Housing Solutions Community Brainstorm
Consultation has concluded
Do you have ideas and solutions to help address housing challenges in Boulder? The Housing Advisory Board wants to hear them.
The newly formed Housing Advisory Board (HAB) wants to brainstorm housing solutions with Boulder residents. They are offering two ways to participate:
- In-person at HAB’s Aug, 22 meeting. This meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in Council Chambers in the Municipal Building at 1777 Broadway. Each speaker will have up to five minutes to present their solution. Sign-ups will begin at 5:45 p.m. Contact Cori Marin, MarinC@bouldercolorado.gov, if you have questions about making a presentation.
- Online here at Be Heard Boulder, where participants can submit their housing solutions and vote on other submissions. This online participation option will close on Sept 5.
The input provided online and in-person will be used by HAB members to help inform their work plan, find trends, identify synergies with current city work and bring great ideas forward as recommendations to city council and boards.
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The Housing Advisory Board wants to hear your ideas. Please share your ideas here and vote on others that have been submitted.
Be aware that your post will be available for the public to view.
View All Ideasover 2 years ago
Work with CU to build more student housing
CU has the land and 30,000 students are one of the biggest reasons our rental rates stay so high... Even 500 more affordable student housing units would make a huge impact on the rental rates.
over 2 years ago
Provide low-cost financing for ADUs
The city could underwrite a loan program for ADUs and reduce the cost for borrowers. In return the borrowers would agree to lower rents that can only be moderately increased (below the CPI index) for the time of the mortgage. It would be an elegant no- or very-low-cost solution to provide plenty of rent-controlled living space. Ideally these ADUs get built in batches and there would be additional cost-benefits through that process (cheaper material, streamlined workflow, etc.). The City could also review their permit process to see if additional cost saving could be found.
over 2 years ago
Find ways to encourage rental investment owners to help solve the problem
The fact is that 50% of all available housing is rental, add in 'stealth rentals' and it will push that figure far higher.. Rental housing is owned by investors (single or group) who only want a return on the investment and have zero incentive to make improvements or limit rents (unfortunately Colorado law does not allow rent control). Yet, the city focuses only on generating affordable housing fees from new residential development, demonizing both the developer and homeowner in the process. That rental market is just as much (if not more) the cause of the affordability problem as new/resale home prices. So you need to find a way to have the rental market contribute to the solution...There are hundreds of small rental homes that could easily be replaced with a duplexes if you'd let the market do its thing.
over 2 years ago
Incentivize density, outdoor community spaces, and shared exterior walls
Relative to many towns in the US, Boulder has fairly low property taxes. Along with zoning changes, increased property taxes on single family homes and private yards could incentivize building ADUs, conversions to multi-family spaces, and opening up rental spaces in existing single family homes. Fewer private lawns and standalone homes would also represent a net decrease to energy used in the city.
over 2 years ago
Support Ride/Van Share Programs from Nearby Cities
Within 15 miles of Downtown Boulder are Lafayette, Lyons, Louisville, Superior, Gun Barrel.... for most every other US city that's a dream commute. So stop trying to figure out how to cram more people into the tiny 3 miles radius of Boulder and try harder to reduce the impact of commuting into Boulder. In cities like Seattle they have very mature Ride/Van Share programs that the city supports. Use those models and offer a slick websites for people to connect and share city subsidized van pools, market it, push it.... Provide great central parking options for 15-30 vans and you've also taken several 100 cars off the streets.
