Ruth McHeyser, acting planning director, said the board and council agreed that since it could take as long as a year to come up with permanent regulations, a temporary solution is needed.
The council, she said, is acting on what council candidates heard on the campaign trail: numerous
residents of established neighborhoods complained that neighbors were adding on to their homes or demolishing them in favor of much-bigger houses. “People were concerned about losing the character of their neighborhoods,” McHeyser said.Veronica Precella, president of the Boulder Area Realtor Association, said what’s most alarming about the issue is the effort to prevent any kind of expansion until the city “figures it out,” which she said could be up to two years.
“What happens to the value of the property in the meantime?” she asked, noting the owner of a 1,000-square-foot, 1940s home won’t be able to update his home as he would like. “If he can’t do a pop or scrape or the measure is incredibly limiting, the value isn’t in the 1940s house – it’s in the land and the potential to build a modern structure on that land. If he’s not able to do anything, his investment is in jeopardy.”The city has yet to do a study that identifies the scope of the problem, Precella said. “We don’t believe the problem is of the magnitude they say it is,” and that overbuilding is more of an exception than the rule. “What we would really like is for the city to identify the problem and come up with a solution prior to enacting a temporary ordinance. Because the city didn’t deal with a couple of problem houses at the time of permitting doesn’t mean we should implement draconian measures for the city as a whole.”
McHeyser said that after hearing public testimony at its March 18th meeting, City Council asked city staff to work with the Planning Board to recommend an interim ordinance that the council will consider on April 15. "After April 15, property owners must adhere to the interim regulations, but many people should be able to move forward (with their plans)," she said. "Folks with plans for bigger homes than the interim limit will have to wait to see what the permanent regulations are to know for sure whether they can move forward as planned or need to make revisions. I can't guarantee what the outcome will be, but the intent I heard from both the Planning Board and council is the interim regulations would primarily address the bigger homes that are the perceived problem."Please make your voice heard
Now available
Click on this Survey Monkey link to answer questions about the FAR issue. The survey is not scientific but provides the Planning Board and City Council with an opportunity to gather the public’s input and gauge opinions:
Planning Board will recommend an interim ordinance on house sizes in established neighborhoods to City Council
City Council’s first reading of interim ordinance
6 p.m. Tuesday, May 6 (tentative)
City Council’s second reading of interim ordinance
For more information or to voice your opinion, e-mail or call the city Planning and Development Services: (303) 441-1880; plandevelop@bouldercolorado.gov.
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