Community Assembly members gathered during a meeting in 2025.
Many Boulder community members aspire for a future that includes more walkable neighborhoods that will ensure the community’s environmental health, social equity and economic vitality. These aspirations also point to cost-effective infrastructure and facility investments, a high level of multimodal mobility and easy access to employment, recreation, shopping and other amenities.
To explore this concept and build towards more community-driven recommendations, the city and county launched their first Community Assembly, a democratic process that brought together 43 randomly selected community members for seven full-day sessions. The assembly learned from experts, shared lived experiences and developed a clear definition of a 15-minute neighborhood:
“A diverse, inclusive, and connected community where essential services and amenities are easily and equitably accessible within 15 minutes for pedestrians of all abilities.”
The assembly identified the following as essential components of a 15-minute neighborhood:
- Community Center: A hub for education, social connection and emergency support.
- Groceries and Food: Accessible options for healthy living.
- Parks and Green Space: Places to relax and connect with nature.
- Mobility Hub: Multi-modal transportation options linking neighborhoods.
Additional features that the assembly identified to make a 15-minute neighborhood flourish include medical services, schools, libraries, recreation centers, restaurants, retail, public art spaces and community gardens.
The elements outlined by the Community Assembly describe the types of desired uses and activities broadly. The elements are not mutually exclusive and the scale and format will depend on the surrounding context. For example, a small café could serve as a community center, restaurant, small-scale food market, and retail space.
The city already includes some accessible, walkable areas with a mix of housing, parks and local businesses. Areas like Downtown Boulder, North Broadway and Boulder Junction are some examples. Other areas in the city are more isolated and require community members to travel longer distances to access things like food, childcare or other daily essentials.
The comprehensive plan incorporates the Community Assembly’s recommendations into policies and the future land use strategy to support evolution of isolated areas to 15-minute neighborhoods. Community members can anticipate that this kind of evolution will happen at different scales and take place incrementally, over time.
Community members enjoy outdoor dining in downtown Boulder, which has many components of a 15-minute neighborhood.