Council bans development, demolition in east Boulder opportunity zone; Dan Gauthier, Rose Law Group transactional attorney handling many Opportunity Zones, comments

Construction continues Monday at the Google complex in Boulder. The site falls within a federal opportunity zone in which Boulder City Council voted Tuesday to temporarily ban development of office space and demolition of apartment buildings./Cliff Grassmick / Staff Photographer

 

By Shay Castle

After an hours-long discussion and with the clock nearing 1 a.m. Wednesday, Boulder City Council voted 6-3 to temporarily ban development of office space and demolition of apartment buildings in a broad eastern swath of the city designated as a federal opportunity zone.

Council members Bob Yates, Aaron Brockett and Jill Adler Grano dissented.

“With this moratorium, we just turned an opportunity zone into an opportunity-free zone,” Yates said. “There’s so many unknown unknowns, I don’t know where to start. This moratorium is super indiscriminate. The unintended consequences are mind boggling.”

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“While many local governments are strongly in favor of greater investment in their communities, this moratorium clearly signals that Boulder is not one of them, preferring instead to remain loyal to its existing development plans.”

~Dan Gauthier