Council approves e-bike ordinance

Annual supplemental appropriations to the 2023 budget also cleared

Boulder City Council on Thursday approved an ordinance recommended by city staff to allow ebikes on some open space trails.

The new ordinance will change existing ordinances to allow Class 1 and Class 2 e-bikes as a “passive recreational use” on certain open space trails where designated. Ebikes will be allowed on Plains trails east of Broadway and Boulder Canyon Trail, which will give riders access to 34 miles of open space trails and 22% of the 154mile Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks trail network.

City Councilmembers celebrated the new ordinance as a step toward increasing accessibility on the trails and enabling more people to use them.

“Not all of us have the types of bodies that allow us to keep doing in our 80s what we were doing in our 20s. I think this really does allow more of us to keep enjoying our trails even as our bodies need some extra assistance,” said Councilmember Nicole Speer.

Council approved the ordinance after receiving two recommendations for ordinances regarding e-bike use on open space trails — one came from city staff and the other from the Boulder Open Space Board of Trustees. The OSBT recommendation would only have allowed e-bikes on open space trails as necessary to enable connectivity and contiguity in a multijurisdictional regional trail system.

Dan Burke, director of Boulder Open Space and Mountain Parks, said during a presentation that there were two ordinance proposals because the staff and OSBT were not able to come to an agreement on an ordinance.

“It’s the first time in my five years of tenure as director that we, the board and the staff, … failed to come together in a unified recommendation to Council,” Burke said.

The heart of the disagreement over which ordinance centered around whether e-bikes constituted a “passive recreational use” of open space land. City staff’s recommendation was that Council should make a legislative finding that e-biking is a passive recreational use of open space land, while OSBT recommended that e-biking should not be considered a passive recreational use of open space land.

During a public hearing, many speakers supported OSBT’S recommendation and opposed allowing e-bike use on most open space trails. Many expressed concerns about e-bikes, which can move at fast speeds, sharing trails with pedestrians, children and pets. Several stated that e-bikes would negatively impact the environment and wildlife. Several claimed that e-bike use on open space trails was a violation of city charter. Some speakers claimed that Council did not have the legal authority to allow e-bikes on these trails.

Boulder resident Richard Harris said the city’s Visitor Master Plan states that “passive recreation” is defined as non-motorized activities, and motorized vehicles are not considered passive recreation.

However, Kacey French, planning and design senior manager for Boulder OSMP, later clarified that the city charter does not actually contain language about passive recreation. The Visitor Master Plan actually defines the city charter, French said, and the charter does limit open space purposes to passive recreation, but passive recreation is defined in the VMP, not the charter.

Furthermore, according to Janet Michaels from the City Attorney’s office, e-bikes are specifically excluded from the definition of motor vehicles. And City Council implements elements of the VMP, which is only a guidance document until City Council adopts something regulating a piece of it as law.

Ultimately, City Council voted 7-0 to approve the city staff recommendation. Mayor Pro Tem Mark Wallach was absent from the meeting, and Councilmember Rachel Friend recused herself from voting on the matter.

Council also discussed an ordinance to approve annual supplemental appropriations to the 2023 budget. The ordinance, which passed unanimously on an 8-0 vote, will appropriate a total of more than $31 million across funds: $19.8 million from the general fund, and $11.1 million from restricted funds will go toward covering a wide variety of city needs such as emergencies, voter-approved changes and community needs.

“Mid-year adjustments to the budget are necessary for governmental operations as Colorado law requires an annual budget appropriation by Dec. 31st of each year,” a city memo stated. “However, government business continues year-round.”