New West Blog

Boulder To Public on Open Space Plan: You Figure it Out

By Courtney Lowery, 6-08-09

Here’s an idea: Instead of attempting to play the middle on the tug-of-war on who gets to do what on the city’s prized open space, planners at the city of Boulder in Colorado have decided not to decide.

Instead, they’re telling the public to work it out amongst themselves.

From Heath Urie in the Boulder Daily Camera:

Beginning next month, the city’s Open Space and Mountain Parks division will select up to 18 Boulder residents, representing various interest groups and viewpoints, and ask them to reach a consensus on how Boulder’s most expansive and heavily trafficked trails should be used.

Read the whole piece here.

It sounds like a good idea, although, as Peter Bakwin of the Boulder Trail Runners and president of the Boulder Area Trails Coalition says, “I think it’s potentially a very good idea, but the devil will be in the details.”

And one of those details will be whether or not the City Council will actually listen to the group. In 2005, the city tried something similar with a Visitor Master Plan, and much of what the public came up with got rejected.

Bakwin tells the Daily Camera: “There’s been a lot of hard feelings. There’s a pretty big lack of trust among the various folks involved. It would be foolish to become involved in a process where those same barriers exist.”

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