Density and Affordability

Positions on density and growth policies in Boulder have become a hot-button, divisive issue of late. The debate is centered around the issue of Housing, both its affordability and availability. Boulder has a problem of not having enough housing for all the people who want to live here, particularly those who work here and commute in from elsewhere. The solution it seems, is to provide  more housing and also increase the occupancy in existing housing stock. However within the context of Boulder's limited-growth environment this is not easy as it will require relaxation of Boulder's  limits to density and occupancy and other changes in its limited growth policies.

Those advocating for more density believe that raising density limits will induce a market response and stimulate production of more housing supply. Usually this position also assumes that more supply might ease some of the price pressure as well. However there are at least 2 important conditions that must be met for prices to drop: 

1) the market area must be 'elastic' (as opposed to 'in-elastic') - meaning that demand will generally fluctuate and increased supply should cause prices to drop

2) in cases of an 'in-elastic' market where demand remains at a constant level, much like Boulder experiences, price controls or some other type of constraint must be implemented to improve affordability.

Others believe that increased density simply means more people packed into the same sized area, and that the required more-intensive development will change the character and quality-of-life of the community. They also believe that prices would not fall without creating a housing surplus, a state unlikely in the face of growing demand. They are thus against blanket raising of density limits. More density is therefore not desirable.

To honestly and reasonably debate density policy requires some understanding of what density is and how it can impact a community. To fully examine the issue one should also have sufficient background understanding of the processes that form and drive the City generally.

Density is one of the four land-use factors that zoning regulates. Zoning controls: use, bulk, height, and DENSITY. The four work interactively to yield composite results in the district of the City where they are applied. As a control mechanism no one factor is parametrically independent from the other three. A change in Density can affect all the other factors. Allowing more density will increase the demand for more height and also require more bulk planes that extend to the edge of properties. Like a natural ecosystem, all factors in a city are interconnected.

Density in and of itself is not necessarily bad. More dense patterns of dwelling can be more ecological. With higher density, systems like mass-transit are more effective at serving larger populations more easily. More people closer together can mean utilities and other resources also reach more people and use less energy overall doing it. But these more intensely built up dense zones create more impacts that must be offset.

But more people requires more things. Each additional person creates increased demand impacts that are felt throughout the city. Each added person needs to move around through the whole of the city and with enough ‘more people’  the demand increases for more and improved movement infrastructure. This is called the access tree.  Each added person acquires, consumes and expends resources and at that point each person contributes a quantity of pollution, of waste. It is all additive. More people, more impacts.

Intensively developed zones also have impact on the visual and aesthetic environment. Ideally, areas of highest density are sufficiently set off by open areas and districts of less intense use to help spread some of these environmental impacts out. Height can also be used as a density offset by allowing more height in some areas to keep other areas low, although this is not currently possible under Boulder's set of height limits - limits that have been in place for over 50 years and have had a demonstrated impact on the quality of life that Boulder is famous for.   

Although a generalized (city wide) relaxation of occupancy limits could induce a similarly generalized rise in density, it could also trigger other effects such as market responses that would convert more single family homes into permanent rental properties, and create more demand to demolish and replace buildings of all types causing an overall diminishment of the stock of housing for sale, as opposed to for rent.

A generally more dense Boulder would offer few avenues for offset because of locked boundaries, fixed heights and limited options for annexation. This would cause the intensity of all of this new population to grow in on itself, like a development pressure cooker. All one needs to do is visit some of the new development  around the north and west sides of Downtown Denver to see what this type of development might look like.  If taken to a similar extreme, most of current Boulder residents would likely consider this amount of densification and its outcome to be a bad thing.