Attend a Virtual Coffee With a Planner or Open House in July

Boulder County, CO - The Boulder County Community Planning & Permitting Department is continuing work on Land Use Code updates to Short-term Dwelling Rental and Bed & Breakfast regulations in docket DC-19-0005. Opportunities for public input and virtual meetings are scheduled for July.

Informational Survey Results

Boulder County sent out an informational survey polling the public for thoughts on regulating short-term dwelling rentals in the fall of 2019. This survey was open from Oct. 28, 2019 through Dec. 2, 2019, and there were 1,567 total respondents. Some notable results include:

• More than 85% of respondents felt as though there should be short-term dwelling rentals in Boulder County with varying levels of oversight.
• More than 74% of respondents thought there should be a local management requirement.
• A majority of respondents felt as though there should be some form of owner-occupancy requirement.
• 76% of respondents did not think a minimum-stay was appropriate.

View the full results for this informational survey.

Preliminary Outline for Proposed Draft Regulations

Based on these survey results and discussions with the public, and a review of other jurisdictions’ regulations, staff’s preliminary outline for the draft regulations is as follows:

• Short-term dwelling rentals will be required to have a Boulder County license and follow specific license regulations, very similar to Boulder County’s Marijuana Licensing Program. County governments in Colorado were recently granted licensing authority through HB-20-1093.
• There will be two separate categories of uses for Short-term Dwelling Rentals:
  • An Accessory Residential Use: This use will be on properties where there is a Principal Use as a single-family dwelling. There will likely be some residency or owner-occupancy requirements for this use. This use might be appropriate for an administrative review.
  • A Lodging Use: This use will be for houses that are used primarily for short-term rentals and not primarily used as a single-family house. This use will likely require a more intensive review, including a public hearing.

Upcoming Public Comment and Input Opportunities in July

County staff and decision makers are seeking input or questions on the preliminary outline for regulations along with any criteria for review or conditions of approval for staff to consider.

Virtual Coffee With a Planner - Meeting Times Available Between July 13-24

Planners will host small group sessions that are 30 minutes long for members of the public to join an online meeting or call in and talk to a planner about this code update. If you would like to sign-up for a Virtual Coffee With a Planner session, please fill out this short form to schedule a meeting time.

Virtual Open House - Thursday, July 30 at 6 p.m.

A Virtual Open House will be held on Thursday, July 30 at 6 p.m. to review the latest public input to date. Register online to participate at this online session and provide thoughts to staff before they begin drafting the regulations.

The timeline for this update is to provide proposed draft regulations to the Boulder County Planning Commission in the fall. Written comments may be submitted online.

For more information, contact Jasmine Rodenburg at jrodenburg@bouldercounty.org or 303-441-1735, or visit the project webpage.