Boulder greenlights deals for flood project
Boulder’s monumental South Boulder Creek flood mitigation efforts have moved a step closer to fruition with the approval of two deals Thursday that give the city needed land for the project.
The City Council unanimously said yes to both an open space land disposal, which will transfer about two acres of open space land to the city, and the annexation of a bigger parcel of about 27 acres of land along U.S. 36 near Table Mesa Drive.
Flood mitigation at South Boulder Creek has been in the works for almost a decade.
The creek has seen significant flooding six times in the last 80 years, including in September 2013, when floodwaters came over the top of U.S. 36. Approved in 2015, the South Boulder Creek flood mitigation project will alter the 100-year floodplain and reduce flood risks for an estimated 2,300 residents and 1,100 homes. City officials are aiming to start construction this year.
Joe Taddeucci, Boulder’s director of utilities, told the Daily Camera ahead of Thursday’s meeting that the city has no plans to physically move buildings out of the 100-year floodplain. Rather, the boundaries of the floodplain itself will change so that those residents and homes will no longer be in the floodplain.
The city plans to set up most of the flood mitigation infrastructure at CU South, the 308-acre parcel of land near U.S. 36 and Table Mesa Drive owned by the University of Colorado Boulder.
With the open space disposal granted, officials now have permission to use a 2.2-acre strip of open space running along the south side of U.S. 36 just east of Foothills Parkway to build a flood wall and spillway for water.
Both the City Council and the city’s Open Space Board of Trustees were required to sign off on the open space land disposal.
As part of the agreement, the transferred land will revert to open space if the flood project does not move forward or if the land is no longer used or needed by the city utilities department.
Additionally, because the open space disposal was granted, Boulder officials will designate 119 acres within the CU South area as open space. The city has gained water rights to be able to irrigate and do environmental mitigation of the area.
The 27.4-acre parcel that will be annexed into the city will include about four acres of open space land and roughly 23 acres of the U.S. 36 public right-of-way.
The open space disposal and land annexation together will allow the next steps of the $63 million flood mitigation project to move forward, as long as the city receives all the necessary permits for the project.
Although the flood project as a whole has sparked an enormous amount of controversy and pushback from parts of the Boulder community, few people testified during two public hearings ahead of Thursday night’s open space disposal and land annexation decisions.
Only one person, Lynn Segal, spoke at both hearings. Segal called the project a “travesty” and listed numerous reasons why it shouldn’t move forward as planned. For example, she said, the plan is designed to protect against a 100-year flood instead of a 500-year flood.
A 100-year flood is one that has a 1% chance of happening in a given year, while a 500-year flood has a 0.2% likelihood of happening in a given year. Many community members had hoped for a 500-year flood plan, with some fearing floods could grow worse in the coming years due to climate change.
“You’re not doing an adequate job, and you’re not protecting Boulder Valley (Comprehensive) Plan initiatives, which are health, welfare and safety. You’re not. You’re making it worse for people,” Segal said.
Criticisms of the plan have been many and varied. Some opponents have opposed the project on the grounds of its possible impacts on open space land, while others worry the plan is too costly for the city and isn’t going to be as effective as city engineers have claimed.
There have even been suggestions from some community members that the plan could worsen flood risks in some areas.
But council members at Thursday’s meeting expressed no hesitation or qualms about moving forward with the project.
“It’s been a long process. It’s been a thorough one with tons of community input, more than probably any project the city has ever undertaken,” said Councilmember Matthew Benjamin. “… Tonight, we have provided 2,300 Boulder residents a better chance to sleep at night, more so than they have since the 2013 flood. … And hopefully, when we get (the project) finished, they will be able to sleep fully, because this is a big step for us.”