Boulder officials hear concerns on Gunbarrel preserve

A virtual town hall was held in late July regarding a concept proposal for a 268-unit development on Gunbarrel land currently zoned as light industrial.

The 9.8-acre parcel in question is located just to the west of Spine Road and east of Celestial Seasonings - the owner of the property - and south of Sleepytime Road, up to the current single-family housing development there.

Gunbarrel residents recognize this area as open space that the tea company designated as a prairie dog preserve in 1999, but now it may become high-density housing.

A group called the Gunbarrel Community Alliance formed recently to speak out against not only the zoning change, but the proposed project itself.

Kit Fuller, one of the founders of the group, said that during the meeting, 127 residents had signed up to have two minutes each to speak, but many pooled their time to allow others a bigger window.

He said that out of the speakers, 85 were against the idea and seven spoke in favor. Those for the project, he said, were all speaking in support of the affordable housing aspect of the proposal. There were an additional 105 letters against and four in favor included in the packet for the meeting.

"The depth of opposition, I think, is significant here," Fuller said. "I think it's interesting to see how the developer and the city is going to respond.

"It's hard to say if this is over or just phase one is over and it's going to come up now as a real site review proposal. And, it's hard to see where things stand now. But we're pleased to see the neighborhood response."

The group now has an attorney helping with their efforts, along with online support.

"Having that [attorney] involvement has been good," Fuller said. "There's been good neighborhood efforts and efforts as far as fundraising to help with those costs.

"We've also had people in San Francisco, in the United Kingdom, in New York and other places who are watching this, because they either own land or did own land here. The level of interest is amazing."

There was no vote taken at the meeting, and the issue is still in the comment phase with no action taken by the city.

Fuller said that developers were told that there would be some hurdles to overcome.

According to city zoning rules, 40 percent (600 square feet per unit) of the land has to be kept contiguously open. Some exemptions do exist for rooftops and balconies, but balconies don't count as contiguous.

"Do the math. For that many units it has to be the size of a professional soccer field," Fuller said. "The density part is a problem. To pack in this many units and still meet that open space requirement is impossible unless they go up five stories or go down in the ground. They're going to have to go back to the drawing board."

Even if that was resolved, Fuller said, parking would still pose another problem, as there has to be one and a half parking spaces per unit.

"Between the parking and the open space, they don't have enough room there for 268 units is what it comes down to," Fuller said. "Even if the city allows the density, they won't have the room for open space and parking."

He said that prior to the meeting, city council members came out to look at the area and took time to speak with members of the group.

"I've got to hand it to them, they work hard and have other things to do, yet they took the time to come out and talk to us," Fuller said. "One of the things we learned from talking to them is that they have 'exceptions.' Basically they can turn a blind eye to some of these things if the developer does something nice for the city. It's entirely possible a huge requirement like open space can be ignored if they do something like meet affordable housing requirements."

The concept proposal does meet the affordable housing requirement of 25 percent of the units, and some supporters voiced concern that those opposed are choosing to prioritize the preserve for animals over human dwellings.

"They're painting this as prairie dogs versus affordable housing," Fuller said, "which to me is kind of a slap in the face. The neighborhood has done a good job with their research. It's been shallowly portrayed. We've been accused of picketing, harassing Celestial Seasonings employees and placing signs. None of that is true."

Celestial Seasonings representatives did not respond to requests for interviews from the Courier, nor have they responded to requests from the GCA according to Fuller, but he said the community input has been good.

"We're happy with the involvement we're getting, but we're not happy that we have not been able to get a response from Celestial Seasonings yet," Fuller said. "One of our prongs of action is trying to reach them to engage in discussion to see if we can find a better outcome for that piece of land."

He added that open space is one of the big draws for the area, and on the west end of town, this parcel is one of the few corridors left.

"It's what gives Gunbarrel it's character is the open spaces out here," Fuller said. "Boulder doesn't recognize this aspect of Gunbarrel and that's one of the frustrations we've got right now. They're willing to just develop at random. If someone wants to develop something, all you have to do is say 'affordable housing' and you get a green light. There's reasons why they make zoning regulations. We're just trying to fight for reasonable land uses."