Greenlee: Are we sustainable yet? - Boulder buzzword

Greenlee: Are we sustainable yet?
By Bob Greenlee
Posted: 01/17/2010 01:00:00 AM MST

Next weekend Boulder`s newly constituted City Council will endure a biannual ritual and ponder their priority goals for the coming years. If past endeavors are any indication it will be a chance for all nine counselors to individually and collectively lecture, pontificate, and perhaps accidentally hammer out an agenda that actually address matters important to Boulder`s future.

High on nearly every council member`s list will be efforts to confront the city`s growing budget quandary by focusing on new economic realities. Faced with declining tax revenues, increasing demands to fix this, do that, and finding it uncomfortable doing less with less, the challenges faced by council are somewhat daunting.

Meanwhile, the city`s Comprehensive Plan, which has never been either comprehensive nor much of a plan, is up for major revisions. A key element missing from this already bloated document is any serious comprehensive economic plan. This could be the year that something meaningful might actually receive the attention it deserves. Unfortunately, there may be more emphasis given to how the city can increase revenues simply by raising both taxes and fees. Former mayor Matt Appelbaum has already asked council to consider any number of new taxes that might be placed on this fall`s ballot.

One approach that has never caught on in Boulder is to employ what some describe as "zero-based budgeting" to focus on fundamental issues related to revenues and expenditures. The process involves rebuilding operating departments and costs consistent with community needs as well as resources. City manager Jane Brautigam has come as close as anyone has to achieving this laudable goal by suggesting council employ "priority based budgeting" as a way of dealing with the fundamental conflicts inherent in trying to do too much with not enough. Before council goes too far asking taxpayers to cough up more, they should first resolve to discover how the city can live within its current means.

"Sustainability" is a fashionable new term that will be spewed endlessly during council`s retreat. It`s the latest fad term that has become so misused in public discourse that it`s virtually meaningless. Some claim nothing qualifies as being sustainable because both organic and man-made systems continuously merge, evolve, or adapt. Many argue that emphasizing sustainability implies things should just remain static and believe the status quo is entirely acceptable. In many ways Boulder has suffered from trying to maintain the status quo by being unwilling to adapt, evolve, or deal with issues that would help to ensure the city will remain viable. Growth limits, height limits, housing size limits, limiting choices as well as opportunities have been the way Boulder has addressed its perverse sense of sustainability. Such ultraconservative thinking has created many of the problems the city now confronts and there`s genuine concern that things will never change.

If council truly wants the city to remain viable it should invite more value-oriented retailers to the city. It should immediately seek a cooperative arrangement with the University of Colorado and make building a community conference center a top priority. Same for revitalizing the decrepit University Hill. If the city really wants to provide more "affordable housing" it must encourage rather than discourage increased densities and building heights in the still developing and awkwardly named "Transit Village" and elsewhere. A revised Comp Plan should embrace adding more undeveloped land into the city limits and modify the city`s restrictive and ponderous planning and development processes.

It will be interesting to see if anything meaningful comes out of the upcoming goal-setting session. This is Boulder. Don`t hold your breath.

Bob Greenlee was a member of Boulder City Council for 16 years and served his last two years as mayor. He can be reached at: robertdgreenlee@aol.com.