Road map:
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Boulder draws from and sends workers to the same counties
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See how you can save at the pump before you hit the road to work or play
With gas prices soaring well above the highest price Americans likely have ever imagined, it’s hard to consider spending that federal rebate check on anything but fuel to get from home to work and back again. In fact, many Coloradans – like other Americans – are rethinking their vacation destinations this summer in light of travel costs, according to AAA Colorado.
The organization reported the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas in
While gas prices are impacting where people are traveling, they’re not impacting overall plans to travel somewhere, said Debbi Lardinois, communications specialist for AAA Colorado. “What we see is that people, to conserve money, make up the difference by staying closer to home, eating at less-expensive restaurants and staying at less-expensive hotels. I don’t think we’ve seen any reductions in travel. People are just going to be traveling closer to home.” That means the tourism industry’s patrons may not see a big reduction in business but rather just a change in from where their business is coming, Lardinois said. “Americans are just not willing to give up their vacations – we get so few of them compared with other countries,” she added.
How can you make sure that the gas pump doesn’t suck up all of your federal rebate check, whether you’re on vacation or going about your daily business? Make your first stop the World Wide Web, where tips are plentiful:
- http://autos.msn.com/everyday/gasstations.aspx?zip_&src=Netx gives you the current gas prices in your area when you type in the zip code of your home, work or other destination.
- http://www.aaa.com/aaa/006/Press/AAAFuelGuide.html?zip=80521 provides AAA’s Fuel Price finder and Fuel Cost Calculators, among other valuable tools gas cost-cutting tools.
- http://www.howtoadvice.com/savinggas offers 30 gas-saving tips, including not warming up your engine too long (which is easier to do, now that the morning’s are quite so cold) and how and when to buy gas.
- http://www.fueleconomy.gov/FEG/drive.shtml includes advice about combining and planning trips as well as vehicle maintenance and choosing a fuel-efficient vehicle.
Boulder to enjoy benefits of being Xcel’s first ‘smart grid’ city
Xcel Energy has chosen the city of
Tom Henley, Xcel Energy spokesman, said behind the scenes, the smart grid would give Xcel Energy instant access to what’s happening between the power stations and homes. Instead of having to examine an entire circuit to determine what’s wrong when the power goes out, workers will have that information immediately available, saving time and money. For customers, that means when their lights go out, it won’t be out for as long, he said.
Xcel Energy will install “black boxes” in homes of customers who choose to actively participate in the project, allowing them to access and control their smart appliances via the Internet and to track their energy use,
Workers with Xcel Energy could potentially use remote access to adjust furnaces or air conditioning units with customers’ permission or in an emergency to lessen the drain on power, he said. The black box also will tell customers who choose to purchase renewable energy when it’s windy so they can run the dishwasher or do their laundry as wind power is available,
Xcel Energy is footing $15 million of the cost to install the grid, and its partners within the Smart Grid Consortium will invest the remaining $85 million,
“This is an attempt to create a more modern and efficient electrical grid for customers, that will ultimately allow them to reap the benefits at, hopefully, a lower rate with more efficiency and choice,”
Ken Hotard, senior vice president of public affairs for the Boulder Area Realtor Association, said it’s no surprise that Xcel Energy would choose a community known for its green efforts to install the first smart grid. “Can you make it (
However, Hotard said it’s too early to tell how the grid will affect home values, but lower utility costs are always attractive to potential homebuyers. “I doubt that it would have a direct impact on home prices. Any buyer looks at energy costs for a home, but they’re more likely to consider a home that has reasonable energy costs.”
Xcel Energy Energy Chief Executive Officer Dick Kelly will talk more about the
Remodeling in a slower real estate market
In a slower real estate market, remodeling – especially in hopes of increasing your home’s sale price – may not be the best way to improve your home. Instead, replacing siding, windows and the roof costs less and may reap a few more rewards, though don’t expect to recoup 100 percent of your costs either way, according to Remodeling magazine. Here’s a look at how much various remodeling projects might cost and how much of that cost you can expect to recoup compared with replacement projects, according to Remodeling’s 2007 Cost vs. Value Report”:
Source: Remodeling magazine
Boulder officials look to limit home size
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.Boulder among top 100 of nation’s business-friendly metros
Forbes magazine recently ranked Boulder No. 77 out of the 200 Best Places for Business and Careers in the nation.
Common themes for the business-welcoming metros included solid job growth, an educated labor supply and low business costs, according to Forbes. The rankings cover the 200 largest metro areas (populations over 240,000) as defined by the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and are based on factors such as five-year historical job and income growth, migration trends, labor, tax, energy, office space costs, cost-of-living index (which factors in housing, transportation, food and other household expenditures), crime, educational attainment, presence of four-year colleges, and cultural and recreational opportunities.
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