Boulder leaders haven't found "early wins" yet in the city's evolving housing strategy, but perhaps one lies in legalizing currently illegal co-cops that haven't drawn neighbor complaints or making it easier to convert rooms or garages into in-law apartments and cottages.

Those are some of the ideas the Boulder City Council hopes to explore as the city moves forward with its new Comprehensive Housing Strategy.

But after a move to ease occupancy limits for senior citizens failed in the face of strong neighborhood opposition, advocates for co-op housing and other creative housing solutions fear there isn't political will in Boulder to make more significant changes.

At the same time, critics of the housing plan, who see it as a boon to developers, worry city officials won't listen to neighborhood concerns.

Late Tuesday, the council unanimously adopted the Comprehensive Housing Strategy's goals, even though many council members felt they were too vague or hinted at imposing solutions on neighborhoods that don't want or need them.

The goals are: to strengthen current commitments to provide low-income housing, maintain middle-income housing, create diverse housing choices in every neighborhood, strengthen partnerships and enable aging in place.

The council voted on the strategy after tabling an ordinance that would have allowed up to six people 62 or older to live together in a single home.

That measure faced stiff neighborhood opposition, and was the subject of a lengthy public hearing in which advocates for affordable housing argued with those who feel Boulder risks losing its special character to a wall of mid-rise apartment buildings.

Several council members wanted to change the language about creating diverse housing options in "every neighborhood."

"It's OK for neighborhoods to be different," Councilman Andrew Shoemaker said. "Not every neighborhood is broken. Some neighborhoods work just fine. And people spend a lot of money to live in these neighborhoods. A lot of people's life savings are wrapped up up in their houses."

But Boulder Mayor Matt Appelbaum said removing language about "every neighborhood" lets too many people off the hook for what should be community solutions.

Councilwoman Lisa Morzel said she had been asking for changes to the city's "accessory dwelling units" rules since the late 1990s, yet nothing has happened.

Some Boulder residents who objected to the senior occupancy limits change said they had tried to get permits for in-law apartments for their own aging parents or grown children and had been unable to.

Councilwoman Suzanne Jones said it shouldn't be that hard to find fixes to the co-op ordinance, which is currently so restrictive that not a single co-op in the city is authorized under it. Boulder's existing legal rental co-ops are technically boarding houses or apartment buildings.

"I think we should do co-op housing," she said, suggesting it as a possible "early win." "I don't think it should be that hard."

'Sounds like a bit of a charade'

David Driskell, Boulder's director of community planning and sustainability, said dryly that he could email the proposals to all the people who wrote to council to oppose the senior occupancy limit change and use them as a sounding board for how controversial those ideas would be.

Instead, those ideas will be run through a series of working groups that city planners hope to convene in October.

The composition of those working groups was a subject of much debate Tuesday night, with those opposed to more development saying there needs to be strong neighborhood representation, and advocates for more affordable housing saying homeowners aren't the only people with a vested interest in Boulder. They said renters, students, low-income workers and commuters need a voice.

On Wednesday, Ray Bridge, a board member of PLAN-Boulder County, said he is concerned the working groups will create the appearance of public input while reaching pre-ordained outcomes.

"It sounds like a bit of a charade, but we'll have to see how it works out," Bridge said. "It didn't sound like it was a structure that promised those groups actually being able to provide much input from any group. It sounds like window dressing."

Zane Selvans, a board member of the Boulder Housing Coalition, which operates three rental co-ops in Boulder, said Tuesday's meeting left him feeling uncertain about the political will to make significant changes.

"I'm glad they left the (accessory dwelling units) and co-op housing nominally in the work plan," he said. "Given how much resistance there was to seniors being able to live with each other, I find it difficult to believe that an (in-law apartment) or co-op will be less controversial. The lack of any kind of pushback (from council) was quite disheartening and makes me very discouraged.

"I don't think more neighborhood input is likely to result in less controversy when there was this reaction to these very modest changes."

'Some of these issues are challenging'

Another study session on the Comprehensive Housing Strategy will be held in December. Driskell said that if the working group process identifies changes that could be made easily to the co-op or accessory dwelling ordinances, those can be pulled out then.

Otherwise, ordinance changes will be considered as a package of larger changes after adoption of the Comprehensive Housing Strategy in early 2015.

Council members were supportive of another tool, allowing entities developing affordable housing units to keep the number of units in an existing building, even if the scope of the rehabilitation project would normally require the building to come up to current code and possibly lose units in the process.

Councilman Sam Weaver said he'd like planners to look at changing how open space requirements are calculated, so that they are per square foot or per person expected to live in a unit, rather than per unit.

Shoemaker also said the city needs to look for legal ways to prevent single-family homes from falling into investor hands to preserve that housing for families rather than as student rentals.

Council members were unanimous in supporting moving forward with a proposed affordable housing project on a city-owned site at 4245 Palo Parkway.

More than 140 neighbors signed a petition opposing the project, and council members said they want Boulder Housing Partners to work closely with them to address parking and other concerns.

However, they said the project — which calls for 35 rental units and 9 owned units, all permanently affordable and aimed at people who work in Boulder, on 3.2 acres — meets many city goals.

John Tayer, president and CEO of the Boulder Chamber, who told the council on Tuesday that developing workforce housing meets multiple community goals, said he was "encouraged" that the housing strategy is moving forward and progress is more important than early wins.

"With respect to quick wins, some of these issues are challenging and they're responding to concerns that they are hearing," he said of the council. "For us and our goals, we were encouraged to see that they understand the needs and want to move this strategy forward to start working on solutions."
