We should do both. The Planning Reserve will not solve all of Boulder’s housing challenges. Boulder sorely needs the type of housing that can be developed at the Planning Reserve AND at the airport site.

The Planning Reserve is an area of about 500 acres north of the current city limits. It is currently not within the city limits, but it has been set aside by the city and county as an area of potential future urban expansion to meet citywide goals. The majority of this land is private property where affordable workforce housing is almost impossible to achieve. As Councilmember Mark Wallach explained in his opinion piece in the Daily Camera, the community needs the type of permanently affordable workforce housing development that is only practical on city-owned land. 

The ANC views development at the Planning Reserve and at the airport site as complementary, not mutually exclusive. But it’s important to know that, so far, the only publicly-owned land in the Planning Reserve that city staff have identified for housing development is a 30-acre parcel. The city also owns a 189-acre parcel in the Planning Reserve (about the same size as the airport site) that was purchased with park bond money with the expectation that it would become a regional park. It remains to be seen whether the City Council, or the people of Boulder, would approve of repurposing all or part of that larger city-owned Planning Reserve site for housing.   

Exactly how, when, and what happens at the Planning Reserve is still to be determined. The City is currently in the process of doing a baseline services study to determine what new infrastructure or infrastructure upgrades would be needed to develop this land.

The Planning Reserve is an exciting opportunity but we don’t know exactly what will happen there, and we can be sure it will not solve all of Boulder’s housing challenges. Boulder sorely needs the type of housing that can be developed at the Planning Reserve AND at the airport site.