With all of the holiday celebrations, shopping, and parties over the past month, I wound up talking to a lot of Golden-dwellers. The recurring theme in most of the conversations was growth. There is a lot of frustration, confusion, and anger amongst the residents. The questions everyone is asking include
Isn’t there a 1% growth limit?
How could they have been allowed to build (insert any given development)–it’s so BIG!
Traffic is getting so bad–why don’t we stop building? And with traffic getting heavier, why do they keep taking away lanes?
What happened to the Golden Vision, where we said we wanted to be a small town?
I have some ideas about most of these questions, but for today I’ll focus on the first: is there still a 1% per year growth limit? The answer is yes, well, sort of. There have been, and continue to be, a number of ways around it.
Senior Housing
The growth limit went into effect in 1996, but there was an exemption for senior housing. Before that exemption expired, several senior housing projects were built. After they were completed, some of the developments exchanged their senior exemptions for regular building allocations, so they would not be subject to Golden’s “senior housing” requirements. The last 33 senior housing exemptions went to the 120 unit development currently under construction on Golden Gate Canyon Road, and they are exchanging their senior allocations for regular ones as they become available.
Early Starts
Theoretically, there are a fixed number of housing allocations granted every year. The number is 77 for 2019. However, certain types of projects have been allowed to “borrow” allocations from future years. In 2013, the Outlook Golden Ridge project was allowed to build 172 apartments near the light rail station. Because that type of housing was considered desirable, they were not required to wait until they had accumulated the necessary allocations–though they did have to keep requesting them every year until they had acquired all 172.
In 2018, Council voted to allow Affordable Housing projects to borrow allocations from the future. So the city may allow more than 77 housing starts this year, because qualified Affordable Housing projects can borrow from future years.
Commercial Developments
Hotels are exempt from the growth limit, so while the 72 apartments proposed for 8th Street will require housing allocations, the 48-unit hotel will not.
The School of Mines
As a state institution, the School of Mines considers itself to be exempt from local zoning, so they can build as much housing as they like without regard to Golden’s 1% growth limit. In March of 2018, the city rezoned 1101 18th Street to allow the School to build a 416 room residence hall. The rezoning was required because the previous (R3) zone only allowed a building 50 feet in height. The new residence hall will be 64 feet tall.
In April, the City approved a 107-unit apartment building (1750 Jackson St.) for use by the School of Mines. Thus, in a single year, 523 new beds/living units were approved without regard to the 1% growth limit.
