The City Council gets the last say on site review requests, but it rarely exercises that power. The last project called up by the council was 1600 Pearl St. in February 2012. In October of that year, the council debated calling up the mixed use project at 1048 Pearl St., the site of the former Daily Camera building, but ultimately did not because a majority didn't feel there was a major policy issue at stake or that the council could agree on useful changes between the nine members.
The Planning Board signed off on the Google project after a contentious seven-hour meeting that initially appeared headed for a no vote. Google agreed to set back the top story of one of the office buildings by 60 feet on one side and 30 feet on another to make the 55-foot tall structure appear less monolithic.
The Boulder City Council will decide Tuesday whether to call up the project and schedule a public hearing early next year or let the Planning Board decision stand.
Councilwoman Mary Young said she worries not just that the building is too tall but also that it will hold just one use, office space, rather than a mix of offices, stores and apartments. That worry is magnified by Google's reputation for building self-contained campuses that meet all workers' needs on site.
"It doesn't align as well as it could with our goals for the area, which is to activate the street," she said. "I am looking to what we might do that would address that in a call up."
Young said she also has concerns about the 640 parking spaces, which could mean another 1,200 trips through that intersection every day.
Councilman Sam Weaver said he shares many of those concerns.
"The presence of Google in Boulder would be a good thing in many ways," he said. "There are things they were doing with automated transportation that are really cutting edge and would be a good fit with us. At the same time, Google campuses tend to be kind of insular and inward facing and not interact with the rest of the community."
Weaver said he wants to see more effort to ensure Google would interact with businesses in the area, and he also wants to see deeper parking reductions and a greater commitment to what is known as transportation demand management, encouraging employees to take the bus or bike to work.
At the same time, Weaver said a call up could send the wrong message.
"We don't want to send the message that Boulder doesn't want Google, and a call-up can be a blunt instrument that calls into question everything the Planning Board did," he said.
In response to concerns about community involvement, Google Site Director Scott Green wrote a long letter highlighting the company's financial commitments to area non-profits, educational partnerships and volunteer work.
In correspondence to City Council, Jose Beteta, president of the Latino Chamber of Commerce, praised Google for its community outreach work helping Latino youth learn about careers in science and technology and asked the council to approve the project.
"Google's partnership and expansion will be highly beneficial to the Latino community in Boulder," he wrote. "We need that access to high tech companies, their training, outreach and jobs. Not allowing Google to expand will be a huge loss of opportunity for Latinos who are already struggling."
But some residents said it would be one more step toward changing the little college town they moved to.
"I think it's going to price so many of people out of the market," said Rob Gordon, a retired sales representative who lives near Third Street and Arapahoe Avenue in western Boulder. "These people coming in are going to be at least six figures. There is going to be a lot of money floating around and congestion like we have never seen. Boulder is going to become very elitist. The college town atmosphere will be gone forever. We know you can't live in the past, but this is a lot."
Steve Pomerance, a former City Councilman and Camera columnist who has long said Boulder shouldn't add more jobs unless and until it solves housing and transportation issues, said the Pearl Place project is the culmination of a planning process that has addressed neither.
"The city has totally failed to deal with the urban design issues," he said. "We're adding more jobs and more people with no plans for infrastructure."
Curtis Hubbard, a spokesman for Google, said the company is excited about expanding in what will be a dynamic neighborhood, and the project needs to be understood in the context of the adjacent Boulder Junction development, which includes a major RTD bus transfer station.
"This is the kind of development that is envisioned in this area and necessary for the transit center to be successful," he said. "There will be plenty of people who go off site, whether it is to go into the book store or go into Whole Foods or go into Twenty-Ninth Street. This is not a campus off in an office park on the far eastern edge of the city. This is one of the three hearts of Boulder, with downtown and the University of Colorado being the others."
Hubbard said Google is committed to an aggressive alternative transportation program, with the amount of parking proposed on-site being far less than the number of expected employees. Google also has an open pathway through the center of the campus, and there will be a Google Tech Talk auditorium, as well, where school groups, teachers, non-profits and entrepreneurs can attend educational events and workshops.
Hubbard said Google feels like the project is a good match with Boulder's values.
"Google wanted to remain in Boulder," he said. "Boulder feels like home and it's a great fit."
©2014 the Daily Camera (Boulder, Colo.)
