Boulder, Colorado

Boulder2.jpg

Boulder, Colorado, located about twenty-five miles northwest of Denver, is a municipality of over 97,000 people (its larger Boulder US Census-designated CO Metropolitan statistical Area consists of over 294,000 residents).

Government

See the Colorado section of Politics, Elections, and Legislation for additional information.

Municipal

The city of Boulder is governed by a nine-member City Council that includes a Mayor and a Mayor pro-tem (chosen from the Councillors by the Council members). Boulder’s Mayor and Councillors are elected at-large and the terms they serve (either two or four years) are determined by the number of votes they receive. A Boulder City Council member is limited to serving three terms in his/her lifetime.

The City of Boulder has a council-manager governmental structure, meaning that the elected Council makes determinations and sets the policy for the city, to be carried out by the City Manager, who is appointed by the City Council.

County

Boulder County is the county in which the city of Boulder sits and of which it is the county seat. The county includes three other cities, several towns as well as unincorporated areas. The County is governed by the elected, full-time, three-member Boulder County Board of Commissioners, consisting of three commissioners. The Board of Commissioners is responsible for long-term planning for regional development, transportation and other forms of development.

The County is divided into three districts (of roughly equal population). A county commissioner is drawn from each of these districts (in which s/he must reside) but each is elected by county voters as a whole, regardless of voter residence. As the governmental structure aims to provide representation for all of the county’s districts, no two commissioners can reside in the same district. County Commissioners serve four year terms.

In addition, the County is served by other elected officials, including a County Clerk and Recorder, an Assessor, Coroner, District Attorney, Sheriff, Surveyor, and Treasurer.

In addition to the Board’s efforts, the County uses committees to do its work. Committees of note:

• The Planning Commission (Note that zoning services are provided for the county for unincorporated areas; towns and cities have their own zoning functions)
• The Boulder County Regional Homeless Systems Executive Board
• The Housing and Human Services Advisory Committee

 

Co-operative Housing

Co-operative (co-op) housing has become an increasingly used option in Boulder. For many years, co-ops were essentially illegal, as Boulder's bylaws stipulated occupancy numbers of not more than three or four unrelated individuals.

Boulder's ordinances have changed to include co-op housing but the bylaws still do not appear to meet the needs of co-op residents and new co-ops have met resistance in the community and at the City. 

Land Use

Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan ( BVCP) http://bouldercolorado.gov/bvcp

 

YIMBYTown 2016

In June 2016, Boulder's Better Boulder group organized the first annual YIMBYTown conference which brought together hundreds of pro-development activists. Better Boulder advocates for a range of smart development initiatives: affordable housing, walkable communities, sustainable transportation, infill development, environmental stewardship, and inclusiveness.

Click here for more on the YIMBYTown conferences.

Organizations in housing / land-use

• Better Boulder - YIMBY-affiliated group. http://betterboulder.com/. @abetterboulder.  
   
• Livable Boulder - key proponents of 2015 growth-control / neighborhood control initiative.  
   

• Plan Boulder.

References

• Wikipedia - Boulder, Colorado
• Wikipedia - Boulder County
• Boulder County website
• The City of Boulder, Colorado website
• Better Boulder
• Danish, Paul.
  • "Inconvenient truths about 'affordable' housing and Ballot Question 300." Boulder Weekly, October 29th, 2015. http://www.boulderweekly.com/opinion/danish-plan/inconvenient-truths-about-ldquoaffordablerdquo-housing-and-ballot-question-300/.
    
    "The campaign to pass the Danish Plan." Boulder Weekly, May 14th, 2015. http://www.boulderweekly.com/opinion/danish-plan/the-campaign-to-pass-the-danish-plan/. 
    
    "The road to the Danish Plan." Boulder Weekly, May 7th, 2015. http://www.boulderweekly.com/opinion/danish-plan/the-road-to-the-danish-plan/. 
    
    "The Danish Plan recalled." Boulder Weekly. April 30th, 2015. http://www.boulderweekly.com/opinion/danish-plan/the-danish-plan-recalled/. 
    
    "Boulder’s insane densification." Boulder Weekly, April 16th, 2015. http://www.boulderweekly.com/opinion/danish-plan/boulderrsquos-insane-densification/. 
     

 

• de Raismes, Joseph N. , III, H. Lawrence Hoyt, Peter L. Pollock, Jerry P. Gordon, David J. Gehr. "Growth Management In Boulder, Colorado: A Case Study." 2015.  http://livableboulder.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Growth-Management-In-Boulder-Colorado-a-Case-Study-.pdf. 
   
• Deloria, Philip J.  "Drain the Lake! Tear Down the Butte! Build Paradise!: The Environmental Dimensions of Social and Economic Power in Boulder, Colorado, and Benzie, Michigan." Southern California Quarterly, Vol. 89, No. 1 (Spring 2007), pp. 65-88. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41172353.
   
• Dyni, Ann. Pioneer Voices of the Boulder Valley: An Oral History. (Boulder, CO: Boulder County Parks and Open Space Department, 1989).
   
• Engle, Robert, Peter Navarro, and Richard Carson. "On the Theory of Growth Controls." Journal of Urban Economics, 32,269-283 (1992). http://econweb.ucsd.edu/~rcarson/papers/TheoryGrowthControls.pdf. 
   
• Fetter, Richard. Frontier Boulder. (Boulder, CO: Johnson Books, 1953).
  Johnson Publishing Company, 1980).
   
• Hall, Peter. "The Containment of Urban England." The Geographical Journal, Vol. 140, No. 3 (Oct., 1974), pp. 386-408. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1796533.  [article summary of Hall's 1973 book of the same name. Evaluates the effects and dynamics in UK land-use following the 1947 establishment of urban Green Belts and full governmental control of development]. 
  https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B_E90AYG2sPDelVqeFBVVDFobVk.
   
• Jackson, Katharine J. "The Need for Regional Management of Growth: Boulder, Colorado, as a Case Study." The Urban Lawyer, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Spring 2005), pp. 299-322. https://www.jstor.org/stable/27895535.  
   
• Livable Boulder. "Boulder’s Growth: a succinct history." November 1st, 2015. http://livableboulder.org/boulders-secret-limited-growth/boulders-growth-a-succinct-history/.
   
• Markus, Ben. "Denver Construction Is A-Boomin’, But For How Long?" Colorado Public Radio, April 4th, 2017. https://www.cpr.org/news/story/denver-construction-is-a-boomin-but-for-how-long.
   
• McCormick, Kathleen. "Gentle Infill: Boomtowns are making room for skinny homes, granny flats, and other affordable housing." Land Lines (Lincoln Institute of Land Policy), July 2016. https://law.wustl.edu/landuselaw/Articles/Gentle%20Infill.pdf. 
   
• Olmsted, Frederick Law. "The improvement of Boulder, Colorado; report to the City Improvement Association."  Boulder City Improvement Association, 1910. https://archive.org/details/improvementofbou00olmsrich.
   
• Pendall, Rolf, Jonathan Martin, and William B. Fulton. 2002. "Holding the Line: Urban Containment in the United States." Washington, DC: Brookings Institution. [§2.9]. https://www.brookings.edu/research/holding-the-line-urban-containment-in-the-united-states/. 
   
• Pettem, Silvia. Boulder: Evolution of a City. (University Press of Colorado, 1994; Revised Edition, 2006).  Amz $18.51 Prime. 
   
• Pettem, Sylvia. Red Rock to Riches: Gold Mining in Boulder County, Then and Now. (Boulder, CO: Stonehenge, 1980).
   
• Phyllis. A Look at Boulder: From Settlement to City. (Boulder, CO: Pruett, 1981).
   
• Pollock, Peter. "Controlling Sprawl in Boulder: Benefits and Pitfalls." Land Lines, January 1998. https://www.lincolninst.edu/publications/articles/controlling-sprawl-boulder.
   
• Schoolland, John B. Boulder Then and Now (Boulder, CO: Pruett Press, 1967).
   
• Schoolland, John B. Boulder in Perspective: From Search for Gold to The Gold of Research (Boulder, CO: Johnson Publishing Company, 1980). 
   
• Staley, Samuel R., Jefferson G. Edgens, Ph.D., Gerard C.S. Mildner. "A Line in the Land: Urban-growth Boundaries, Smart Growth, and Housing Affordability." RPPI (Reason Public Policy Institute), Policy Study No. 263, 1999.  http://reason.org/files/c5ba9be86e1bda65352dcf0e87a46c5a.pdf.
   
• Taylor, Carol. "Learn more about man who helped plan Boulder." Daily Camera, April 26th, 2013. http://www.dailycamera.com/ci_23116372/frederick-law-olmsted-jr-helped-plan-boulder.