Boulder Development News

Boulder City Council Approves Major Update to Comprehensive Plan with Key Amendments

The Boulder City Council voted to approve the major update to the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan. This decision followed extensive deliberation on various proposed amendments and conditions of approval originating from planning boards and county commissioners. The council approved the plan with several modifications based on straw polls and discussions, including changes to policy language regarding housing diversity, tribal consultation, and land use designations in specific areas. Notably, the council decided to keep the original language for policy 82 concerning housing diversity and supply, adopt revised language for policy 102 regarding tribal consultation (removing "American Indian" but including the county), and modify policy 103 to exclude the county from local indigenous people engagement. They voted to retain the history section (pages 14-17) despite the county commissioners' proposal to delete it. A significant decision was made to change land use designations in the Gun Barrel area from Neighborhood One to Rural, while leaving other Area 2 designations unchanged. Several recommended amendments from the Planning Board and County Planning Commission were adopted, including changes to policy 27 (integrated land use and transportation), policy 53 (local renewable energy generation), and policy 16 (out of city utility service). Council also adopted new language for the "future of transportation" policy and revised definitions for industrial and park land use designations. The council ultimately approved the comprehensive plan update with these adopted modifications.