Thread by @shayshinecastle

Next up: East Boulder subcommunity planning. I didn't take notes on this one (sorry!) but here's the presentation. www-static.bouldercolorado.gov/docs/Item_5A_-…

I'll try and tweet extra much to make up for this.

Not sure exactly when we last visited this. The most recent thread I have is from Sept. 2019(!)

Basically, as Kathleen King says, this process is about applying the Comp Plan goals to the area to guide future development.

Very few homes in this area, which runs roughly from the municipal airport to Arapahoe (north-south) and Foothills to 63rd (west-east).

About 1,610 acres, 466 residents, and 16,984 jobs in this East Boulder subcommunity

"There's a perception that this area offers affordable employment space," King says. That's somewhat true: Office rents are cheaper than other parts of the city, but industrial rents are actually somewhat higher (as offices have moved in and industrial space shrinks)

King says council touched on this topic in the fall. I found it! Oct. 20, 2020. Here's the thread in case you care: threadreaderapp.com/thread/1318772…

At that meeting, we went over "alternative futures" for land use, etc.

King: During outreach, we asked the question, do we want housing in east Boulder? Most people said yes.

"Community members are interested in providing housing as a way of reducing commutes .... and emissions."

Also, they want mixed-use — "very little interest" in residential-only uses, King says. "It's a convenient way to live, but also the opportunity to reduce" car trips and emissions, "which we heard a lot about."

Some more stats on East Boulder as it exists today:
It's 58% industrial
- Light industrial (616 acres)
- General industrial (180 acres)
- Community industrial (76 acres)

Public (193 acres)
Urban park (161 acres)
Open space acquired (89 acres)

There is a mobile home park there, but it's technically not part of the city. It's in unincorporated Boulder County.

Back to feedback: Many ppl want to see retail in the area, specifically markets, food and bev, etc.

Some concern that allowing housing will further push out industrial space and cause those biz to move to surrounding communities. (Already happening now, but the concern is it will continue/get worse.)

Also tension over parking (evergreen tweet). Residents want walkable neighborhoods, but the biz cite the abundance of surface parking as key to locating there.

There has been talk of a "mobility hub" at 55th/Arapahoe as well. Not sure how much we'll hear about that.

"People really value East Boulder as a place to do business," King says. Providing housing can be a part of that, so that people who work there can live there.

Kinda hate this, but there's an idea to call this area Boulder's "STEAM Zone" STEAM = Science. Tech. Engineering. Arts. Medical

Or STREAM, adding in R for Recreation

Let's just keep calling it East Boulder

King RE: mobility: "Arapahoe today and into the future is going to continue to be an key route in and out of the city", but in the future, 55th is going to become more important as well. "How do we make that (and Valmont Rd) more pleasant to travel on?"

For more than just cars, obviously.

OK back to 55th/Arap: Boulder is proposing a "totally new" land use designation: Mixed Use TOD (for transit-oriented development)

Lots of changes in land use, but it's kinda hard to convert the images to text as we're going over them. I'm failing you.

City is looking at San Lazaro mobile home park for possible annexation, an expensive process. The park is privately owned, so staff is looking into ways to make improvements while keeping it affordable.

We'll see how that goes.

Another proposal: To expand parks space near KOA lake, to provide some passive recreation space for workers/residents. But it didn't get a lot of traction with the working group and community members, bc it would take out nearby industrial space.

But it's still possible, King says to council, "so I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this one."

HAB looked at these plans and gave some input:
Build density around existing neighborhoods to make them more walkable
Get creative with live/work solutions to maintain industrial but add housing

Planning Board and TAB weighed in, too. "The term human-scaled design came up a lot," King says.

Other input:
More diversity of uses, form and architecture
Be creative with transportation and creating "destinations so ppl have more places to go"
Look to the future RE: transportation/parking
"Don't be afraid to experiment"

"There was real excitement around that idea of experimentation," King says. "Lots of exciting stuff, lots of hard work ahead."

A final land use plan will be ready for community feedback later in the summer, King says

Joseph asks about San Lazaro and annexation.
King: The city has had convos off and on with the prop owner. Annexation is expensive and complicated.

Community might be asked if they want annexation, too, according to King.

Brockett asks about the vision for mixed-use zones with industrial.
King: It depends, but that type of space is something we're getting a lot of value out of and ppl are protective over.

King: "The mixed-use industrial land use category isn't super well defined right now, and we don't have great examples of it elsewhere in the city. So we're kind of crafting it as we go."

Brockett: There was a proposal to change currently developed land to park land (near KOA). We don't own it, and it's already developed. How would that work?

King: It would take a lot of resources. "It would be a pretty big lift. But not impossible. It's been done in other places."

Brockett: A proposal was to change Flatirons Biz Park to mixed-use industrial. The working group suggested extending that to the other side of 55th. Why isn't that in the staff proposal explicitly?

It's very similar space, Brockett says.
King: We've tried to be careful about where we're introducing housing, but the working group did think it made sense to extend that zoning to the immediate area across 55th.

Young asks how the citywide retail strategy is being considered in the plan.

King: One thing we're thinking about is giving those industrial biz the "front-of-house opportunities" they don't have today.

Example: Chocolove is out there, but they can't operate a retail store at their space. Maybe they could in the future, King says.

omg YES. Then I would bike there for chocolate.

East Boulder is a food/grocery desert, King says. We've been talking to retailers to ask what they need to put a grocery store there. How many homes would we have to provide? What might fit in the future?

Young: Are there any city-owned properties that could be used for housing?
King: We looked at he MSC site (??) and the southern area of Valmont Park.

"We couldn't piece together a level of density or the type of neighborhood character that would support a 15-min neighborhood situation," King says.

MSC = Municipal Service Center, which is along Pearl. I've been there! That's where they processed all the debris from that big summer storm last year. There's a mulch pile, some offices, etc.

King: The Airport also gets brought up a lot, but there are "a lot of limitations" that have prevented the idea of exploring more housing.

The airport just re-upped an agreement with the feds that means it needs to stay an airport for another 20 years. Or else Boulder will have to pay back some serious $$ to the feds.

The airport master plan is coming up to be redone in 2024-2025, King says.

Wallach: One of our comp plan goals is a diversity of housing types. Are there any plans to make sure we meet that, so we don't just get large-scale, market-rate rental communities?

King: Yes, there's been a lot of convo. We're going to start doing some testing to figure out how much of each type of housing this area can accommodate.

"We're also trying to figure out how to create new ones ... specifically related to that combo of light industrial and residential unit type."

Wallach Sigh-O-Meter: 1

Wallach: "I'm assuming housing and retail are going to be much more profitable than light industrial." Where will those users go when we rezone to mixed-use industrial? Are you concerned they'll be priced out?

King: Yes, we are concerned. The next phase of work is to "test out how the market might receive some of these land use changes." And work through the implications of "commercial gentrification."

Wallach: I would ask you to keep an eye and mind on light industrial users. "I don't know where they're going to go. ... I think we ought to be cautious."

Swetlik grabs that thread: Is there a % cap of what other uses can take up space in mixed-use industrial? Could it happen that all residential and commercial take its place, then it's no longer industrial at all?

King: We don't typically have caps like that, but some of our land uses have caps on the amount of residential that can go there (dwelling unit/acre limits). So we can look at that.

Those aren't currently in the industrial land uses, but we can look at adding them, King says.

Swetlik: I'm less worried about housing than retail or office taking over industrial.
King: That's happening now. There's not much to prevent conversion of industrial space to office space, outside of zoning. We see that happening frequently now.

Weaver with his thoughts: "I think annexing San Lazaro makes all the sense in the world."

Ditto for that weird little spot by KOA Lake, with some industrial buildings.

"I really think the heart of all this and one key is mixed-use transit-oriented development," Weaver says. "That corner (55th/Arap) is where most of the food is, where much of the coffee, meeting place. That is a gathering place, and there's only a few others out there."

"Spend a lot of time trying to get that right," Weaver says.

"I think the ideas of these mixed-use industrial" are fantastic, Weaver says. "And it takes a lot of care."

"Watch the light industrial and watch the flex" space, Weaver says. "Because once it's gone, it's gone."

Suggests getting "a little more granular" on land use/zoning for specific uses.

Weaver: "Idk if it's a pipe dream or not, but one of the challenges getting down to Flatirons Biz Park ... not by car ... there's no connection." You have to cut through parking lots or down 55th (which has a bike lane but kinda sucks)

Can confirm, as I biked to the Daily Camera for years. 55th isn't the most heavily trafficked, but the bike lane was always full of shit (gravel, etc.) and going over the train tracks SUCKED.

Weaver on the airport: Getting some uses out there that serve the community at large is a good idea. (King mentioned it earlier as a possibilty)

Weaver on housing diversity: "You'll get Parc Mosaic out there everywhere if that's what you zone for."

Parc Mosaic are the luxury units that replaced older, somewhat affordable apartments and the bane of this council's existence. They HATE it and reference it often.

Weaver also doesn't love the idea of limits on dwelling units/per acre as a way to preserve industrial uses. We want to focus on uses, he says, not density.

Brockett: I encourage us to get really creative with how we design (zoning) here.

"Our existing zoning tends to be a little black-and-white. To the extent we can break down barriers ... to allow for creative, innovative, mixed-use districts" that's what we should be going for.

Brockett: "There are a lot of big parking lots in the area. ... Can we tune the rules so that we can fill in" not just tear stuff down and build new?

Brockett still talking. He rarely speaks for this long. (He's saying good stuff, tho.)

"If we want to make sure we don't have a monoculture of uses ... avoid blunter tools like dwelling unit per acre." Maybe it's % of uses or something, Brockett suggests.

Young: Maybe we could make near-term changes to add amenities, like food trucks.

OK, that wraps this one.

@threadreaderapp please unroll. Thank you!