The Boulder County Board of County Commissioners on Aug. 19 upheld a director’s determination applying new structure-size limitations to a property at 228 Alpine Way (the Flynn–Parker appeal), rejecting an owner appeal that challenged the county’s baseline square-foot figure.

What the appeal asked: Property owners asserted that county records incorrectly reported their home’s existing floor area, that they relied on county information when they purchased the house and that the county should allow them to build a larger addition based on what they believe the home’s square footage to be.

Staff analysis and board decision: Community Planning and Permitting staff explained that county code now sets a maximum residential floor area for each zoning district, measured as the larger of (a) the neighborhood median residential floor area or (b) a fixed increase above the parcel’s existing residential floor area as of the code effective date. For Forestry-zoned parcel 228 Alpine Way the applicable maximum is 3,879 square feet based on the neighborhood median; staff said their records show the existing residential floor area as 2,840 square feet.

The appellants disputed the assessor-record number and the sequence of communications during a prior moratorium on new permits. Staff replied that assessor records are the county’s reference source for neighborhood medians and that the county had consistently communicated the same figures to the applicant. The board found that staff applied the code correctly and that the owners’ remedy to change the baseline square footage would be to work with the assessor’s office to have official records corrected.

Outcome: The board voted to affirm the director’s determination and deny the appeal, leaving in place the 3,879-square-foot limit for the property under the adopted structure-size provisions.