Opinion: CUSG Leadership: NO on CU South Repeal
By: Rachel Hill, Lucie Nguyen and Chloe Nicklas
After years of negotiations, Boulder City Council passed an agreement last September to direct the future of our community’s safety, nature access and housing market: annexing CU South. This November, Boulder voters have the opportunity to vote to support flood protection for thousands of residents, more than a hundred acres of new vibrant open space, and a projected 1,100+ units of housing for the university community. The University’s property, known as CU South, is a 308-acre abandoned gravel mine located at a critical junction of Table Mesa Drive, US36, floodplains, neighborhoods, and Boulder’s future.
Under the annexation agreement, the City of Boulder will implement an extensive flood mitigation plan to guide and control flood waters along U.S. 36 and provide urgently-needed protection for thousands of our neighbors in South Boulder. The city is also gaining approximately 119 acres of open space along the South Boulder Creek, which will be managed and revitalized into beautiful recreational space.
The University of Colorado will construct ~1,100 units of housing for upperclassmen, graduate students, faculty and staff with the remaining half of the property. This is an unprecedented number for a single development in Boulder. There are tight and well-thought-out restrictions on traffic, transportation, building height limits, public safety, and much more. None of this development will be in the floodplain.
All of these are much-needed outcomes for everyone who calls Boulder home. Overturning this agreement throws away years of negotiations, restrictions and concessions by the university, and only further endangers our neighbors in the nearby floodplains. Boulder cannot afford to ignore flood protection and housing construction needs any longer.
It is for these reasons that we, as the elected Tri-Executives of the student body of CU Boulder, emphatically endorse a “no” vote on the attempt to overturn the critical annexation agreement and subsequent development at CU South. Voters have twice already, in 2021 and 2006, given City Council support to negotiate these complex agreements. If Ballot Question 2F passes, there is no “backup plan” for our community’s dire flood safety or housing needs. Boulder residents—our peers on campus and our off-campus neighbors—are directly protected by the flood management plan. Expanding the available housing market in the Boulder area by one to two percent is an unprecedented step in the right direction toward combating the increasingly inaccessible housing in Colorado.
As leaders on the CU Boulder campus, we have a responsibility to work with the administration and advocate for student interests in the future of CU. This annexation, its flood mitigation plan, projected housing outcomes and open space are well thought out and are in the best interest of the community we all call home. The future of our campus and our world requires bold leadership from us all. We continue to call on the university to do right by the community needs in the next steps of CU South development: prioritizing housing affordability, sustainable construction practices and more.
We are committed to creating a safer, affordable, and accessible Boulder—are you? Vote NO on the annexation repeal of CU South this November. Learn more about CU Student Government, CU South and our Vote 2022 initiative at colorado.edu/cusg/vote2022.
Editor’s Note: The Bold does not endorse the opinions of the authors. This is an opinion piece. The Bold will continue to report on this issue and CUSG impartially.
