The Boulder City Council unanimously approved an annexation agreement last week with Fulton Hill Properties, the developer of a proposed housing project at 2801 Jay Road. Under the terms, 30% of the housing units will be for sale and deed-restricted to remain affordable for middle-income buyers.
The agreement marks a rare instance in which Boulder is mandating for-sale affordable housing rather than accepting cash contributions to its Affordable Housing Fund — a common practice, as developers have said building affordable units is financially challenging in Boulder. The developer also has the option to transfer lots directly to the city.
Fulton Hill Properties plans to demolish an existing church near the intersection of Jay Road and 28th Street to make way for approximately 84 townhomes, duplexes and triplexes, according to a 2022 concept plan. While the agreement does not specify who will build the affordable units, builders could include Boulder Housing Partners or Habitat for Humanity, both of which have built affordable housing in Boulder.
At a public hearing last week, developer and applicant Margaret Freund said it could take a decade or more before any units go up for sale. The project has been in the works since 2015.
“This seems like a very long time to make housing a reality when facing a housing crisis,” Freund said. She added, “Only San Francisco and Manhattan compare to this town.”
Councilmembers requested that she follow up with an email detailing the project’s obstacles and potential recommendations for expediting future developments.
This developer has been at this for 10 years because she wanted to build a development that wasn’t (and still isn’t) in alignment with the areas established density regulations and she was shot down numerous times.
Apparently she finally found a city council desperate enough to approve it.
Being an impacted neighbor, we’ve seen Freund’s plan and to say the homes will be middle income friendly is laughable, at easily over $1M each.
Add to it the dangerous intersection on this corner (Jay & 28th) that will be heavily impacted with the city and developer acknowledging that no true traffic study has been done.
The last time this was presented the developer showed a plan that had one egress, only on Jay road, and had it mapped on another piece off private property. And no fire department review, which would likely fail because of the single entrance/exit for 84 townhome ‘island’.
Oh and this property is in the county, not city….so the city needs to annex it.
This current city council is clueless.
This kind of density will not add affordability to the city, other than the mandated affordable units, and the mandated affordable units are not available until 2034. The market rate units, either rental or for sale, will be super high end and very expensive. City council thinks they are getting affordability when all they are doing is lining this developers pockets.
And Sean, for every one of those super high end units are logarithmically increased demand for affordable ones. Because the land value is forced up.