Thread by @shayshinecastle

New thread for the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan mid-term update. I'm not sure how much I'll tweet; I need to pay attention, having never done one of these.

Chris Meschuk, interim planning director, says one of the "great things" about the BVCP is that it doesn't live on a shelf. Boulder really uses it in its decision-making.

These next three tweets are literally all the notes I took from the packet: Next major update 2025
Mid-term update not intended for major policy changes
A chance for the public to weigh in on changes that don’t require significant resources

Anticipated changes:
Amend BVCP with map changes made on recently approved projects (OSMP master plan, Alpine-Balsam, etc.) and open space purchases
Include elements of Climate Mobilization Action Plan

Sorry, next two tweets. That's literally all I got out of it.

OK, one more note: It's not recommended at this time to do anything with the city's Area III Planning Reserve. Basically the area we can grow into.

Meschuk going over the "super IGA" (intergovernmental agreement) in Boulder County that everyone but Erie and Superior(?) are part of, basically saying how big they'll grow and where, so there aren't "annexation wars" over land.

RE: Area III Planning reserve. This is a "major, major" decision/process for the city, senior planner Jean Gatza says. "If there's continued interest in this, we explore it over the next couple of years" and be ready to consider in 2025.

That and my earlier tweet seem in conflict, so allow me to clarify: Community members have expressed interest in activating this area. But, as Gatza explains, this is a multi-year process. So staff recommends getting started on studies now, in time for the 2025 full BVCP update.

Meschuk: It's such a big change to consider expanding our growth boundary. If the studies indicate expansion is feasible, that would be the primary focus of the 2025 BVCP update.

Yates: If we launch it now and a subsequent council says to slow down, how easy is that work to pick back up?
Meschuk: The baseline urban services study is an analysis of if we were to expand the city, do we have the ability to provide those services still? (fire, police, etc.)

"It has a pretty good shelf life. It still would be very much valid to consider in 2030 or 2035."

Brockett: Does that study need to be kicked off in a mid-term update? Or anytime?
Gatza: Anytime.

Meschuk: The idea of the study is that the first step of a service area expansion is a big one. This breaks it down into two pieces: We learn the technical info and then can incorporate that into comp plan updates.

Weaver: Don't we own some land in Area III that is parks and rec land?
Gatza: Yes
Weaver: So we've already done a little work. We've already laid out some pieces on the board.

Area III is ~500 acres. 200 of them are for future parks, Meschuk says.

Bought with parks and rec dollars.

Meschuck: If we were to consider service expansion, we'd do it for all the area. Then get a plan for expanding city boundary, but we'd have to meet state law for contiguity. So we'd need to start with land next to existing city limits.

That was in response to a Young q, btw.

Friend: What we're talking about is something we'd be looking at in 2025 as a possible expansion. And if we don't do this urban services baseline study, we can't do that expansion? So we're leaving the door open by doing this work?

Meschuk and Gatza: That is a correct summary.

Accurate summary, rather. Bah, words.

Mid-term BVCP update schedule:
First Quarter 2020
• Finalize the scope and schedule
• Open the public request process
• Begin other tasks as directed by the decision-making bodies

Second Quarter 2020
• Complete screening process for public requests
• Continue work on other tasks as directed by the decision-making bodies

Third Quarter 2020
• Community engagement window
• Analysis on proposed changes

Fourth Quarter 2020
• Complete analysis and recommendations
• Public hearings to adopt changes to the BVCP

Planning Board supports these goals/scope for the mid-term update.

I missed an important q but they're talking about my 'hood: 30th/Foothills/Valmont and thereabouts

Phase 2 of planning for this area will be broken into pieces. Boulder loves that.

But there's a good reason, Meschuk says: Are the land uses we envisioned in 2007 still the ones we want?

Swetlik has a q about the update schedule: The important parts will be during back-to-school and the holidays. Could we move it up so that ppl can participate?

Gatza: It depends. The community engagement will be about anything new that comes up. Most of the changes are about things that have already occurred.

"Part of the purpose of this is that (any new things) aren't really big changes" that require more engagement. "of course we want to make sure we're not doing this at times that aren't convenient for folks."

Weaver: We're really trying to get an update done in the year it's actually named for.

I think I might have and idea what they're talking about in references to 30th Street, etc.: The Boulder Junction plan. It used to be called something else... Transit Village Area or something.

I feel like I should use the disclaimer here that I hope you supplement my tweets with more rigorously reported materials that I and others produce. If journalism is the first draft of history, these tweets, while helpful, are a *very* rough first draft.

Weaver bringing up the Minneapolis 2040 plan, which outlaws single-family only zoning.

It's their comp plan update, essentially, Weaver says.

Something Boulder could use from it: A form module. Along with dictating intensity and uses, the comp plan dictates what buildings can *look* like.

"Idk if we can get it done," Weaver says, "but I think there's use in" developing our own.

It's one of the reasons they were able to pass such a big change as allowing duplexes, triplexes, and other attached dwellings everywhere in the city.

Similar suggestions here (and in every other white, wealthy town) have been INSANELY controversial.

It's helpful, Weaver says, bc ppl can see what the change would actually look like. Meschuk agrees.

Some of those components already exist in Boulder, but given all Boulder's regulations "it makes it really, really hard to anticipate what the form of any building will be" bc our planning is very area-specific, Meschuk says.

OK, That's the end of the comp plan update.

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thanks!