Good to see you again, Boulder! 👋 Hope your week is rolling right along.
Today’s top story from John Herrick looks at the East Boulder Subcommunity Plan, which could include thousands of new homes and apartments. But whether that’s enough additional housing for the area, in a city grappling with a housing crisis, is still a matter of debate.
Then join me on a trip through the past, as I comb through the virtual Edwin Tangen photography archives at the Carnegie Museum for Local History. You’ll learn about the prolific documentarian and ballistics expert who captured life on the Front Range in the early 20th century — from commercial stereographs to panoramic views and slices of everyday life. This new Local History beat is made possible through our Community Leaders sponsorship program. (Are you a local business owner? Click here to learn more.)
Until Friday,
– Jezy, managing editor
Quickly
🌤️ Mostly sunny and pleasant: Expect highs near 70 today, under mostly sunny skies. Sunnier and warmer tomorrow, with highs near 75.
📚 Library district resolution dead: The Boulder City Council ended its bid to create a library district through a resolution after reaching a stalemate with the Board of County Commissioners over a proposed property tax increase to pay for it. Advocates for the library said recently they are planning to petition for a library district though a different process that will require voter approval in November.
🚦 Red light for Redtail Ridge: A special election held on Tuesday in Louisville on the development of the Redtail Ridge project off U.S. Highway 36 appeared to end in defeat for the developer, Brue Baukol Capital Partners, as of 9:30 p.m. last night, according to the city’s unofficial results. The Louisville City Council had approved a plan from Brue Baukol to build as many as 3 million square feet of office, industrial and flexible-use buildings. Opponents gathered enough signatures to force the city council to reconsider its approval. It brought the issue to voters. If the outcome holds, BizWest reported, Brue Baukol will proceed with its scaled-down, previously approved 2010 plan for the site.
🚧 West Pearl closure. The Boulder City Council gave city staff direction on Tuesday night to continue the temporary closure of West Pearl to car traffic, as the city works out details for a permanent or seasonal closure long-term, or reopening the area to vehicles.
🔥 Three more fires (at least): A resident is facing charges regarding a wildfire that grew to 10 acres and prompted evacuations in Gunbarrel yesterday afternoon. Another small wildfire discovered around 4:30 p.m. yesterday burned approximately 1/4 of an acre near Flagstaff Road and Bison Drive in Boulder County. There was yet another fire later in the day near 41st and Oxford.
🌲 Forest restoration: Open Space and Mountain Parks kicked off an 80-acre forest restoration project this week to improve forest health and mitigate the risk of wildfires. The city’s 10-person forest restoration crew will be sawing near the lower McClintock Trail to clear a build up of dead and dying non-native green ash before working their way up to the Enchanted Mesa, where they will be thinning ponderosa and other fuels that intensify forest fires, according to Chris Wanner, OSMP’s Senior Manager of Vegetation Stewardship.
“The work can definitely be noisy and messy for a short amount of time. Once we’re done, it will be a better functioning ecosystem,” Wanner told Boulder Reporting Lab. “We just ask for a little bit of patience as we work through these projects.” He said the work is expected to continue through mid-summer.
🆕 Kalmia Apartment Fire update: Per Boulder Fire-Rescue: “Our fire investigation team determined the cause of this fire to be accidental. The fire started due to discarded smoking material that was placed in a plant pot with potting mix and dried/dead plants.”
🚮 Debris removal underway: Per Boulder County: Starting this week, teams and trucks arrived in Superior and Louisville to begin clearing Marshall Fire debris from private properties. “Property owners will be notified 24-48 hours before crews arrive on-site. Each parcel will take 6-11 days to complete and will include hazards inspection, removal of metal, ash, debris and concrete, rough grading of the site, inspection and environmental soil testing.”
🎓 Presidential forum: CU Board of Regents presents an ongoing series of forums with presidential finalist Todd Saliman through April 22, which may be attended in person or virtually, on all four CU campuses and at the system office in Denver. Today’s event will take place at the University Theater from 2–3 p.m., with more forums scheduled for Thursday and Friday.
✍️ Lawmaker town hall: Want to know what the Boulder legislative delegation is up to during the 2022 session? Senate President Steve Fenberg, Rep. Judy Amabile and Rep. Edie Hooton will hold a virtual town today, 6–7 p.m. Register here and submit your questions here.
Top Stories
The plan to redevelop industrial East Boulder includes housing. What kind, and how much, is still up for discussion.
City of Boulder planners are almost done drafting a 20-year vision for transforming the city’s industrial eastern flank into a mix of residential neighborhoods.
The draft East Boulder Subcommunity Plan could add about 4,400 homes and apartments to the area east of the Foothills Parkway, according to city models and an analysis by consultants. The Boulder City Council is scheduled to vote on a final version of the plan in early May.
Much of that housing would be concentrated around Valmont City Park and near a proposed bus station on 55th and Arapahoe. The city also plans to annex the San Lazaro mobile home park, which is just outside city limits and does not have access to the city’s potable water.
But whether that is enough additional housing for the area, in a city grappling with a housing crisis, is still being decided. When city planners presented the plan to the Boulder City Council last week, several members requested they go back to the drawing board.
“We’re adding a lot of housing potential with this which is fantastic,” Mayor Aaron Brockett said. “It seems like it could still tilt a bit more towards housing over jobs from where we are right now.”
Councilmember Mark Wallach pointed out the lack of middle-income housing in particular. “Middle-income housing and diversity of housing types is really central to this plan,” he said. “And as I read it, I am still looking for more detail as to how we get from here to there. The current trends in Boulder are almost exclusively to produce high-end rental housing and the occasional very-high end townhouse.”
But creating incentives to developers to build any kind of housing in the area has been a balancing act, according to city officials and members of the East Boulder Subcommunity Working Group. The 21-member group of residents and property owners has been meeting over the past three years to gather community feedback and to hash out the plan.
To do so, the city plans to overhaul the area’s land-use and zoning codes to allow developers to build more homes next to warehouses and storefronts. Because much of the land is privately owned, these are among the few levers the city has to encourage mixed-use development.
What did life in Boulder look like 100 years ago? The photos of Edwin Tangen offer a glimpse.
When Edwin Tangen arrived on the Front Range at the turn of the 20th century, he turned his large-format camera lens on Boulder County and never looked away. Upon his death in 1951, the Norwegian-born photographer left behind a trove of more than 16,000 images of the region’s people and places — from commercial stereographs to panoramic views and slices of everyday life.
“Tangen captured a time period in Boulder history. His photographs are invaluable for this reason,” Nicole Docimo, archivist at the Carnegie Library for Local History, told the Boulder Reporting Lab.
A branch of the Boulder Public Library, the local history archive at 1125 Pine St. is a community resource designed to help residents understand and engage with the past in their own backyard through extensive collections of photographs, assessor’s cards, newspaper clippings, genealogy resources and more. It’s also home to the Edwin Tangen collection, featuring more than 1,100 digitized images by the prolific local documentarian.
But as the Carnegie archive demonstrates, Tangen’s legacy in Boulder goes beyond general and commercial photography. He was also a ballistics expert who served as an identification officer for the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office for more than 30 years, reportedly earning praise from controversial FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover for his assistance in solving crimes throughout Colorado. With his keen photographer’s eye, Tangene could construct a narrative of events based on the rifling marks of a fired bullet, which he presented as evidence in court through 8-by-10-inch “microphotograph” prints.
BRL Picks
😂 Comic relief: Mark your calendar for June 23–26, when Boulder Comedy Festival returns for its second year of laughs. Featuring national and local talent, the funny festivities highlight women and diversity in comedy. Keep an eye on the festival website for performer announcements at Front Range Brewing, License #1 at The Hotel Boulderado, Finkle and Garf, Tilt and Tiki on Main.
🌳 Love the land: Boulder County is now accepting applications for its Adopt-a-Trail or Park program. Families, friends and small groups can sign up to protect and clean a specific trail, park, or shoreline by picking up trash four times a year. Locations available on a first-come, first-served basis. Apply here by May 31.
⛰️ Kids Everest Challenge: Inspired by Centaurus High School science teacher Eddie Taylor, currently on a mission to scale Mount Everest, BVSD invites students to take part in a new fitness challenge. Here’s how it works: Log your effort to reach 5.5 miles, the distance to the top of Everest, through running, walking, biking and hiking — and enter to win prizes like a mountain bike, summer camp admission and more.
Covid-19 Updates: April 20, 2022
- 94 daily new cases (7-day avg.) 🔺Up 31% over preceding 7-day avg.
- 0 patients hospitalized with Covid (7-day avg.) ⬇Down from avg. of 40 since July 2020.
- 47% percent of ICU is occupied. ⬇Down from avg. of 71% since July 2020.
- Masks not required at DIA, RTD: Denver International Airport announced on Monday it will no longer require masks, after a federal judge struck down the mandate for face coverings on airplanes and public transportation. The Regional Transportation District (RTD) made a similar announcement for its employees and customers.
- New county Covid data updates: Boulder County Public Health announced new upgrades to its Covid-19 data website. Instead of providing weekly updates on Mondays and Thursdays, the new page will feature live updates three days a week along the usual metrics: “the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the county, the number of deaths among Boulder County residents who tested positive or were considered ‘probable’ for COVID-19, trends in incidences of COVID-19 and community positivity rates.”
What We’re Reading
📖 Why does Colorado look like a hotspot on some national Covid trackers? “The problem is that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and national trackers, like the one published by the [New York] Times, have been getting their case numbers by subtracting the cumulative number of cases on any given day from the cumulative number a day earlier. For Colorado, the most recent daily number was 1,831 — the difference between 1,363,400 on Thursday and 1,365,231 on Friday. Yet that method doesn’t distinguish how many of those confirmed COVID-19 cases are truly new and how many have been backlogged for months.” [Denver Post]
📖 New plan to address homelessness in Colorado: “Cathy Alderman, public policy officer at Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, joined Gov. Jared Polis and several Democratic state lawmakers at the Capitol on Monday to talk about what they hope will be a salve for Colorado’s homelessness crisis: $200 million in federal money aimed at adding transitional housing, permanent housing with wraparound services, and a substance use treatment and vocational training facility.” [Colorado Newsline]
ICYMI from BRL
📈 What’s the air quality index in the Marshall Fire burn area? You can sign up for real-time alerts to find out. County health officials are urging residents to wear masks and stay indoors if windy and dry conditions stir up visible ash from the Dec. 30 disaster that destroyed more than a thousand homes.
🎨 Following poignant gallery show on the King Soopers shooting, Museum of Boulder ushers in hope of a new season with local painter Jennifer Hohlfelder. Thirty-five colorful works by the homegrown visual artist bring light after the darkness to the downtown local history center through June 16, 2022.
One Quick Favor to Ask…
Will you share our newsletter with a friend? We’re so proud of the reporting we’ve been doing lately, and we can’t help but think, What if even more Boulder locals were getting our journalism straight to their inbox? Spreading the word is one of the easiest (and no-cost) ways you can help us grow into a much bigger newsroom able to cover every aspect of our community. If you’re benefiting from our work, please send this signup link to at least one friend, family member, colleague or neighbor, or share this link to our signup page!
Thanks for reading!
Our journalism depends on you.
Have a story tip for us?
Send us your ideas at tips@boulderreportinglab.org.
– The BRL Team
