Boulder business owners and advocates are pushing back on a petition effort that aims to turn a western stretch of Pearl Street into a pedestrian area, a move that proponents argue could ultimately benefit both businesses and their customers.

“We’ve been in communication with a lot of businesses. … We’ve been listening to the businesses — we want to understand what the businesses need, what works for them, and get to something that will be good for everyone,” said Kurt Nordback, a member of Boulder’s Planning Board who is one of the leaders of the pro-closure campaign Pearl for You. “… I absolutely feel that a win-win is possible.”

Nordback’s group is spearheading a “campaign to restore the pedestrianized community space on West Pearl Street, similar to the way it was during the pandemic,” he said. “From 2020 to 2022, West Pearl from Ninth to 11th, and half block of 10th Street, were pedestrianized, and there was space for outdoor dining and space for people to gather and people watch. It was a really wonderful space to give people a lot of opportunity to get outside in a really unique kind of environment, a kind of place that doesn’t really exist elsewhere in Boulder.”Should it come to fruition, Pearl for You’s proposal would restrict most vehicle access along a roughly two-block stretch of Pearl Street, creating a public space more suitable for strolling.

As far as how exactly the closure would be implemented, “we are not prescribing exactly the design of it,” Nordback said. “…We’re leaving that open for further discussion, for a city process to determine.”

Pearl For You needs to collect about 3,400 signatures by late next month to get the closure issue placed on the November ballot.

When asked about his confidence that the group can meet that goal, Nordback said, “We’re doing well. We just need to keep up the work.”

Standing in opposition is Keep West Pearl Open, a group led by business operators and a former Boulder elected official that aims to stymie the ballot initiative.

“I think a life jacket is great when you’re drowning,” Peter Waters, owner of T/aco and a Keep West Pearl Open leader, told BizWest, but emergency measures — such as the previous closure of West Pearl — are no longer appropriate with the pandemic era in the rearview mirror.

To be clear, the Keep West Pearl Open group is not attempting to put a competing ballot measure in front of voters this fall. “We are coming at it from more of an educating the public perspective and (attempting to persuade potential voters to) decline to sign” the Pearl for You petition, former City Council member and Keep West Pearl Open leader Rachel Friend said.

Beyond Waters and Friend, Keep West Pearl open is supported by the majority of the current Boulder City Council and the owners of dozens of area businesses, including restaurants such as Pasta Jay’s, Zoe Ma Ma and My Neighbor Felix.

“It’s so illogical, it defies my ability to understand why this is even a (potential) ballot measure,” said Friend, who voted in favor of the pandemic-era closure when she served on Boulder City Council but said she has since “done a 180 on this issue.”

Critics of the closure argue that studying the issue and implementing the right-of-way changes could cost taxpayers millions of dollars during a period when city revenues could be in for some significant contractions. “It couldn’t be a worse time budgetarily,” Friend said.

Similarly, the city’s small businesses — especially restaurants — face ongoing economic headwinds, Waters said.

“If you’re feeling a pinch at the supermarket when it comes to food costs, restaurants are feeling that same pitch,” he said. Property taxes and wages are also applying downward pressure on restaurant profitability. “We’re feeling it from every which way … (and) I don’t see (the West Pearl closure plan) as a solution to anything.”

Leaders with the Boulder Chamber have also come out against the closure campaign.

“We saw the businesses that were located on that West Pearl area suffered significantly after the pandemic due to the extended closure period. All you needed to do was look at the numbers — they lagged significantly behind other areas of the community in terms of recovery from the pandemic. The sales-tax numbers tell that story,” Boulder Chamber CEO John Tayer told BizWest.

The effort to put the closure before voters is “completely misguided” and “fails to have sensitivity to the livelihood of these business leaders who are just now starting to regain some footing in the post-pandemic era,” he added.

During the tougher economic environment that could be on the horizon, “we need to be doing all that we can to uplift our businesses as we see sales tax dollars either flat or declining,” Tayer said.

This article was first published by BizWest, an independent news organization, and is published under a license agreement. © 2025 BizWest Media LLC.