Boulder’s Jobs-Housing Project

The Indian Peaks Group Position

The Indian Peaks Group of the Sierra Club has adopted the following position with respect to the City of Boulder’s Jobs-Housing Project:

We have reached the point where the costs of growth exceed the benefits. Moreover, the many signs of environmental stress (such as species loss, destruction of primary forests and wildlife habitat, water scarcity, loss of topsoil, widespread pollution, and impacts of human-induced climate change) are evidence that the scale of the economy has exceeded the carrying capacity of the earth. The design of urban areas where long commutes to and from work are required because jobs are created far from where people live is a significant contributing factor to such degradation.

Restore the Balance

There is clear and convincing evidence that the jobs-housing imbalance and the projected amount of development in the Boulder Valley is too great, and that without changes to current zoning, these problems will get dramatically worse in the future. Each of the three scenarios currently under consideration in the Jobs-Housing Project allows too much growth and makes the problem worse.

A New Scenario - Scenario 4

The Sierra Club supports what we will call Scenario 4, a limited growth scenario that would maintain the jobs-housing balance at its current level. Scenario 4 increases potential housing units by 8000 as in Scenario 3, but limits additional job growth to 12,000, significantly below the 28,400 additional jobs allowed under Scenario 3. This would expand the number of housing units in the Boulder Valley by 16%, and each additional housing unit would support 1.5 jobs. We support the City’s goal of having 10% of the housing units in Boulder Valley be permanently affordable.

Scenario 4 would result in a projected population within the Boulder Valley of 139,000, employment of 116,000, over 4 million square feet of additional nonresidential development, and 8000 additional housing units.

As a condition of such growth, the City should require sufficient development impact fees, Transportation Demand Management measures, and innovative linkage programs (such as incentives for new development to provide housing for its workers) to mitigate the impacts of growth. Current levels of service in transportation, public health and safety, parks and recreation, schools, water supply, affordable housing, and air quality must be maintained or enhanced in accordance with the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan and city-service master plans. The City should continue and enhance its commitment to providing transportation choices for non-auto travel since a key issue of the Job-Housing Project is traffic and congestion problems.

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