Boulder's growth debacle
Oct. 11 - Residents of Boulder County have been arguing about the subject of growth for decades, but in recent months the disputes have both become more bitter and more narrowly focused on the behavior of the Board of County Commissioners.
Board critics contend that the county is operating under land use rules that intentionally drive up development costs, damage or destroy the private property rights of citizens, and tend to pit neighbor against neighbor.
Hard feelings were created earlier this year when the commission proposed regulations that would have greatly restricted mountain development based on the severity of the slope of the land. Opposition to the plan was intense, and the commission has withdrawn the idea. Attention has therefore shifted to the county's site review plans, which critics contend are often used to discourage development by imposing delays and increasing costs. Building plans may be reviewed for a wide range of reasons including whether a proposed development might interfere with the view plane from a neighboring lot, for example. Put simply, critics of the commission say the review process allows the county to achieve by one means what it can't achieve by another, restricting mountain development.
Given this contentious background, it's no surprise that the commission's planned purchase of 3,000 acres of land from the Bureau of Land Management has mountain property owners charging that it is all part of a plot to shut off access to private land. This speculation has been fueled by a series of vague or ominous statements by county officials.
Clearly the commission has major public relations problem on its hands.
For our part, we are not much impressed by the way the commission has responded to criticism. Its main defense is to cite its own public opinion polls, most recently one taken in June, which shows high levels of interest in growth management. Some 40 percent of respondents cite growth as a major concern. The 40 percent figure doesn't, in our view, give the commission a free pass on how growth should be managed. We think the more telling figure in the poll is the one that shows only 42 percent of mountain residents think the county is moving in the right direction while the corresponding figure for the city of Boulder is 62 percent.
Boulder's land-use policies could use some fine tuning with special attention given to the rights of private property owners.
Copyright 1999 The Denver Post. All rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
For more information contact the Land Use Coalition at info@landusecoalition.org or call 303-666-7903.
Last updated January 24, 2002.
URL: http://landusecoalition.org/dp_bldr_debacle_ed.htm
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