Regular Meeting

City Manager Nuria Rivera-Vandermyde and budget officer Charlotte Huskey presented the five 2026 ballot measures: the $400 million recreation and safety bond, the vacancy excise tax, the firefighter collective bargaining charter amendment, the debt limit charter change, and the downtown development authority. Staff said the bond addresses a decades-old facilities backlog first documented in a 2021 facilities plan, not recent mismanagement.

Tina Marquis asked staff to compare tax impacts across three 2026 measures. Staff said the recreation bond would cost about $200 a year on a $500,000 home and $400 on a $1 million home, the county early-childhood mill levy would cost about $78 and $163, and a 5,000-square-foot commercial property would pay an $800 transportation maintenance fee.

Charlotte Huskey said city revenue has grown 3.3 percentage points slower than expenses in recent years, forcing a hiring freeze and 5% operational cuts in 2025 to close an $8-10 million shortfall, and reductions in 2026 to close a $7.5 million shortfall. She said the 2027 budget faces a projected $6.5 million gap in the general fund.

The Board of County Commissioners revised its condition of approval on Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan policy 79, the municipal airport policy, to remove language that would have obligated the county to a degree it was not prepared to commit to. Planning board accepted the county's revised language and council reaffirmed it as part of the third BVCP motion.

Economic development manager Regan Brown said the DDA would let downtown and University Hill capture growth in property and sales tax within the district to fund revitalization, citing the Moxy Hotel on the Hill as an example of catalytic investment. Consultant Brad Segal of Progressive Urban Management Associates said no Colorado city council has rejected a DDA in the last 10 to 15 years.

Downtown Management Commission chair Don Poe, business owners including Andrew Shoemaker, Dakota Sypher, Erica Dahl, and Boulder Chamber president John Tayer testified in support of the DDA, saying downtown sales tax and property values have declined for years and the DDA is the only tool combining dedicated funding and governance.

Opponents including Margaret Lamont Pfeiffer, Suzanne Bott, Rachel Peterson, Mike Mills, and Daniel Howard of the Sierra Club argued the DDA would divert sales and property tax growth from open space, transportation, library, and school funding for up to 30 years, with only about 2,200 electors deciding for the whole city.

Council split 4-4 on referring the DDA to the ballot. Matt Benjamin, Rob Kaplan, Aaron Brockett, and Tara Winer supported it as the only tool to reverse declining downtown revenue; Ryan Schuchard, Nicole Speer, Taishya Adams, and Tina Marquis opposed it, citing insufficient community engagement, lack of a specific investment plan, and impacts on dedicated funds.

Boulder Public Library District trustee board president Sylvia Werba and trustee Bonita Duran said the library was not consulted on the DDA until May 2026 and asked for a dedicated library board seat, a required intergovernmental agreement within 100 days of formation, and a guaranteed minimum share of property tax increment.

Nicole Speer asked why the Age Well West Center should be co-located with the North Boulder Rec Center rather than stay at its current site. Staff said the existing building's underground mechanical systems are failing and constant leak repairs make renovation impractical, while co-location supports multigenerational programming.

Matt Benjamin asked whether listing South Boulder Rec Center first among the six bond projects meant it was the top priority for construction sequencing. Staff said all projects are priorities and sequencing will depend on factors like cost escalation, not the order listed.

Boulder Association of Firefighters president Brian Marin said the union negotiated the collective bargaining charter amendment directly with city leadership instead of pursuing a signature petition, calling it a win-win that gives firefighters a guaranteed seat at the table.

Henrietta Gregorio, a permanently affordable homeowner, asked council to direct housing staff and the Boulder County home ownership program to study whether rising HOA dues are undermining the permanently affordable housing program's affordability assumptions.

In the BVCP review, staff presented a Board of County Commissioners condition to change all neighborhood-one future land use designations in planning area 2, the urban edge outside city limits, to rural lands. Planning board accepted the change, noting the city's annexation policies can address land use later; council approved it.

Planning board proposed narrowing the neighborhood-one urban design language in the BVCP to prevent it from being read as supporting larger existing-neighborhood setbacks instead of the compact housing envisioned for neighborhood one; council accepted the change.

Planning board reaffirmed a revised version of BVCP policy 82, housing diversity and supply, after the county removed a reference to itself, leaving it a city-only policy on middle-income housing affordability; council adopted the planning board version.

Tara Winer proposed restoring 'near transit' language to a BVCP future-of-housing passage on multi-unit buildings in neighborhood one, arguing it should limit where such buildings are appropriate; a straw poll showed only her in support, so the change did not move forward.

Paula Palmer of Right Relationship Boulder said OSMP's interpretive design for the Fort Chambers site omits any physical representation of the fort itself, despite council's prior direction, and that the Arapaho tribal representative also does not understand the design's approach.

Bridgette Mark, a PhD candidate speaking for Right Relationship Boulder, said the interpretive design cites settler fear 34 times as the reason for forming the militia that carried out the Sand Creek massacre, uses sticks to depict Native people, and asked council to direct OSMP to revise the design with Cheyenne and Arapaho representatives.

Taishya Adams said she had requested additional information on the Fort Chambers site beyond what staff and Right Relationship Boulder provided, and asked that a coming meeting with Ernest House Jr. include correspondence back to council and coordination with CU Boulder on tribal consultations.

A speaker said she received a suspension until December for being cut off while raising Palestinian issues during open comment and criticized the mayor and most of council over the city's response to the Gaza war.

Evan Rabbitz said Boulder invests in companies including Caterpillar and BAE profiting from the Gaza war and criticized the Fort Chambers memorial plan as historically inaccurate. Rob Smoke and James Duncan also called for the city to divest roughly $38 million from companies tied to the war, citing UN special rapporteur Francesca Albanese.

Taishya Adams asked staff for an update on a May 2026 inquiry about Caterpillar's oil and gas investments and other vendors' investments in private prisons, tobacco, and firearms that may conflict with city investment rules. Staff said it was not picked up as a council priority but came up during budget preparation.