Boulder City Council to consider annexation proposal sparked by muni bid

Dive Brief:

Last week, the planning board in Boulder, Colo., signed off on a plan to annex several properties the city owns but has not formally integrated. The unanimous move was a recommendation, and motivated by the city's move to form its own municipal utility, sending the proposal to the City Council, the Daily Camera reports.
The Daily Camera reports the council is slated to initially take up the matter tomorrow, and has scheduled a public hearing two weeks after.
It's still unclear how this move would impact the city's attempts to form a municipal utility, a process it has been struggling with for half a decade.

Dive Insight:

There appears to be no controversy surrounding Boulder's annexation proposal, perhaps the clearest indication that it will not impact its attempts to form a municipal utility.

According to Daily Camera, there was only one objection to the plan, from an attorney representing the Knollwood Metropolitan District.

"I think it might be something where the planning got a little bit ahead of the residents," Carolyn Steffl told the planning board. "We were very surprised to hear that the town is planning to create an enclave around our entire community. ... I would really encourage the city to keep working with the residents."

Other than that, the unanimous vote went forward smoothly. In addition to a 40-home subdivision, the annexation would also include a stretch of property that contains a 600-square foot parcel owned by Xcel. If Boulder managed to form its own utility, the city must construct separate electric facilities for Xcel to continue serving unincorporated ratepayers, the news outlet noted.

The city is preparing a supplemental application to form a municipal utility, the latest step in a years-long push to take over assets owned by Xcel. But simultaneously, city officials are negotiating with the utility, seeking cleaner energy and greater customer choice in return for dropping its takeover bid.

"We really are pursuing parallel paths in terms of our energy goals," Jonathan Koehn, regional sustainability coordinator for the city of Boulder, told Utility Dive earlier this month. "I think there is a perception we somehow hate one another but that just isn’t true. There’s litigation, but that’s how you get through these things."