Daily Camera, Boulder, CO
POSTED:   02/27/2015 06:30:39 PM MST

There has been much talk about the housing shortage in Boulder and ways to solve it. The recent development boom has raised widespread concerns about the direction our city is heading to provide housing for people to live and work in Boulder. According to a January 2014 news article on CU’s website, approximately 22,000 students live off campus. That’s over 70 percent of CU-Boulder’s students. Assuming four students per dwelling, that’s at least 5,500 dwellings occupied by students. While some live out of town, many do not and thus thousands of Boulder dwellings are occupied by students which increases the competition for our town’s limited housing.

Given this imbalance of on- and off-campus student housing, wouldn’t it be reasonable for CU to provide more on-campus housing? Doing so could provide thousands of modest dwellings for working professionals who wish to live and work in Boulder. This would reduce the need for new development, reduce the daily influx of traffic and provide affordable dwellings that are in such short supply. One trend to solve Boulder’s housing shortage has been through in-fill and densification. Perhaps CU could be a good neighbor and do the same, including at one or both of the locations proposed for a new conference center. Getting more students to live on campus would solve a host of problems.

Nancy McCurry
Boulder