2020 BVCP Mid-Term Update: Alpine Balsam

2020 Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan Mid-Term Update

What’s Proposed?

Land Use Changes to Implement the Alpine-Balsam Area Plan for City-Owned Properties

In 2019 the Planning Board and City Council adopted the Alpine-Balsam Area Plan. The Area Plan outlines the desired future development of an area – its character and scale, mix of land uses, and the locations of streets, paths, parking, public spaces and urban services. It also defines desired characteristics that should be preserved enhanced or prioritized.

Land Use changes will be included in the BVCP Mid-term Update to reflect the area plan’s direction. No other changes to land use are proposed in the Alpine-Balsam area (i.e. privately-owned properties).

BVCP land use designations are less specific than those outlined in the area plan but they must be updated to proceed with the next steps to develop zoning and other regulatory tools to ensure the desired outcomes described in the plan. The city’s approach for Area Plan implementation has been to:

1. Adopt the Area Plan
2. Change the BVCP land use designations
3. Create and implement zoning that is appropriate for achieving the goals and objectives described in the Area Plan
4. Develop other regulatory and implementation mechanisms to implement the plan (e.g. Access and Parking Districts, Urban Design Strategies, etc.)

Land Use Recommendations

Proposed BVCP Land Use designations for the city-owned properties are straight-forward, based on the Alpine-Balsam Area Plan Land Use Map and Prototypes. The table and maps below provide the descriptions of these prototypes and the corresponding BVCP Land Uses. More detailed descriptions of the Alpine-Balsam prototypes can be found in the Area Plan.

Recommended BVCP Land Use

Alpine-Balsam Area Plan Land Use Concept

Read more HERE about the land uses and next steps .

What’s the BVCP Process?

BVCP Land Use Changes

While the BVCP land use changes for Alpine-Balsam are relatively straight-forward based on the adopted area plan, city staff will be finalizing recommendations for all proposed changes over the next few months (Oct.-Nov. 2020). In order to keep community members safe, we are not conducting in-person meetings or events. New information will be posted regularly on the Project Website. Please provide feedback in the form below or send comments or questions directly to staff: Jean Gatza at 303-441-4907 or gatzaj@bouldercolorado.gov.

Planning Board and City Council Public are anticipated to take action on the proposed changes by the end of 2020. Sign-up to receive e-mail notification for meetings, engagement opportunities, or other information regarding the BVCP Mid-Term Update here.

Alpine-Balsam Implementation Next Steps

Information about hospital deconstruction and other implementation work can be found on the Alpine-Balsam Implementation Project website: https://bouldercolorado.gov/planning/alpinebalsam and community members can sign-up to receive the Alpine-Balsam newsletter.

Zoning Analysis and Community Engagement to Follow BVCP Land Use Changes

Analysis is underway to determine if the objectives in the plan can be achieved with existing zoning districts and to assess the benefit of developing Form Based Code (FBC) for the city-owned properties at Alpine-Balsam. FBC is a type of legal design regulation that describes the desirable physical characteristics of buildings and is established to create a sense of place in the area being developed or redeveloped. Boulder has employed Form Based Code Form in Boulder Junction area to further implement the goals of the Transit Village Area Plan.

This approach is potentially attractive for Alpine-Balsam to craft specific urban design and character regulatory tools prior to review of development applications. The process to develop Form Based Code would include community engagement to identify preferences for a range of urban design topics such as height, massing, scale, bulk, orientation, configuration, and architecture character.

It is anticipated that the community process to guide zoning options and decisions will commence later this year or in early 2021:

• Kickoff and Baseline Information Sharing – late 2020 or Q1 2021
• Community Engagement – Q1 – Q2 2021
• Adoption – Q3 2021