being used for a U.S. Forest Service ranger station. Another 269 acres are privately owned, but while the city doesn’t currently own the land, there could one day be opportunities to develop the area.
In developing possible scenarios for the area, city staffers counted the private land as area that may eventually be developed. According to their analysis, the potential development area includes all the land in the Planning Reserve except the five acres for the ranger station, the 189 acres of dedicated park land and an estimated 37 acres needed for transportation rights-of-way, such as streets and multi-use paths.
That leaves about 262 acres that city staffers have envisioned being used for housing, businesses and some light industrial or manufacturing uses. While the scenarios staff developed are not the only possible options, they were designed to illustrate several possibilities — and what it would take to make them a reality.
The scenarios differ from each other in terms of how much land would be devoted to residential purposes, parks and recreation, and non-residential uses such as commercial space or community services. It’s not a given that the area will be developed at all, but in these scenarios, if the area were to be developed, it could be home to 9,350 to 14,500 people.
It’s not clear yet if the city’s water and sewer systems would be capable of serving the Planning Reserve area. According to a city memo, the area might need its own standalone stormwater system because of “capacity issues” in the city’s existing system. And there may also need to be improvements to expand capacity on U.S. 36 to accommodate additional traffic.
It’s also unclear at this time what developing the area would cost, since staff have not yet done a detailed cost analysis for the different aspects of the project. But it’s expected to require “significant capital expenditures,” the memo said. And it’s “unlikely that current fund balances in the city’s utility, transportation, parks and general funds will be sufficient to fund the required capital expenditures without utilizing debt financing.”
City staffers have said a higher-density project should generally cost less than a lower-density project.
Council members on June 27 discussed the scenarios for the Planning Reserve and offered their thoughts on it. Councilmember Tara Winer said she wanted to find the optimal balance between competing demands and constraints for the area.
“I am kind of looking for a magic density number that doesn’t put too much stress on our system, … that wouldn’t put stress on us cost-wise, and would also give us some middle-income housing,” she said.
Councilmember Lauren Folkerts said she’d like to see scenarios looking at how modern or eco-friendly construction could affect infrastructure needs in the Planning Reserve. She said it was “problematic” that city staff used existing construction standards to design the scenarios and that she’d like to see them look at more efficient types of construction that could cut down on infrastructure costs.
And Councilmember Mark Wallach said he believed the city would need to use some of its own land to ensure that a “great deal” of affordable and middle-income housing gets built in the area.
If the city does develop the Planning Reserve, development could start around 2030 and there could be a fully-built neighborhood there by around 2050.
