A majority of Boulder City Council members on Thursday night approved a site review application for a planned multi-use development that includes 45 efficiency apartments at 2206 Pearl St.

Efficiency apartments are typically small units with a single room and a separate bathroom. The ones at 2206 Pearl St. would be 300 square feet in size, and rent for each could cost in the ballpark of $2,500. The proposed development also would include just over 2,000 square feet of commercial space on the ground level.

Each apartment would have a maximum occupancy of two people, and the building would be three stories tall. The plans include 18 on-site parking spots, which is 60% less than the 45 parking spaces normally required under Boulder’s parking minimums. The reduced number of parking spots could be allowed if the city grants the project applicants’ request for a parking reduction.

City staffers said on Thursday they believe residents’ vehicles can likely be accommodated through “robust” transportation demand management strategies such as bicycle parking spots, nearby on-street parking for visitors and RTD EcoPass memberships for residents.

The City Council is entertaining the idea of reducing or eliminating the city’s parking minimums in the near future. Off-street parking minimums require developers to build a minimum number of parking spaces on private property for any new development they wish to build, with the intent to minimize congestion on public streets. But creating more parking spaces than needed can add costs for developers and may also contribute to climate change.

On Thursday evening, council members voted 7-2 to approve the site review application for the project, signaling that a majority believe it meets Boulder’s site review and parking reduction requirements. Councilmembers Mark Wallach and Taishya Adams voted against approving it.

Wallach raised concerns about the proposed rent and asked how such a project would help Boulder meet its goal of creating more affordable housing. Adams said “this type of housing does not help us” because it does not accommodate lower-income community members or families.

“We want housing that is affordable in a variety of different ways in a variety of different places, including downtown,” Adams said.

However, other council members, like Matt Benjamin, Lauren Folkerts, Ryan Schuchard and Mayor Pro Tem Nicole Speer, praised the project.Schuchard, a transportation specialist and climate advocate, called it an “excellent” project, even if the apartments wouldn’t be affordable to every person in Boulder.

“It’s not for everybody, but we have a diversity of housing needs, and this project helps meet those,” Schuchard said.

At the meeting, Chandler Van Schaack, a city principal planner, said residents who live close to the proposed project have given both positive and negative feedback about it. Those mixed feelings were on display at a public hearing on Thursday.

Some community members strongly support the project. One speaker during the public hearing referenced recently released data from the Denver Regional Council of Governments suggesting that Boulder has a need for more housing for people making 120% or less of the area median income. The proposed rent at 2206 Pearl St. is intended to be affordable for people making 80% of the Boulder area median income, which comes to $81,760 for a household of one in 2024.

But some community members have expressed concerns that the units are unaffordable and are too small to be livable. Some also raised objections to what they saw as a lack of adequate parking on-site and the addition of more dense housing to the neighborhood.

Judith Jones, a nearby resident who spoke at Thursday’s public hearing, said she thought the “excessive” parking reduction would push more cars into the surrounding neighborhood and that the project would not be a good fit for the area.