If you go What: Public hearing on Goss Grove re-zoning When: City Council meeting begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Where: Council Chambers, 1777 Broadway More info: Visit bouldercolorado.gov
Officials at Naropa University are opposing Boulder's proposal to rezone the Goss-Grove neighborhood, saying the new rules would make it harder for the university to expand near its main campus on Arapahoe Avenue.
Boulder City Council is set for a public hearing Tuesday on the zoning change, which would downgrade parts of the Goss-Grove neighborhood from high-density residential to mixed residential, or RMX-1, a change that would make it more difficult for multi-unit developments to be built in the area.
In a letter to City Council dated July 27 and made available in the council's agenda packet Thursday afternoon, Naropa officials wrote that they "strongly object to the proposed downzoning of the area to RMX-1."
Louise Grauer, a senior planner with the city, told the Camera in June that the university was on board with the zoning change in 2010. But Grauer said Thursday it appears the facilities manager she talked with in 2010 never consulted with the university's policymakers before leaving the school. Naropa was not notified directly by the city because its property is not in the area designated for rezoning.
"For that reason, the facility manager did not talk to policy people," Grauer said. "That person left after getting ill and there was no follow up."
Officials with Naropa did not return calls for comment Friday, but Grauer said she did discuss the rezoning with them on Wednesday after the city received the letter.
"It is so difficult to talk in hypotheticals," she said. "But it was a productive meeting."
Naropa's main concern centers around the rezoning's effect on the school's ability to expand near its main campus at 2130 Arapahoe Avenue, south of the Goss-Grove neighborhood. The university also has office buildings at 2111 Arapahoe Ave. and an apartment building at 1900 Goss Street. None of those buildings are in the area proposed for rezoning, but dorm buildings are not allowed in RMX-1 zones, which could hamper any attempts by the school to expand.
"Naropa needs to have the opportunity to grow our central campus by adding additional, suitable, properties that are within close walking distance for our students, staff and faculty," officials wrote in the letter. "If the Goss-Grove neighborhood is rezoned to RMX-1, it will make such expansion cost-prohibitive if not impossible.
"We believe that we are probably the largest presence and employer in the Goss-Grove neighborhood and would thereby be the most impacted by the proposed zoning change."
Grauer said that Naropa would still be able to buy existing apartment complexes and lease them as student housing as is. But she added that Naropa's expansion into the Goss-Grove neighborhood needs to be looked at as a separate issue from the rezoning.
"That's a bigger issue with the city, and I hope they will work with us to find the best solution," Grauer said. "They can continue to oppose the rezoning, that's their prerogative. But maybe expanding in the middle of this neighborhood is not the best thing."
The area that is proposed to be rezoned lies roughly between 16th and 23rd streets and between Arapahoe Avenue and Canyon Boulevard, though the boundaries snake around property lines to pull in or exclude additional lots.
"We think we've picked a boundary that best preserves the character of the neighborhood, which is our goal, Grauer said.
This process started in 2008 when the City Council instructed planners to take another look at the RH-2 zone, one of several high-density residential zones in the city and the current zoning of the Goss-Grove neighborhood. The zoning included a number of requirements -- a maximum unit size of 800 square feet, a minimum lot size of 6,000 square feet as well as an allocation of 3,200 square feet of lot size per unit, and excessive parking requirements -- that made developing multi-unit projects difficult.
The proposed change to the RH-2 zone does away with the maximum unit size, reduces the parking requirements and allows one unit for every 3,000 square feet, which would allow a developer to put two units instead of one a 6,000-square-foot lot.
Grauer said a majority of the residents in the Goss-Grove area want to make it harder for multi-unit projects to be built, so the city began working on rezoning the area.
Despite a request from Naropa to take the item off Tuesday's agenda, City Council will have a public hearing on the rezoning and then decide to approve or deny the change.
"We think it should go forward," Grauer said. "We've been working with the neighbors for over two years. They're anxious to move forward."