housing and affordability
Every candidate in every election – every single one – promises to make Boulder an affordable oasis that will accommodate all who want to live here, no matter their financial means. And yet every year the average and median price of a home rises, and we fail to build the type of family-friendly housing we so desperately need. In particular, we are desperate for deed-restricted middle-income housing of which we produce approximately nothing. In fact, over the past 10 years we have produced 45 units of such housing. That is not a typo, and that is not per year. That is total over 10 years.
The problem is that we continue to rely upon the market to provide such housing and the market simply cannot do it. When an acre of land in town goes for $2-3MM, and when a single 6,000 sf lot costs $750,000, you will never get middle-income housing. No developer will provide 1,500 square foot townhouses for $600,000 when he can sell that same product for $1.5-2.0MM. That is simple economics.
In fact, we continue to approve more and more housing units, but in the past five years over 90% of them are stacked flat rental units. Just like Brooklyn, where I came from. But I did not move to Boulder to replicate the living conditions of Brooklyn, and I bet that you did not either. So we are not building family-friendly housing at all, and families who would happily live here in modest houses, instead rent here for a few years, and then move to other towns where they can purchase homes and build intergenerational wealth. And this pattern will continue, unless we do something about it.
So what do we do? I have a modest suggestion. We have an airport that is 179 acres, and is used primarily by wealthy hobbyists. It also produces noise pollution and lead pollution. The land is owned by the City of Boulder, and if we can establish the right to use it for other purposes, it could provide hundreds, if not thousands, of affordable and deed-restricted middle-income units. How? It is not magic. Since we own the land, we can sell pieces of it to various developers at huge discounts, in exchange for the commitment to build the housing we want, at the size we want, and at the price we want. Due to the land discount, the developer can still make money, and Boulder receives the housing it needs. This is NOT a developer boondoggle. It is a way to produce housing that is affordable to teachers, first responders, and city workers.
That is why I have been an advocate of the City’s lawsuit against the FAA, as we attempt to establish the principle that the land is ours to use as we see fit. If we prevail, will this solve the problem? Hardly. But it is a step in the right direction, and is certainly better than approving another few thousand rental units at high market rents.
As candidates, judge us by our solutions, not our platitudes. This is mine; if someone has a better one I am all ears.