Boulder planners outline comprehensive-plan update, schedule and engagement milestones

City of Boulder planning staff told the Environmental Advisory Board on Sept. 3 that the Boulder Valley comprehensive plan update is underway, will reframe land-use policy for the next 20 years and will return to advisory boards and decision-making bodies in stages through mid-2026. Jonathan Cohen, with Climate Initiatives, introduced the presentation and said the comp plan is the umbrella policy "that is really important" for the city’s environmental objectives. Chris Rene Loews, a planner on the comprehensive-planning team, described the comp plan as an aspirational document that guides land use and policy across the Boulder Valley, including unincorporated parts of Boulder County. "Everything is on the table at this point," Loews said.

Loews and Tucker Horsch, planning tech, summarized engagement to date and the near-term schedule. Staff reported more than 5,000 community comments, 41 engagement opportunities, six community-led conversations and multiple community-assembly meetings across the spring and summer. Staff said next public milestones include a community mapping workshop at Casey Middle School on Sept. 9; the start of a statistically balanced survey on Sept. 15 running through Oct. 17; and a return to city council on Dec. 11 with recommendations on major policy and land-use choices. Planning staff said they expect to release a public draft plan in early 2026, a final draft in May 2026 and to initiate adoption with the four adopting bodies—city council, city planning board, county planning commission and board of county commissioners—in June and July 2026.

Staff urged the board to continue sending written feedback and to help publicize upcoming events. Staff also said project materials, existing-conditions analysis and engagement summaries are posted on the project site (boulderfeature.org) and that the team will send an executive-summary-style product to make the content more accessible.

Discussion at the board meeting focused on how staff synthesized public comments into vision and values, how the plan will be structured to reduce redundancy in policy language, and how the comp plan will connect to the city's Sustainability, Equity and Resilience framework. Staff said they are reducing the comp-plan land-use categories from 26 toward about 13 broad categories and organizing policy around four classes—neighborhoods, hubs, networks and institutions—to simplify the plan and add flexibility. Staff committed to returning to the board with draft policies and land-use maps for more focused review in March 2026.