However, Planning Commission wants continued power to review revisions to comp plan
By John Fryar
Updated: 07/19/2017 09:46:28 PM MDT
Jenny Platt and her dog, Valor, take a ride and walk on the CU South property on Wednesday. (Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer)
Boulder County Planning Commission members on Wednesday voted 8-0 to approve new land-use designations for the 308-acre CU South property where the University of Colorado has proposed putting housing, athletic fields and academic buildings.
CU is seeking the new land-use designations as part of its plan to seek annexation into Boulder, city zoning and the eventual development of that now-vacant property wedged between Table Mesa Drive and U.S. 36.
Boulder's City Council and its Planning Board have already approved the land-use designation changes for CU South, and the Board of County Commissioners is scheduled to consider them next week.
However, members of the county's advisory panel dug in their heels on Wednesday over changes in procedures for future amendments to the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan. Those changes could remove the Planning Commission's decades of authority to review and possibly veto major revisions to the city and county's jointly administered comprehensive plan, a document that guides the growth and development of properties within and immediately outside Boulder.
While Boulder and Boulder County are updating the goals and policies of that 40-year-old comprehensive plan, the county Planning Commission members on Wednesday voted 6-2 to make their approval of those updates conditional on having the plan continue to give them the power to review, approve or deny future changes.
At issue is whether the county Planning Commission would continue to have the right to formally participate in decisions about proposals for future development in what's called the Area III Planning Reserve, a 680-acre space in unincorporated Boulder County that lies north of Boulder's current city limits. That area is not currently eligible for annexation but could be, someday, if the city and county agree that urban-level growth should be allowed in Area III.
Under proposed changes to present procedures for amending the comprehensive plan — changes already approved by the Boulder City Council and the Boulder Planning Board — the Boulder County Planning Commission would no longer have the automatic right to share in land-use decisions about changes in Area III or the comp plan's Area II.
Area II includes properties adjacent to Boulder's current city limits that already are considered eligible for annexation, such as the Twin Lakes area of unincorporated Gunbarrel and the CU South property.
County planning commissioners had already objected strongly to abandoning the four-party review process that's part of the current comp plan. That process, for example, requires that the Boulder City Council, the city Planning Board, the Board of County Commissioners and the county Planning Commission all grant their approval to certain kinds of proposed land-use changes that would limit or open the door to future development of properties in Areas II or III.
"This is not some power grab by the Planning Commission," said Natalie Feinberg Lopez, the chairwoman of the county advisory panel. She said it's an insistence that the panel continue to serve a role as "a representative of the people of the county."
Feinberg Lopez said the current four-body review requirement, which she noted has been in place for 40 years, "enhances the planning process so that you get the best possible outcome."
Planning Commissioner Doug Young called it "insulting" that the City Council and city Planning Board want to remove the county Planning Commission from the process of making decisions about proposals for Boulder's future growth and development beyond current city limits.
When members voted 6-2 to make their approval of a package of other comprehensive plan updates conditional on their continuing to have the power to review changes to Boulder's Area III Planning Reserve, the two dissenters — Feinberg Lopez and Planning Commissioner Ann Goldfarb — said they wanted the condition to include their panel's continuing review and decision powers over land-use changes to Area II properties.
It was unclear on Wednesday night what might happen if the Boulder City Council and the city Planning Board refuse to agree with the Planning Commission's condition that the county planning panel continue to have formal decision-making powers over land-use changes in the Area III Planning Reserve. It's also unclear how that might affect the overall updates to the comprehensive plan that have been in the works for more than two years and were nearing final adoption.
The Board of County Commissioners is scheduled to discuss and vote on the package of proposed comp plan updates and the CU South land-use designation changes at a meeting set for 4 p.m. next Wednesday in the Boulder County Courthouse's third-floor meeting room, 1325 Pearl St., Boulder.