May 27, 2024
Daily Camera Guest Opinion by Lisa Morzel
Lisa Morzel was a 20-year member of the Boulder City Council, from 1995-2003 and 2007-2019.
In this May 27, 2024 Daily Camera piece Morzell describes how Boulder is losing its middle class due to Boulder’s median sales price for homes of $1,300,000. She reminds us that not long ago “people who worked in Boulder lived here. They participated in civic matters, schools, clubs, service organizations and more.”
Morzell makes these points:
The “missing middle” creates these problems for our city:
- traffic congestion for in-commuting, currently estimated to be 60,000 vehicles per day
- a fleeing, transient workforce who often choose to live where they work
- declining public school enrollment leading to closing neighborhood schools
- business begging for employees
To solve the problem, it is key to provide deed-restricted, affordable, for-sale homes. Boulder has limited sites available for such development. The airport site is truly unique because it is 179 acres of flat land, within city limits, not in a floodplain, three miles from downtown. While the vision is long-term, the airport is a “never-again” opportunity.
Morzell says, “The highest and best use for the airport is housing with neighborhood services. If the city allows BDU to continue to operate as an airport, upcoming Master Planning will likely increase airport facilities as well as air traffic and lock in airport uses for generations, or forever.”