The Boulder City Council is considering an ordinance to allow tenants to sublet the homes they rent during the Sundance Film Festival, expanding a short-term rental program that currently allows only property owners to participate.
The 11-day festival, scheduled for Jan. 21-31, 2027, is expected to draw tens of thousands of visitors to Boulder, far exceeding the city’s hotel capacity.
Last year, the Boulder City Council approved a new short-term festival rental license intended to free up more accommodations for the event. Some property owners who apply may have to convert the unit from a long-term rental, making it an either-or choice.
Since then, the city has received 144 applications for the festival lodging license, according to a recent city staff memo. The tenant expansion is intended to increase that number.
Under the proposed ordinance, tenants would be able to sublease their homes during the festival if they obtain a festival lodging rental license with their landlord’s permission. Landlords and tenants would negotiate their own financial arrangements, such as a revenue split, rent offset or another structure.
Jill Grano, a former Boulder City Councilmember and Gov. Jared Polis’s statewide housing manager for the Sundance festival relocation, has been pushing city staff and councilmembers to adopt new rules allowing tenants to rent out their homes.
Grano said roughly every 200 units unlocked is equivalent to adding a new hotel in the city. She said she has focused on creating space in multifamily buildings in high-density areas near transit, such as Boulder Junction, 30th and Pearl, Steel Yards and South Boulder.
“We’re excited about what the Sundance Festival means for Boulder’s entire community — not just homeowners, but renters too,” Grano said in an email. “The expanded lodging options this ordinance will unlock are significant, and creating meaningful access for renters is an important equity component of what this opportunity offers.”
The application fee for the tenant license is proposed at $75, lower than the $190 for the owner-held version. Licenses would be valid for one year, compared to four years for property owners. Both would be limited to no more than 29 days per year.
Some councilmembers raised concerns last year that making short-term rental licenses easier to obtain could discourage owners from renting to long-term tenants, potentially removing housing from the market, leaving more homes vacant for much of the year and worsening Boulder’s housing shortage. Supporters say the tenant option could help address those concerns by giving property owners more flexibility.
“The intent of this license expansion is to allow additional lodging opportunities for attendees to large festival events in the city, while balancing the desire to ensure that the primary use of most residential dwelling units remains housing for residents of the city,” states a city staff memo.
Some councilmembers are also interested in pursuing a vacant homes tax as soon as this year, which would penalize owners who keep properties empty most of the year. Councilmembers are scheduled to discuss potential ballot measures for 2026 next week.
In 2025, the festival drew 85,000 in-person attendees in Park City, Utah. Boulder’s hotel capacity is roughly 2,900 rooms, according to an estimate by city officials.
To secure the festival’s move, Boulder and partner groups committed $34 million in incentives over the next decade. The city has also approved an incentive package related to leasing spaces, permitting, parking and transportation services.
A public hearing and vote on the ordinance are scheduled for April 2.
Separately, the Boulder Chamber is working to help businesses open up spaces during the festival. It has launched what it calls a Sundance Film Festival “partner hub,” an online matchmaking platform where businesses can list spaces for leasing by festival sponsors, film teams, event producers and other organizations during the event. Businesses in Park City reportedly signed agreements with sponsors and visiting corporations worth tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In Boulder, businesses hoping to lease their spaces to festival sponsors may face a permitting hurdle depending on how their space is currently classified.
Chris Jones, the city’s director of strategic partnerships, said during a chamber forum this week that businesses looking to host large catered events or public activations may need to go through a special use permit process. Spaces not currently approved for large public gatherings, such as offices or vacant storefronts, may face a lengthier review process.
Would love to get follow-ups on the Sundance Film Festival short term lease/sublease!
This isn’t going to work and the city and Sundance need to prepare for limited available rentals. Creating a stock of rooms for festival goers out of places where people are currently living? People use their homes because they have jobs and obligations and they have kids that go to school in January. Properties that are already occupied during January are for people to live in, you can’t just pick up and go somewhere else for two weeks in January; this is not summer vacation. And properties that are already short term rentals are already available. Sure, there will be some renters that will want to benefit and offset their high rents, but not in any kind of numbers that will make a difference in providing reals space to festival goers. And are they really going to be the kind of high end places that Sundance is seeking?
I’m unsure why the Boulder Junction area is the solution for seemingly all housing issues in Boulder, from increasing density to this new Sundance concept. As someone who lives in the SteelYards, I would like the City/State to remember that these are our neighborhoods—we’re not the dumping ground for vacationers who might not care about disturbing the peace or stealing someone’s parking spot. Also, transit is available all over town.