Wisdom from Huckleberry Finn

The Citizens of Boulder County need to wake up, quickly. As of January 2010 the highly restrictive, and widely contested, FAR regulations are being enforced in the city of Boulder. Boulder County's evil twin "sustainability" measures have been in place since August 2008 and are gradually having the dual effect of slowing the number of permits issued in Boulder County and eroding private property rights. Not suprisingly, the one effect not being realized is containment of carbon emissions. The quasi-judicial commissioners are aware of these measures ineffectiveness; it has been well documented by the energy auditing community. Still, the citizens must carry on and come together in compliance with the pie in the sky Kyoto II.

The Daily Camera has reported that property values are down for the first time in 26 years in Boulder County. The real estate market has been over-valued both locally and nationally for the past five years and Boulder is not immune to corrections of the market. Locally our community has better withstood other downturns and it is worth asking what makes this real estate recession unique. I assert in heavy measure our local government is to blame. The sustainability/green measures taking affect concurrent with this downturn have generated only negative results; job losses and company foreclosures for businesses in the construction industry, architects, cabinet makers, painters etc. Permits are harder and more expensive to get as the compliance bar has been raised; some people have bypassed the permit process altogether. Most significantly, is the decline in property values and private property rights. For people who support these measures because you think people with big houses are profligate consumers and should live om some other town, be careful what you wish for because in Boulder you are going to get it.

As a builder I view the world through my prism of self-interest, which is obviously one reasons why I reject these measures. Empty political gestures such as Boulder's compliance with Kyoto tend to irritate me. The primary reason I reject the measures,however, is they are a ruse by the county to achieve their cherished objective; affordability. As of December 31st, 2009 one modest north Boulder property lost approximately 1000 square feet of development rights over night. A second story for this home is now not possible. In my assessment this is a "taking"; a violation of the fifth amendment. Private property has been taken in exchange for a benefit to the "community" and the property owner has not been compensated. Some people shrug this asset loss off as no big deal. Until they want to refinance their home or borrow against the equity they thought was there. It isn't there any more.

I live on a six acre property and was told by the County that the median size home for my parcel is 4700 square feet; a floor area ratio of less than ten percent. If I lived in the city it would be 45 percent. Why this discrepancy? The residents of the city, who support the restrictions in the county, like to think of undeveloped private property as open space. Shame on them. The county commissioners attend to maintaining an "affordable housing stock" and now restrict growth as a way of slowing prices. Shame on us for letting these people keep their jobs. The results so far? 1.For every permit issued in the County in the first half of 2009 a coal burning plant in China became operational. 2. A widening chasm between the haves and have nots in the County, with large homes escalating in value and smaller homes falling in value. 3. The County Commissioners, led by the ever smug Will Toor, hide behind the fig leaf of sustainability, while committing to affordability at the expense of private property owners. Well. I know how Huck Finn felt when he said to his pal Jim, "I too have known the boot heel of oppression". I am just a little suprised by who is wearing the boots; the residents in the County who voted for these measures.