Published in the Daily Camera 2025-02-22 – Photo by Cliff Grassmick
Anyone who walks around our neighborhoods has seen numerous homes that have been rebuilt into modern luxury mansions. These multimillion-dollar residences are attainable only by the wealthy and typically not young families. They may be one of multiple residences that the owners enjoy traveling between. Periodically vacant homes lead to less vibrant neighborhoods.
Boulder’s school-age population is declining at an alarming rate of 1.5% per year. The overall population of Boulder peaked in 2017 and has been declining at the rate of 0.5% per year, according to Neilsberg. If we want our community to thrive over the long term, this should be something that concerns us.
Listen to the 2002 interview of Bob McElvey, one of the founders of PLAN-Boulder County, who helped establish the Green Belt and Blue Line. Bob eventually moved out of Boulder because his daughter couldn’t find housing here; he said Boulder had become “an upper-middle-class ghetto.”
If a family’s income is not high enough to afford an expensive single-family home, or low enough to qualify for subsidized housing, they will not make it here. Only missing middle housing will solve this, which is what the Vibrant Neighborhoods Ordinance aims to provide. This will not “destroy” or “pave over” our city; it is a very modest change. The majority of our council is doing the work we elected them to do and keeping the promises they made during campaigns.
In a December 27 opinion, Steve Pomerance expressed dissatisfaction with the process our city council and staff used to advance its Ordinance 8666, “Family-Friendly Vibrant Neighborhoods.” Pomerance said that the council should do a house-by-house survey of all neighborhoods. This would be wasteful and redundant. The platforms of the council candidates who ran successful election campaigns are the expression of the will of our people:
Aaron Brockett’s 2023 mayoral site: “We should work to increase the supply of affordable housing including a variety of housing types such as townhouses and duplexes that are attractive to families.”
Taishya Adams’ 2023 campaign website says: “Expanding occupancy, density, and investments in housing for low-, middle-wealthy people must be coupled with investments in habitat to offset the increased footprint of the built environment.”
Nicole Speers’ 2021 campaign website mentions: “Increasing housing options for families … thoughtfully incorporating more diversity of lower-cost housing options such as duplexes, triplexes.”
Matt Benjamin’s #1 issue on his 2021 campaign website was housing: “We simply don’t have many options that are affordable to middle incomes here in Boulder and this contributes to the decreased enrollment we’re seeing in our schools. One solution is that of duplexes and quadplexes.”
Lauren Folkerts’ #1 issue on her 2021 campaign website was housing: “Small increases in density spread throughout the city and focused on transportation hubs would allow more of our commuters to live within city limits, reducing traffic and increasing air quality. We should look at ways to encourage missing-middle housing and gentle infill, such as townhomes, duplexes, triplexes, and co-housing.”
Some citizens who are not happy about the Progressive majority of the council have disputed the validity of recent elections that did not go their way based on the fact that some students participated in the votes. These legal voters should not be denigrated or scapegoated, they should be celebrated.
If there are any students invested enough to learn about the issues and participate in our process, these are the kind of students we should want to put down roots in this town. These young people could become an important part of the future of our city. Given the chance, they will occupy our best-paying jobs, and the children they will have will slow the decline in our school enrollment and the greying of our population. Let’s build them some housing that they will be able to grow into.
My personal goal is that in two or three decades, I will be able to have my children and grandchildren live near me. Even if Ordinance 8666 is implemented, it will still be difficult for my dreams to be achieved. But I believe these reasonable changes could make the difference between it being difficult and impossible.
Henry Koren lives with his family in South Boulder and is the Chief Strategy Officer at Imatest. Email: Henry@Koren.com.
