Boulder County

HOME SIZE LIMITS/TDR PROPOSAL UPDATE

Following the July meeting of the Board of County Commissioners, Land Use staff has revised the Home Size and TDR proposals, increasing the home size threshold limitations to 4500SF in the mountains and 6500SF in the plains and suburban foothills. Of the square footage, 1500SF must be below grade in the mountains and 2000SF below grade in the plains and suburban foothills. The proposals provide for larger homes conditioned on the property owner purchasing transferable development rights or credits. The above grade threshold size could be doubled with the purchase of one TDR. Increments of additional square footage beyond the thresholds by purchasing TDR credits, equal to 1/10 of a TDR. So, in the mountains, a TDR credit would allow an owner to add 300SF above the threshold of 4500SF and in the plains and suburban foothills a credit equals 450SF. The proposal also exempts existing Boulder County suburban subdivisions from these regulations. That could include Pine Brook Hills, Boulder Heights, Sugarloaf, etc.

BARA and the Longmont Association of Realtors® have jointly submitted these materials to the NAR Land Use Initiative for review by the law firm of Robinson and Cole.

The County Planning Commission continued its review of these regulations on August 15 and again on August 29. Land use staff has engaged outside economic consultants to assist in determining the value of a TDR and TDR credits as well as determine to potential effects on property values as a result of these regulations. That data will not be available until mid October, at the earliest. That suggests that the Board of County Commissioners is not likely to adopt the size limits and TDR requirements before late November or into early December.