County commissioners approved a six-month moratorium on site plan review for houses over the median residential square footage in a given neighborhood after a lengthy and contentious meeting Tuesday, Sept. 17, as the county aims to curb home size growth for environmental and affordability purposes.
The moratorium takes effect Jan. 17 in unincorporated Boulder County, four months later than the originally proposed effective-immediate date. During the stoppage, county staff will be exploring land use code changes to reduce the allowable home size based on neighborhood medians.
According to county staff, permit data suggests the median square footage of homes in unincorporated Boulder County was 3,379 in 2019 and 4,589 in 2023 — a 36% increase.
About 50 people spoke at the meeting, with only two in favor of the moratorium.
In addition to property owners who said the stoppage could cost them their dream home and money already invested, many of those who spoke said the moratorium would have significant impacts on architects, builders and other small businesses.
“Six months is going to be absolutely devastating, like hitting the spine of residential construction and design and real estate market with a sledge hammer while you figure out if this is something you want to enact,” said Boulder-based architect David Biek.
Marshall Fire rebuilds and other homes lost to natural disasters are exempt from the moratorium, as are homes that have already completed a site plan review application. County planner Ethan Abner estimated about 50 projects would be impacted by the stoppage, though he said making an accurate estimate was difficult.
“Anything already approved will still go on, and so this isn’t an end to work,” commissioner Ashley Stolzmann said later in the meeting. “It is a pause, a brief pause, while we discuss what the regulation will be.”
Several speakers pointed to inequitable outcomes with the way the county determines neighborhood compatibility as it relates to home size in general.
“This proposal will not stop large houses,” said Boulder-based architect Brian Fuentes. “This is by definition exclusionary zoning policy that will continue to allow ‘large’ family homes where they already exist, unfairly putting the burden on existing neighborhoods with smaller homes. This is hypocritical, inequitable and fails to address the largest homes in the neighborhoods this memorandum supposedly is concerned about.”
Community members who spoke in favor of the moratorium pointed to environmental benefits including a smaller carbon footprint for smaller homes.
“When it comes to the built environment what we’re doing now is not enough compared to the consequences of our actions on the environment, community resilience and the effects of climate change,” said Jessica Hertzberg, a designer at landscape architecture and land planning firm Land Design.
Commissioners voted 2-1 in favor of the stoppage, with Claire Levy opposing. Levy said the January implementation date wouldn’t give people enough time to finish applications and proposed extending an exemption to those earlier on in the process.
“I do think this works against people who have acted in good faith in reliance on information they’ve received from the planning department,” she said. “I support the project [of revising the site plan review process] and I support the goals, but I don’t support the way this moratorium has been drafted.”
“People came in here and told us what their dreams are,” she added later. “I do feel that we are letting them down on their ability to follow through on what they have been working for and saving for for a very long time.”
“I do believe if we do not enact a moratorium this evening, it will create further potential problems for folks that are trying to build their dream home,” Stolzmann, who voted in favor, said. “This brings more certainty, which we’ve been asked for.”