Organizers behind a ballot measure to tax empty homes and commercial spaces announced this week that they plan to drop their petition, citing a commitment from members of the Boulder City Council to refer a similar measure to the ballot this November.
“We plan to follow Council’s actions closely as they work to get this measure in front of voters this year, and we will be suspending our campaign once we are satisfied that the housing measure has formally advanced,” Doug Hamilton, chair of the Vacancy to Vitality campaign, said in a news release.
Under the proposed Vacancy to Vitality measure, property owners would pay an annual tax if their residential or commercial space sits vacant for more than half the year. Vacant dwelling units would be taxed at $7,000 per year and commercial properties would be taxed on a sliding scale.
The Boulder City Council has been considering a vacancy tax, though one that would likely exclude commercial properties. A recent proposal by city officials would impose a $2,000 annual tax on vacant homes, generating an estimated $1 million to $2 million per year.
The decision to pull the resident-led measure means business owners are unlikely to be impacted by the new tax. Organizers said they heard from businesses that supported their version because it could push owners of vacant spaces to fill them and drive more foot traffic downtown. But the Boulder Chamber was expected to oppose it.
“The research is clear: commercial vacancy suppresses small business growth and erodes the sales tax revenue our city depends on,” Jill Grano, spokesperson for Vacancy to Vitality and former member of the Boulder City Council, said in a statement. “We’re giving the city room to develop its own approach and will keep working with stakeholders on other tools.”
No members of the Boulder City Council had publicly endorsed the resident-led measure, and the campaign did not list any major endorsements on its website. Vacancy to Vitality needed 3,418 signatures by May 27 to qualify for the ballot. Organizers said they were collecting paper and online signatures, though fewer than 200 people had signed the online petition since it launched last month.
City officials have estimated that as many as 4,000 of Boulder’s roughly 48,000 housing units are vacant, according to a May 2024 memo, though more recent estimates based on water usage data are much lower. In the city’s downtown, about 30% of offices are vacant.
I can’t imagine the City will pass anything with teeth to tax the commercial sector. They seem increasingly easy on Developers and anyone with substantial real estate holdings. Local businesses have been leaving Boulder for decades because of the high tax rates and property rents. Nobody seems to have the gumption to actually penalize the owners of vacant commercial spaces or pass any laws or policies that force the rent prices down or tax the owners appropriately.
Why “Home Only”? There are lots of emptly commercial buildings in Boulder that were built and NEVER occupied. These buildings block iconic Flatirons views, and occupy land that could have been left open for other uses. Empty commercial building owners should also get taxed.
Extremely disappointed. I’m not convinced that the residential vacancy tax is going to achieve much beyond plowing a million into the general fund. The commercial vacancy tax, however, could have a profound impact on our community. I even argue that the initially proposed commercial vacancy tax rate was far too modest. Our city is flat out blighted by vacant commercial spaces and the only way we are ever going to build back those jobs, sales tax revenues, and liveliness of commercial areas is by getting those units filled. There are too many inventives for extremely large commercial real estate landlords to hold out for years at a time to achieve top dollar rents. We need to push back on that and give them an incentive to fill those vacancies sooner at a lower rent rate.
The first thing we should be taxing is vacant commercial property. Developers keep building office space and retail space that sits empty, and the commercial realty owners charge outrageous rents. Maybe if they were motivated to lower their rates we’d regain some local, independent small businesses that used to give Boulder its delightful, quirky character.
I totally agree that there should, and in this case, needs to be a HEFTY vacant commercial property tax in Boulder. I work on east Walnut Street, parking lots are empty and FOR LEASE signs abound. This would be a wonderful area for redevelopment with mixed use…..walkable to groceries, public transit, multi-use paths, retail, etc….and the basic core infrastructure exists.
No idea how a property owner can eat empty revenues from not leasing a building space for multiple years…..must be some pretty wrong intended tax loopholes.