Steve Pomerance

I was at REI last weekend and ran into an old friend, Jeff McWhirter, who is the president of the South East Boulder Neighborhood Association. We got into a long discussion about the possible annexation and development of the Hogan-Pancost property. It’s about 22 acres, off 55th south of Baseline just south of the East Boulder Community Center, and perhaps the last significant piece of undeveloped land Boulder can annex without going into Area III of the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan. The land is so fraught with problems that this process has been going on (and off) for about 17 years. The current proposal is for 120-plus units, part senior housing, some “affordable” units, and over 60 market rate houses. The issues specific to the site include lack of easy access to shopping and services, poor transit, and, more significantly, serious flooding potential, high ground water and threatened species. Unfortunately the data on these big issues is not the best. Current flood studie...

The majority of the current Boulder City Council is pursuing a set of policies that will provide them with increased flexibility, but will cost the citizens of Boulder most of our certainty about our future. For example, the council is debating whether or not to permanently reduce the amount of water committed to Thunderbird Lake to keep it from becoming a marsh. This raises the larger issue about Boulder’s having enough water for a future of a hotter climate, earlier runoff, less forests to hold water, and large amounts of new development. A recent Camera article documented the near term development boom; this is only a small fraction of what will occur with build-out. Numerous forecasts predict our mountains becoming semi-deserts after beetle kill and/or massive fires. This year’s drought almost triggered the second watering restriction in just over a decade; this would have violated Boulder’s supply standard of no more than one such restriction in 20 years. So unless some long-t...