{"id":3751,"date":"2010-11-05T17:50:38","date_gmt":"2010-11-05T23:50:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=3751"},"modified":"2010-11-05T17:50:38","modified_gmt":"2010-11-05T23:50:38","slug":"planning-the-future-of-downtown-boulder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=3751","title":{"rendered":"Planning the Future of Downtown Boulder"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_3753\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/soda-google-earth.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3753\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-3753 \" title=\"soda google earth\" src=\"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/soda-google-earth-300x132.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"132\" srcset=\"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/soda-google-earth-300x132.jpg 300w, http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/soda-google-earth-1024x450.jpg 1024w, http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/soda-google-earth-400x176.jpg 400w, http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/soda-google-earth.jpg 1258w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-3753\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">from Google Earth, click for a larger view<\/p><\/div>\n<p>On Wednesday night November 3, 2010, Boulder City Council unanimously provided direction and outlined the next steps for<strong> <\/strong>the South of Downtown Area (SoDA), Downtown (DT) Zone Districts, and height modifications citywide.\u00a0 Community Planning and Sustainability Director David Driskell gave the staff presentation, which was divided into long-term and short-term activities.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>long-term work plan<\/strong> will consider the larger context south of Canyon, with a focus on the public realm and city-owned properties, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Developing      a vision for a\u00a0 new Canyon Boulevard      streetscape (<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Boulevard\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Boulevard<\/a> ) and an implementation strategy<\/li>\n<li>A connections      and open space plan (note: lower-case \u2018open space\u2019 means open area around      developments)<\/li>\n<li>Farmers Market area and civic-use      pad east of\u00a0 the St. Julien Hotel<\/li>\n<li>Look      at the role of the Downtown Design Advisory Board (DDAB) &#8212; perhaps broadening      the area considered by a design advisory board<\/li>\n<li>Consider      revisions to the community benefits for height modifications &#8212; this may include open space performance      criteria and a possible cash-in-lieu option for open space<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The <strong>short term work items <\/strong>will include developing options and recommendations on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Setbacks      from the centerline for Canyon        Blvd.<\/li>\n<li>3<sup>rd<\/sup> and 4<sup>th<\/sup> story setbacks (relative to lower floors) in DT zones &#8212; change 20 ft to 15 ft or maybe eliminate setback altogether<\/li>\n<li>Eliminate      below-grade habitable floor area from floor-area ratio calculation      in DT zones, thus allowing greater above ground floor area<\/li>\n<li>Addition      of interface areas in high-density zones south of Canyon that limit      buildings to 3-stories-only within 50 ft of lower-density zones<\/li>\n<li>Change      in the by-right height in DT zones from 35ft to 38ft &#8212; to accommodate      modern building practices and allow a higher floor-plate on the first      floor; this would allow 3 stories      by-right<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>City Council voted 7-0 (Gray absent, Karakehian out of the room) on a motion by Cowles, seconded by Morzel, to support the short term goals study.\u00a0 Council also informally agreed that direction for the long term goals should come from the discussion rather than a formal motion.\u00a0 In discussion, several council members indicated that the study area should extend from 9<sup>th<\/sup> St. to 16<sup>th<\/sup> St. and Arapahoe Ave. to Canyon Blvd.\u00a0 Councilpersons Morzel, Cowles, Becker, Osborne, and Appelbaum generally supported the staff proposal for long-term studies.<\/p>\n<p>Council member Karakehian indicated some reservations about a 4-block boulevard and relayed \u201cangst\u201d he is hearing from the downtown community about the 78 ft setback and potential for over-planning this area.\u00a0 David Driskell indicated that the 78ft setback comes from the current code and planning staff would simply like to look at options.\u00a0 He indicated a desire for Canyon to be a connector rather than a dividing line and that it should be transformed into a place you\u2019d like to walk along.\u00a0 Council member Cowles agreed that some property owners are concerned about losing some of their building envelope to the setback, but urged them to keep an open mind because of the tremendous value that will be created by turning Canyon into a true boulevard.\u00a0 Cowles noted that Canyon as presently configured \u201ccreates a wall of severance from the beating heart of our community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Council member Ageton expressed general concern about the size of the planning project, the unclear primary focus of the study, and restrictions on Canyon related to CDOT.\u00a0 Council member Osborne agreed that this is a project of considerable scope, and that it should be discussed at the Council retreat in January in the context of the larger City work plan and the Planning Department work plan.\u00a0 She also noted that this could be as transformative as the Pearl St pedestrian mall, with huge and wonderful potential south of Canyon.\u00a0 In addition, she pointed out that great things happened for our City on election night this year and the new accommodations tax (2A) should be a source of planning dollars, since this project is likely to increase tourist revenue.<\/p>\n<p>Councilpersons Appelbaum and Morzel indicated that it is important to know sooner than later how the streets will be laid out and what the basic framework will be.\u00a0 A piecemeal approach might result in some development that precludes larger goals.\u00a0 A framework viewed from the 30,000 ft level is needed.<\/p>\n<p>Residents can discuss these and other options for the City at<strong> Boulder Matters <\/strong>meetings:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Foothills<\/strong><strong> Elementary School<\/strong>, Cafeteria, 1001   Hawthorne Ave. on <strong> <\/strong>Saturday, Nov. 6\u00a0from\u00a010 a.m. to 1 p.m.\u00a0 Plancakes will be served for $3 at 10 am. <strong>Focus topics include <\/strong>Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan, Bear and Mountain Lion Management Plan, Waste Reduction.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Community Wrap-up Event at <\/strong><strong>West<\/strong><strong> Boulder Senior  Center<\/strong>, 909 Arapahoe   Ave. on Wednesday, Nov. 10\u00a0from \u00a05 to 7 p.m.\u00a0 <strong>Focus topics include<\/strong> Boulder\u2019s Energy Future, Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan, Waste Reduction.\u00a0 Join residents from all over the city of Boulder to discuss community issues that affect us all, including an introduction by Boulder Mayor Susan Osborne and a look at the future in <strong>3D Boulderama<\/strong>!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday night November 3, 2010, Boulder City Council unanimously provided direction and outlined the next steps for the South of Downtown Area (SoDA), Downtown (DT) Zone Districts, and height [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":3753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[11,100],"class_list":["post-3751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dot-gov","tag-city-council","tag-downtown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3751"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3761,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751\/revisions\/3761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}