Boulder Planning Board says yes to St. Julien Hotel expansion

A long-anticipated expansion of Boulder’s St. Julien Hotel has cleared the city’s Planning Board. The project is set to move ahead to permitting and eventual construction unless the City Council decides to review it.

The expansion of the St. Julien, located at 900 Walnut St., will mark the end of a years-long quest to develop the “civic use pad” area that sits just east of the hotel. The hotel plans to add a 55-foot tall, 50,070-square-foot building there that will include extended-stay hotel rooms and a new event space for community groups.

The civic use pad, which currently consists of an open concrete deck, is not public property: It is privately owned by the St. Julien. But the decades-old Ninth and Canyon Urban Renewal Plan requires private development projects in that part of Boulder to reserve at least 20% of their building space for “civic use.” The urban renewal plan listed recreation centers, museums, cultural centers, city office space and transit facilities as some examples of civic uses. To meet that requirement, the St. Julien has proposed allowing local civic groups and not-for-profit organizations to rent the event space at a discounted rate.

Planning Board members unanimously agreed late Tuesday night to approve the project, but they conditioned their approval on a handful of amendments to the project plan. The building is expected to be 55 feet tall, exceeding that zone’s height limit, and a building that tall has to demonstrate “community benefit” in order to be allowed. Board members agreed the hotel should pay into the city’s affordable housing fund to benefit the community.

Board members also asked for the building to include a rooftop deck of at least 700 square feet. The deck will be available to community groups for rent, and the space may potentially be open to the public in the future. It was pitched as a way to increase the space available for community use.

Additionally, two board members called for clearer signage to mark pedestrian crossings and clearly let pedestrians know that the area will be a public corridor, not private property.

The amendments came about after several board members said they worried the hotel expansion may not provide the civic use that the community has come to expect from that space. However, they felt the amendments were a reasonable compromise that would create a better arrangement for the community.

“I do think if those expectations (around civic use) hadn’t been set, this would be a completely different meeting where we’d be talking about the community benefit of having event space (and) having a more activated area,” said Planning Board member Mason Roberts. “… I do appreciate everyone working together here for the best possible solution.”

The development has been unpopular with many community members. The Protect Boulder Civic Space community group, which includes numerous residents at the Arête luxury condo complex next to the civic use pad, coalesced around a variety of concerns.

Opponents of the project have said a building of that size and height would block their view of the mountains and be out-of-character for the neighborhood, and they’ve expressed concerns about increased traffic and a lack of parking in the area. Other community members on Tuesday night disputed that the St. Julien’s planned expansion truly qualifies as “civic use” space since it’s essentially an expansion of a private, for-profit hotel.

The Protect Boulder Civic Space group had a strong presence at a public hearing about the expansion project on Tuesday night. Of the more than 20 people who signed up to speak at the public hearing, almost all were against the project.

In a letter to the Planning Board, Stan Garnett, the former Boulder County district attorney who represents Protect Boulder Civic Space, argued the project doesn’t meet the city’s requirements and should be rejected. He wrote that the St. Julien has shown a “disregard for neighboring properties” by not agreeing to meet with nearby residents and property owners about their concerns, and that the city would not be justified in allowing a 55-foot-tall building in that area.

Additionally, Garnett wrote, the project would increase danger to the public “due to increased traffic and unsafe pedestrian pathways.” City staffers have said emergency service providers, such as the fire department, are not concerned about the site design.

Not all community members are against the project. Eric Gertler, a Boulder resident of 30 years, said he’s excited about the hotel expansion and the money it will bring to the city.

“It’s a great property that has been lying fallow for a long time. We have valuable real estate that has the ability to deliver services and revenue to the city, and it’s just been sitting there empty,” he said. “I think they’re building something that is attractive and productive and will be better than having an empty lot.”

There have been other past attempts to develop the civic use pad, but they were unsuccessful for various reasons. At one point, there were plans to build a 55-foot-tall children’s museum and community dance facility, but those plans fell through “due to financial challenges,” according to a city memo. The city has also tried to get civic users to use the site, but none of those attempts resulted in a development that fit the urban renewal plan requirements.

The site requirements have made it challenging to use and develop. The size of the site made building there unaffordable for many would-be developers. In 2019, after the site had sat vacant for nearly two decades, the city decided to loosen some requirements of the urban renewal plan and forge a public-private partnership with the St. Julien to get the site developed.

Several board members on Tuesday evening said they weren’t satisfied with the 2019 deal between the city and the hotel, and suggested the city may have given up too much of what it wanted. They voted to approve the hotel expansion not because they fully agreed with the project design, but because they felt it meets the city’s site review criteria.