Boulder's Planning Board Approves New Rules on "Pops and Scrapes"

At their Thursday July 9 meeting, the Boulder Planning Board approved the proposed new regulations on "pops and scrapes" within the city. These controversial new regulations aim to curtail the practice of knocking down smaller houses and building big new houses in their place, or "popping the top" of a current house to add another floor above what was a single-story house. The new regulations put into place limits on both the percentage of a lot that can be covered by the house, as well as on the allowable "floor area ratio" (FAR) of a house. The FAR is simply the ratio of the finished square footage of a house to the square footage of the lot it sits on.

These regulations have been met by strong emotions on both sides of the issue. On one side are people who want to maintain the "character of a neighborhood" and want to avoid having to live next to houses that tower over their neighbors. On the other side are those who want to protect the freedom to do what they want with their homes.

Here are the new rules, in summary:

• Floor Area Ratio: a sliding-scale of 0.45 on a 7,000 square foot lot, 0.5 on a 6,000 square foot lot and 0.74 on a 4,000 square foot lot. So, the smaller the lot, the higher your allowable FAR; do the math and you'll discover that the biggest allowable house is now around 3,150 SF.
• Footprint: The allowable ratio of a house's footprint on its lot is also on a sliding scale, with a higher allowable ratio for smaller lots and a lower ratio for larger ones. As an example, the allowable footprint of a house on a 7,000 SF lot would be a maximum of 30 percent, or 2,100 square feet. In this case, if you wanted a larger house (within the limits of the FAR) you'd be forced to add a second story.
• Bulk Planes: This essentially allows for taller houses as the setback increases. Starting at an allowable 12 foot wall, this regulation will allow one foot of additional height on a house’s side walls for every additional foot of setback. For example, a 5 foot setback would allow 17 foot side walls, while a 10 foot setback would allow 22 foot side walls.
• Building permits: Fees for building permits would increase by an average of $200.

What counts and what does not count towards the FAR:

• Basements would count towards the FAR under some conditions. Specifically, the percentage of basement square footage to be included in the FAR is determined by the percentage of the foundation walls more than 36 inches above grade. So, if you have a 1,000 SF basement and 25% of the foundation is higher than 3 feet above grade, then 250 SF of the basement would count towards the FAR.
• Porches and decks: Uncovered decks, porches, terraces & stairways under 30 inches high would not be included in the FAR calculation, nor would front porches under 300 SF.
• Sheds under 10 feet tall and under 80 SF are also exempt from FAR calculations.

The Boulder City Council will take up these new regulations at their upcoming meetings on July 21 and August 4. If you go, expect things to get hot!
UPDATE: Turns out the City Council has delayed taking up the issue of "pops and scrapes" until their August 4 meeting, with further discussion at their August 18 meeting. Public comment will be allowed at the first meeting on Aug. 4.

There is more detail about these regulations on the Boulder Camera web site; click here.
Click here for the City of Boulder web page on this issue.