For years, the St. Julien Hotel in downtown Boulder has been planning a major, and somewhat controversial, expansion project.

The hotel at 958 Walnut St. has designs of creating a 50,070-square-foot building on the “civic use pad” space just east of the hotel, flanked by Canyon Boulevard on the south and the 10th Street connector on the north. Currently, the “pad” consists of a concrete deck, but it was designed so that it could someday support a building.

A decades-old plan for that part of Boulder would require the planned expansion to include space for community use. If it’s approved, the proposed building will include hotel rooms and event spaces that will be available for local civic groups and not-for-profit organizations to rent. Previously, the building was expected to be bigger, upwards of 53,000 square feet.

Some community members have disputed whether the planned project truly satisfies that requirement. A group of opponents called Protect Boulder Civic Space says on its website that the project as planned would be “monolithic” and out-of-character for the neighborhood, drive more traffic to the area without adding parking, and allow St. Julien to “own and control the space at no additional cost.” At least several of the members of the group are property owners and residents in neighboring buildings.

Nonetheless, the project has moved another step forward: The Boulder Urban Renewal Authority, a city commission that promotes the redevelopment of properties in certain areas of Boulder, determined in a 3-0 vote that the project meets key city guidelines.

At a meeting on Sept. 6, the Boulder Urban Renewal Authority’s task was not to weigh in on the overall design of the project, but rather to determine whether the planned expansion is consistent with certain guidelines in the city’s Ninth and Canyon Urban Renewal Plan. Before the arrival of the St. Julien in the early 2000s, the open land at Ninth Street and Canyon Boulevard was seen as an important connection point between the city’s civic center — where the municipal building and library are located — and the downtown business district.

The Ninth and Canyon Urban Renewal Plan, first adopted in 1988, included guidelines for development in the area. One major guideline established that at least 20% of the gross developed area on the land at Ninth and Canyon should be set aside for civic use. This guideline has stirred up controversy about the St. Julien project and created obstacles to the space being developed.

But the Urban Renewal Authority was asked to vet the project using a specific subset of urban renewal plan guidelines not related to the civic use requirement. Some of these guidelines said the area needed to include pedestrian access, open space and features to establish a “gateway” to downtown Boulder, among other requirements.

Trash, traffic and ‘vibe’

City staffers said at the Boulder Urban Renewal Authority meeting they believe the St. Julien’s proposed expansion does meet that set of guidelines. But during the public hearing, several community members spoke in opposition to the project as a whole. At least three were affiliated with the Protect Boulder Civic Space group, which promoted the meeting on its website, and said they lived close to the civic use area.

Catherine Gassman said any development of the area should provide “quality public space,” and she believes the St. Julien project will feel more like private than public space.

“My concern with this … is it feels much more like private space than it does now,” she said, adding, “I just feel like this will feel like private space, and the people who are walking through there from the public, going from Canyon through to Pearl, will not feel the kind of welcoming Boulder vibe and energy.”

Stan Garnett, a former Boulder County district attorney who has been retained by Protect Boulder Civic Space, said a building of that size is going to have a “real impact” on downtown. He also cited perennial concerns about “trash and traffic” and said there had not been enough public outreach on the project.

Other speakers warned about the impact of “shadows” from a 55-foot-tall building and said the proposed building would not fit with the area.

Bruce Porcelli, a managing member of St. Julien Partners LLC, pushed back on these assertions, saying the new building would add relatively few new hotel rooms and shouldn’t have a major traffic impact, especially because it is not likely all the rooms will be occupied at once. He said the new building design features setbacks to reduce the impacts to neighbors and preserve open space. At the same time, Porcelli said the project would draw more people downtown, which was part of the intent of the urban renewal plan.

Further, he noted that the civic use area was never city property: although the city’s development restrictions have required a certain amount to be dedicated to civic use, the land still belongs to the St. Julien. And no other proposed development for the property — which has sat empty for more than 20 years — has moved forward.

“Not everyone can be accommodated to all their wishes, and certainly with civic use, everyone has a different idea what that is,” Porcelli said. “But actually opening up to literally hundreds of local nonprofits — (the space) can be used for performances … for fundraisers, for art pop-ups, et cetera. There’s a number of events that can be (done) there that would be considered very civic by anyone.”

Challenges to developing the civic use pad

Although Protect Boulder Civic Space had a noticeable presence at the meeting, some community members have also voiced support for the St. Julien project. Boulder resident Eric Gertler told the Daily Camera he was “excited” about the St. Julien’s plans to develop the site.

“While the civic use (guideline) was well-intentioned, interest in developing it was always narrow, and resources to finance what proposals that surfaced non-existent. So, it has sat empty for all these years, a monument to the difficulty of developing in Boulder,” Gertler wrote in an email.

“Many of us greatly appreciate the St. Julien, which is a wonderful resource even for those of us who have never visited its guest rooms or known someone who stayed there. The idea that developing the civic use area now is robbing Boulder of a deserved resource is a stretch.”

This project is the latest of numerous attempts over the years to develop the civic use pad space. Past efforts to do so failed for varying reasons. Plans for a building that would’ve housed a children’s museum and community dance facility fell through “due to financial challenges,” according to a city memo.

The civic use site’s requirements also posed serious challenges for other entities who might have wanted to use and develop the site. The 20% minimum required building space made the project unaffordable for many would-be developers. Ultimately, the city loosened some of the requirements of the urban renewal plan, and a public-private partnership with the St. Julien emerged as a potential pathway for accomplishing the city’s vision.

The Boulder Urban Renewal Authority’s input will be shared with the city’s Planning Board, which will review the project at a later date and decide whether to approve it.