Daily Camera article of interest: Boulder agrees to reconsider occupancy limits

Boulder agrees to reconsider occupancy limits

Activists aren’t confident in city’s ability to enact change

By DEBORAH SWEARINGEN |dswearingen@prairiemountainmedia.com| Boulder Daily Camera

PUBLISHED: October 14, 2020 at 9:04 p.m. | UPDATED: October 14, 2020 at 9:08 p.m.

A month after Boulder City Council denied a motion to suspend the city’s occupancy limits during the coronavirus pandemic, council on Tuesday agreed to take another look at the issue in the upcoming year to determine whether any long-term changes are warranted.. Councilmembers tentatively discussed pushing back work on Boulder’s oil and gas regulations and parking code changes in favor of prioritizing a holistic look at occupancy limits. City Manager Jane Brautigam requested time for staff to create a plan that ultimately will be voted on in an upcoming meeting. Occupancy limits have long been a source of contention in Boulder. The Bedrooms Are For People campaign seeks to change Boulder’s occupancy limits to allow more unrelated people to live together. In most areas of Boulder, no more than three unrelated people can live together, but the campaign said the limit should be extended to one person for each bedroom plus one. The initiative almost made it to the 2020 ballot but fell short because of faulty information from the city. The coronavirus pandemic also has emphasized the need for municipalities to reconsider the issue. Gov. Jared Polis in a July executive order encouraged municipalities to suspend or eliminate occupancy limits and pushed for landlords to limit evictions, particularly for tenants who made a good faith effort to make rental payments or establish a repayment plan. However, in a 4-4 decision during a September meeting, Boulder City Council rejected the idea. Before council’s Tuesday study session, Bedrooms Are For People co-chair Chelsea Castellano said she would be supportive if councilmembers made a real effort to evaluate Boulder’s occupancy limits and approve meaningful changes. But she had doubts about council’s ability to do so. “After everything we’ve been through to, really, make a moderate change, it’s hard to imagine how the same five people who were so adamantly opposed to letting the people vote on our measure, that they would then be the advocates for occupation reform,” she said. Co-chair Eric Budd echoed those thoughts. “The council’s not giving this a clear priority, even with serious efforts we’ve made in the community,” Budd said. He said he doesn’t have confidence in the council bringing forth solutions so Bedrooms Are For People will continue its work. The organization intends to have an initiative on the 2021 ballot. “We have to keep moving forward. We’re organized. We have tons of people behind us. We’re going to keep making change in this community that’s going to benefit people,” Budd said. In Tuesday’s discussion, most councilmembers agreed that prioritizing the conversation made sense. Councilmember Mark Wallach wasn’t prepared to commit to any specific changes to Boulder’s occupancy limits but said he felt he owed it to the Bedrooms campaign to at least make a concerted effort. “To some extent, we suggested when we were having our discussions with the Bedrooms Are For People folks that if they held back, we would be prepared to put this on the agenda and take a look at occupancy limits,” he said. “Getting started on this in late May or June is probably a little late in the day,” Wallach said. “I would put a higher priority on it and move it up.” Councilmember Junie Joseph agreed that time is of the essence. She said it’s on Boulder staff and council to be creative and find ways to house people, especially given the pandemic, Boulder’s high cost of living and the amount of complaints Joseph said she receives about homelessness. “It’s a real equity and inclusion issue that we are having here in this community. Even though we are one of the best places to live, I think we definitely … have to put this as a priority,” she said. Even before being elected to council, Councilmember Adam Swetlik said he supported addressing the city’s occupancy limits. “If we don’t do our jobs and come up with something, the community can get behind, then the community is going to do it for us, one way or another,” Swetlik said, alluding to the Bedrooms Are For People campaign. “I would want to try and get this moving along in as many ways as possible, as quickly as possible.” Most of council seemed supportive of the planning department reconfiguring its schedule to prioritize occupancy limits, but Councilmember Mirabai Nagle was hesitant. She said it would be a “pretty big lift” for staff, given how much community engagement will need to happen. “This is one of our most controversial topics. I think people on both sides are going to have quite a bit to say,” she said. There was some discussion in Tuesday’s study session about including homeowners’ associations in the conversation.. Various councilmembers suggested University Hill Neighborhood Association, Martin Acres Neighborhood Association and others, citing those neighborhoods’ proximity to the University of Colorado Boulder campus. That gave Councilmember Rachel Friend pause. “I want to make sure we’re being mindful of who it is we’re trying to outreach to and include and that we have all the different stakeholders,” she said. “I don’t know that we get there just from targeting neighborhood associations.” https://www.dailycamera.com/2020/10/14/boulder-agrees-to-reconsider-occupancy-limits/