The City of Boulder and Boulder County are getting ready for the first Community Assembly in Boulder as part of the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan (BVCP) major update.
A Community Assembly (also known as a citizen assembly, panel, or jury) is a public process designed for learning and problem-solving. Assemblies involve a group of randomly selected participants who come together to examine a specific issue, reach consensus and develop recommendations for the government to consider and implement. Each assembly usually consists of several dozen participants, carefully chosen to represent a diverse range of perspectives and demographics. Participation is voluntary.
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Community Assembly and the BVCP
The City of Boulder has proposed a Community Assembly as part of the BVCP major update. This planning process takes place every 10 years and defines the key policies that chart out future. The Assembly initiative reflects our commitment to exploring new engagement techniques that foster meaningful and inclusive participation while advancing equity. Assemblies are valuable for involving community members who are typically underrepresented in planning processes and empowers community members to address complex issues collectively and effectively.
Objective
The BVCP Community Assembly will be tasked with examining and discussing different locations and ways of implementing 15-minute neighborhoods in the Boulder Valley. 15-minute neighborhoods are places where people can access most of their daily needs within a 15-minute walk or bike ride. Assembly members will refine Boulder’s vision for 15-minute neighborhoods, discuss the benefits, costs and risks of different options and make recommendations to policymakers for inclusion in the next BVCP. The discussions are likely to include geographic priorities, land use, transportation, housing, commercial vibrancy and other considerations.
The current BVCP includes a policy on 15-minute neighborhoods, but implementation has been slow. The Assembly’s recommendations are expected to help better define the vision and roadmap for Boulder.
In establishing the Assembly, the city and the county have four objectives:
- To learn about the costs, benefits and disadvantages of 15-minute neighborhoods in the Boulder Valley, including our community’s shared and contrasting values, concerns and desires.
- To develop a community vision of complete 15-minute neighborhoods in the Boulder Valley and discuss the implications for land use, transportation and mobility, infrastructure and services.
- To provide community members with an unprecedented opportunity to explore and shape the future of Boulder Valley, and which complements other engagement opportunities for the BVCP.
- To provide our policymakers with useful and thoughtful community recommendations on 15-minute neighborhoods.
Serve on our Community Assembly
The selection process will include randomly mailed invitations and applications through an open call in March 2025. Most of the 48 seats will be reserved for community members invited to participate through one of approximately 10,000 invitations. A smaller number of seats will be reserved for others living, studying or working in the Boulder Valley for at least six of the past 12 months who apply through the open call. The benefit of the hybrid approach is that we increase the pool of individuals in communities that are harder-to-reach, and we allow commuters to participate.
City and county elected and appointed officials (and their immediate families); city and county staff; contractors, individuals and entities under contract by the City of Boulder or Boulder County for assignments related to the BVCP update are not eligible. These restrictions are in place to maintain the independence of the process and prevent conflicts of interest and disproportionate influence.
There will then be a random selection through a blind draw in April 2025. From the pool of all applications received, members will be randomly selected using sampling criteria based on geography, age, gender, race/ethnicity, disability status and housing situation to roughly match the demographics of the Boulder Valley using demographic data from the American Census and American Community Survey.
If you have questions on eligibility or other topics related to the Community Assembly, please contact the City of Boulder at future@bouldercolorado.gov.
