City Council adopts broad land-use code cleanup, allows hospital height exception and narrows some late edits

Boulder City Council on Thursday adopted Ordinance 86 97, a comprehensive code-cleanup package amending Titles 4, 9 and 10 of the Boulder Revised Code (BRC 1981). The ordinance, a second reading continued from June 5, passed on a 7–1 roll-call vote after council approved staff-recommended changes and a set of council amendments.

The changes are intended to correct errors and typographical citations, clarify definitions and standards, update graphics, and remove some development restrictions to provide flexibility in project design and administration. “This is ordinance 86 97, the code cleanup,” Planning staffer Jeff Solomonson told council during a presentation that summarized the package.

Council members and the public focused discussion on several substantive items that staff characterized as clarifications or administrative cleanups: the treatment of accessory dwelling units (ADUs) under the city’s energy-efficiency “smart regs,” rules for duplexes and setback treatment on nonconforming lots, removal of a 750‑foot separation requirement for certain residential care facilities, and a proposed allowance for hospitals and associated medical offices in the public zoning district to request a height modification for three‑story buildings up to a 55‑foot limit.

Boulder Community Health representatives described operational needs motivating the hospital language. “The height modification would be applied to a planned three‑story extension,” said Rob Bissers, identified in testimony as the hospital CEO, adding the hospital seeks…