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Boulder

14 CANDIDATES RUNNING FOR VACANT CITY COUNCIL SEAT

The City Council seat vacated by the recent death of Tom Eldridge has attracted 14 candidates to run in the July 10 special election. The election will be conducted by mail. The first group of ballots will be mailed by June 15. Since only one seat is available voters can expect to see several of the candidates running again in the November election when as may as seven seats will be contested. Other likely candidates in November, such as former Council member Lisa Morzel, planning board member Macon Cowles, and former city planner Susan Osborne, decided to forego the special election. Among the candidates in the special election are former council member Matt Appelbaum, former planning board member, Alan O’Hashi, and Water Resource Advisory Board member Ken Wilson. Early word is that area moderates and business leaders are looking favorably on newcomer and IT entrepreneur Angelique Espinoza, and Eugene Pearson, who came in seventh in the 2005 election. Others who qualified for the July ballot are: Eric Bodenstab employed at Best Western Boulder Inn; CIRES staffer Philip Bradley; Smooth Motors Manager Shawn Coleman; Medicare Ombudsman Philip Hernandez; local author and Colorado Link, Inc. employee Kathryn Kramer; Susan Peterson; Tom Riley, residential services director at Imagine!; Johnny’s Cigar Bar owner John Welch; and Frank Zoldak, owner of The Landscape Guild.

2008 SURPLUS MAY FUND POP-UP SCRAPE-OFF STUDY

Five of the eight current City Council members say they are interested in spending as much as $80,000 of a projected 2008 budget surplus to again study the so-called pop-up scrape-off issue. As many Boulder homeowners seek to update and expand their aging homes, vocal neighbors protest change in neighborhoods. Home size is currently regulated in four ways. New homes or additions resulting in larger homes must adhere to set-back, height limits and solar access to control bulk. Several years ago the City Council added a maximum .8 floor area ratio (the square footage cannot exceed 80% of the square footage of the lot) to the controls. While home size is the focus, design to mitigate the effect of larger homes is generally seen as the most effective mitigation and it respects owners’ rights to use and enjoy their property. Interestingly, the city spend tens of thousands of dollars just 3 ˝ years ago. Why would city officials use scarce resources to go back over this same issue so soon after a thorough study concluded the ‘problem’ is simply one of individual perceptions and taste and is not a threat to the community?

TVAP MOVES AHEAD BUT LACKS FUNDS FOR NEEDED INFRASTRUCTURE

On June 5 the Boulder City Council agreed to proceed with public hearings and likely adoption of the Transit Village Area Plan (TVAP) despite the fact that the projected $88 million in infrastructure investments are not funded. The funds are expected to be needed over the next 20 years to build bus stops, bike lanes, streets and other community facilities needed to support bus rapid transit and commuter rail services. City officials will have to come up with much of the funding early if area property owners are to be encouraged to redevelop using TVAP guidelines for high density mixed-uses that may include up to 2500 residential units in the 160-acre planning area. The City Council and the Planning board will hold a public hearing on the TVAP on July 17 beginning at 6:00pm in council chambers.