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Attitudes on Growth
A majority of Boulder voters (56%) felt that there should be little or no more growth in the City. A strong majority 80% said growth is only acceptable as long as development pays enough to maintain current levels of services, and traffic congestion and the City's water supplies don't get any worse.
Growth and Affordable Housing
Allowing 10,000 to 15,000 more housing units to be built in Boulder would result in an additional 2000 to 3000 more units of affordable housing. While this may be a laudable goal, voters opposed it by a 54% to 31% margin, even given the benefit of the increased affordable housing stock.
Growth and Density
Adding 10,000 to 15,000 more housing units might aid mass transit and increase the feasibility of light rail. Yet as much as Boulder residents like mass transit and the concept of light rail, by a margin of 53% to 35%, voters would rather forgo further increases in density.
Growth and Jobs
If ever there were a time that Boulder residents should have valued the increased availability of jobs, it would be in the tight economic times when this survey was conducted. Yet adding enough commercial/industrial development to accommodate 50,000 to 60,000 new jobs was overwhelmingly rejected by Boulder voters, by a 59% to 25% margin.
Perceptions of Major Problems in Boulder
Traffic congestion weighs heavily on the minds of people of Boulder. Almost half (49%) of Boulder voters said in 2003 that traffic congestion in Boulder is a "very" (18%) or "pretty" (31%) serious problem. And 80% say that it will be "much" (31%) or "somewhat" (49%) worse 25 years from now.
While a majority (57%) said Boulder has enough water to meets its needs at the moment, that number plummeted to just 24% who felt the City has enough water to meet its needs by the year 2025. And the percentage who felt Boulder has enough water for the future drops even further, to just 8%, given the growth suggested by the Jobs Housing Project guidelines, and assuming additional water supplies could be obtained without building more dams.
The Effect of the Jobs Housing Guidelines
When people are informed of the residential and commercial/industrial growth that would be allowed under the Jobs Housing guidelines, which are still being pursued, their negative perceptions of traffic and water problems increase. The number of voters who thought Boulder has enough water to serve the needs of residents for the next 25 years dropped in half, going from 24% to 12% once Jobs Housing projections are introduced. And the number who felt traffic would get worse by 2025 rises to 91%, from the 85% before the Jobs Housing Project projections were discussed.
Vote on Possible Initiatives
Three possible ballot initiatives were tested:
- One requires new development to pay for additional water required by their developments.
- One allows new development only if it will not increase traffic congestion beyond current levels, and requires growth to pay for traffic mitigation.
- One limits the number of new residential units, as well as limits the amount of commercial and industrial that can be built.
The one that garnered the most support was the one related to additional supplies of water.
A significant percentage of opposition to each of the three initiatives comes from those who say they oppose them because they do not go far enough.
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Last Modified 2006-04-29