Boulder Tomorrow - Meeting Review -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 1/1/2000
Last Visited: 6/14/2008
Panelists included Adams, Phil Shull, chair of the Boulder Urban Renewal Authority and president of Deneuve Design; Caroline Hoyt, co-owner of McStain Enterprises, a residential home building and development company; and Steve Anderson, president of the Boulder Area Realtor's Association who has been in the real estate business for 28 years.
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Hoyt discussed the future of residential growth and ways to achieve affordable housing in Boulder County.
"Employment drives housing growth," Hoyt said."I am constantly amazed by how many people believe that, if you build it, they will come," she said."The truth is that when the economy is poor, then homes won't sell."
Hoyt said she predicts that, "As long as the job market stays strong, the demand for housing will continue.Restrictions to housing growth will continue to increase.Housing prices will continue to rise.New suburban housing growth will continue to move north and east from Boulder County to where land is less expensive and restrictions to development appear to be fewer."
Hoyt discussed people's general dissatisfaction with anti-growth measures."No housing development built in Boulder County during the last 20 years happened without government approval and without a public hearing, but despite the scrutiny and the regulations, most people claim to be unhappy with the results," Hoyt said."This tells me that our entitlement process is not working to people's satisfaction and they're dissatisfied.In a booming economy, which we have, and in a growth-restricted environment, which we also have, housing development will happen where entitlement can be obtained."
According to Hoyt, there are growth restrictions, permit limitations, and moratoria in Boulder, Boulder County, Lafayette, Louisville, Longmont, Broomfield, Erie, and Lyons.The only nearby communities that don't restrict growth in any significant way are in Weld County, Hoyt said.Superior doesn't limit residential growth, but its boundaries are limited by its neighbors and Boulder County Open Space, Hoyt said, so expansion beyond what has already been approved is limited.
If Initiative 256 is validated and passes, all new developments in Colorado will be affected by legal restrictions that will probably subject every single annexation to a public vote, Hoyt said.
"The future pipeline for new lots will probably dry up for a couple of years while builders scramble to find developable property," she said."It won't have an immediate impact on growth, but it will affect the region's long-term ability to provide housing for workers who are coming here."A restricted housing market bodes poorly for affordable housing, Hoyt said.
"Personally, I think allowing homeowners to have a second dwelling unit within their own home, or on their own lot, is the best market-driven way to address affordable housing," Hoyt said.
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