Look – Boulder County’s cracked the code for modern government innovation: use taxpayer cash to take land out of productive use while complaining there ain’t enough land for anything. Apparently, the geniuses over at the Boulder County Commissioners’ office have snatched up around 60 acres in Gunbarrel “for open space or community use.” The article from Daily Camera plays it all sweet and fuzzy – but here’s the kicker: they’ll spend millions locking this acreage behind bureaucratic red tape, then turn around and whine that housing is unaffordable. Welcome to clown world.
The Bullet Point Brief
- Boulder County’s buying nearly 60 acres in Gunbarrel for $5 million in taxpayer money “for open space” – because we apparently don’t have enough weeds and prairie dogs already.
- Officials claim it could be used for “affordable housing” someday… but haven’t actually committed to anything except fantasizing.
- This move takes even more developable land off the market – a real bold choice during an actual housing crisis.
- They wrapped the whole deal in a feel-good sustainability bow, because nothing says ‘green’ like bulldozing logic with your wallet.
My Bottom Line
Only in Boulder do you fight a housing affordability crisis by hoarding land and calling it ‘open space.’ It’s like watching a guy drown in his kitchen sink because he refuses to pull the plug. City planners love buzzwords like “future flexibility” and “environmental preservation,” but what they’re really doing is blocking up available parcels so their precious zoning codes don’t have to get their hands dirty with actual change. You want affordable homes? Then stop playing environmental Monopoly with public money and maybe try letting people build where there’s demand.
And let me tell you what comes next, because we’ve seen it before. After locking away this property under some kumbaya vague use case, they’ll roll back in two years crying about population pressure and then try siting solar panels on prime ag land in MY county. Because heaven forbid they actually manage their own backyard without dragging us into their utopia-building schemes that usually come wrapped in bureaucratic duct tape and powered by subsidies. Look, I love parks as much as anyone. But if you’re going to scream about skyrocketing rents while spending millions taking useful property OFF the table, we need to talk about your eligibility to supervise finger painting, let alone urban planning.
