Dear Mayor Brockett and Members of the City Council:

 

We ask the City of Boulder to immediately impose a temporary moratorium on new building permits and initial rental licenses for high-occupancy residential projects in mapped wildfire areas with constrained evacuation routes.

The pause should remain until the City has studied and published findings on:

•   Evacuation capacity: how long it takes to clear streets and whether routes can handle the added vehicles.

•   Emergency access: whether fire apparatus can enter while residents are evacuating.

•   Fire suppression: fire flow, hydrant pressure, water supply, staffing, and response times.

•   Cumulative occupancy: the total occupants added per parcel, including approved projects not yet occupied.

 

We ask for a pause because Boulder is changing faster than its safety planning. Policies intended to create more housing are producing unintended consequences in these locations. Homes are being demolished and replaced with much larger, bedroom-heavy projects before the City has determined whether narrow, often one-way streets can handle the added evacuation load. These rapid changes are putting lives at risk and damaging the neighborhoods the policies were meant to strengthen. A study completed years from now cannot undo what is permitted today.

At 1084 Grant Place, a permit is now in review for a 5,100-square-foot duplex with 12 bathrooms on a one-way street inside the mapped wildfire area. Once a project of this scale is built and occupied, the added evacuation burden cannot simply be reversed.

We have not found a published City study answering the basic question: if a wind-driven fire starts here, can residents get out while Boulder Fire-Rescue gets in? Risk maps and ignition-resistant construction requirements address the buildings, not the people trying to leave. Council has already adopted Fire Adapted Communities language directing the City to consider egress capacity when development changes residential density in wildfire ignition zones. We ask the City to act on that principle now. This is a precautionary move that could well save lives and lessen City and University liabilities in case of a catastrophic wildfire event.

Planning staff have told residents that these permits are by right and “not subject to call up, appeal or referral to the Planning Board." That leaves a policy gap only Council can address. Every permit issued now becomes the model for the next project on the next constrained street.

We are not asking the City to stop housing. Renters and students are among the people this request protects. New housing should not be approved faster than the City can ensure safe evacuation and fire response.

The Marshall Fire took more than a thousand homes and two lives in a single afternoon, in communities many people did not consider wildfire neighborhoods. Pause. Study it. Prove the capacity is there. Then build.