While a witty headline can be a welcome relief — we find it disheartening that Steve Pomerance’s column “Build Everything, Everywhere, All at Once” used his considerable writing skills to dismiss out of hand Governor Polis and legislators’ thoughtful ideas as to how to solve the problems of a housing shortage, climate change, and homelessness, even going so far as insinuate that the governor and his proposals are “looney.”

Pomerance plays to our worst fears by telling us that “your nice neighborhood will vanish!” If this law gets passed, he “guarantees” that housing prices will “go through the roof,” and opines that our “streets would be jammed with cars” and “taxes will need to skyrocket.” This is simply dehumanizing and “otherizing” of those who can’t afford a single-family home on a single-family lot. Simultaneously, this thinking ignores our current plight of streets jammed with cars due to exclusionary land use policies that force ever-longer commutes on those who staff our schools, hospitals, grocery stores, cafés and even our own city staff.

Rather than focusing on fear-inducing visions and bombastic claims, we want to applaud the bill’s authors and the governor for providing a vision and direction that will benefit Boulder and the state as a whole. We say that because housing is literally and metaphorically foundational to the well-being of all Coloradans. As Governor Polis so eloquently noted in his 2023 State of the State address, housing and land use are interwoven with all the other big issues of our day. So, we vote for sticking to the facts and inviting robust discussion. Let’s look at what the bill would do for cities like Boulder:

• re-focus us on housing people instead of storing cars (via parking requirements);

• reduce sprawl and car dependency by building more densely along transit corridors;

• remove barriers to building Accessory Dwelling Units;

• allow and encourage “missing middle” housing types (i.e, duplexes, triplexes, and compact townhomes);

• make it easier to divide a building lot so middle housing can be built;

• prioritize land use patterns that turn underutilized space (not to be confused with our prized open spaces — which will remain perfectly intact) into vibrant community housing options;

• create minimum standards for municipalities while leaving room for local flexibility. This is common; our legislature routinely crafts such minimum standards, for example, minimum wages, affordable health care and reproductive rights access and environmental regulations.

These policies and procedures should not be a problem for Boulder, as SB 23-213’s proposals are in line with Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan (BVCP) goals. Here are some examples from the core values of our adopted comprehensive plan:

• compact, contiguous development and infill that supports evolution to a more sustainable urban form;

• a diversity of housing types and price ranges;

• a welcoming, inclusive and diverse community;

• an all-mode transportation system to make getting around without a car easy and accessible to everyone.

It’s almost as if the governor, a Boulderite, has read the BVCP and taken its core policies to heart!

In Boulder, the city’s two-year work plan already incorporates many of the changes SB 23-213 seeks, for example making it easier to build ADUs, creating more middle-income units, changing zoning to make smaller, more affordable units easier to create and occupancy reform. If the BVCP and the city’s work plan are tackling these issues, why champion the bill? It’s because concerns about things like greenhouse gas emissions and racial equity don’t stop at city borders. It’s similar to why we advocate for stringent environmental rules at the state level; we simply can’t solve big societal problems at the smallest, local level. In addition, our BVCP states that we must work together with other local governments.

We note that opponents of SB 23-213 fail to acknowledge that we are in our current situation because of the very policies that are in place now. Here in Boulder, the median home purchase price is over $1 million. Over 60,000 workers commute in and out daily. People living outside line our creek side. These are the ripple effects and results that a restrictive land use policy with an emphasis on single-family-home-only zoning (more than 50% of our stock) has wrought.

We think, and the data show, that the bill will change our trajectory without the doomsday scenarios presented. Available data gives us an unsurprising prediction: Greater supply and fewer barriers to housing creation result in greater affordability. But the bill does not support patchwork sprawl, rather it moves us toward gentle in-fill in the core of our desirable cities with resulting reductions in per-capita water usage and carbon output. The data also shows that older and younger folks enjoy the option to live modestly in an ADU.

We visualize a future for our city and state that is more inclusive, more multigenerational, more sustainable and more resilient in the face of climate change. We don’t think a new neighbor in an ADU should be shunned or feared; we suspect they could be a new friend. Our priorities are less about the ease of parking; and more, about the ease of visiting our kids, grandkids and parents (perhaps in an ADU or duplex right next door!). We think living in smaller units on a transit line and utilizing shared transportation sounds wonderful. It may not be for everyone — but we should have more options for those who would enjoy it.

We believe the community can grow AND improve. We believe that happiness and connection are not determined by the size of our backyard but by the people crossing our front porch, and we believe that sharing and conserving resources, building community and connections, makes for a happier whole, and makes us safer too.

SB23-213 is not a panacea, but it is an excellent step in the right direction for Boulder and our beautiful state.

(As this guest opinion centers on land use issues, we ruefully acknowledge that we live on the ancestral homelands and unceded territory of Indigenous Peoples who have traversed, lived in and stewarded lands in the Boulder Valley since time immemorial.)

Rachel Friend is a current member of Boulder’s City Council. Mark McIntyre is a current member of Boulder’s Planning Board. Both authors are writing solely in their personal capacities.