Recreation and Safety Bond

The city has a Community, Culture, Resilience and Safety (CCRS) Tax. This is a 0.3% dedicated sales and use tax intended for citywide capital infrastructure needs. It first passed in 2014 and has been renewed by voters twice. Last year, voters made this an ongoing tax.

• In addition to providing capital grants to nonprofits, this revenue has allowed the city to construct a new fire station and Fire-Rescue Headquarters on 30^th near Valmont. Fire Stations 2 and 4 will be replaced. Significant improvements to the East Boulder Community Center are in the works. In addition, CCRS funding in the city’s current six-year capital improvement program (CIP) is supporting projects such as renovations in the Civic Area/ Boulder Creek Park, replacement of the Central Avenue Bridge and maintenance along the Pearl Street Mall.
• The city plans its capital projects across a six-year horizon and beyond. The costs associated with what we call the Capital Improvement Plan, or CIP, are reflected annually in a six-year budget that is separate from the city’s operating budget. Due to rising construction costs, the funding has not stretched as far as we had hoped. The full amount of a forecasted $89.5 million in sales and use tax from CCRS collected annually between now and 2031 is needed for these already planned projects.

• The city changed its approach to building management in 2020 and brought management of all buildings under one department – Facilities and Fleet.
• In 2021, City Council accepted the Facilities Strategic Plan, which was the first holistic and expert view of the city’s entire building portfolio of over 75 buildings. This plan includes provisions that require us to account for maintenance and operating costs when planning and constructing any new buildings and to work toward consolidating our footprint to a smaller number of buildings in the future. The city has already implemented the key strategies, but lacks funding to more fully realize this plan.
• The city is prioritizing consolidation of facilities whenever possible. Currently, city buildings are spread across Boulder. This makes sense for buildings that provide localized service, like fire stations. It does not make as much sense for buildings that offer citywide services.
• Consolidation has many benefits. The first is cost savings. Fewer buildings mean fewer systems that need to be maintained and repaired.
• Our current footprint also means that community members must travel to a variety of buildings to accomplish basic tasks or receive services. Staff are also spread out, making collaboration and coordination more challenging.
• Through consolidation and building renovations or replacements, the city has an opportunity to bring some services together. For example, there are considerable benefits to intergenerational connections by having recreation and age-well services in the same building.
• The new city building being constructed at Alpine and Broadway on what we are calling the Western City Campus is a good example of an effort to consolidate services and staff under one roof. Community members will be able to get information and meet their needs for most of the services the city provides in this location. In addition, all city departments, except Police and Fire, will be housed there, making coordination and collaboration much easier. The city plans to vacate staff from 10 buildings and terminate one lease through this effort. Two of the closed buildings will be deconstructed because they are in the high-hazard floodplain. A third -- the Iris Building near the North Boulder Recreation Center -- will also be torn down. Most others will be sold. The Penfield Tate II Municipal building will continue to support council and public meetings, but the rest of the building could be repurposed for other community uses and benefits. The budget for the Western City Campus project is separate from this bond initiative and is already funded.
• In other areas, the community has made clear that it is not interested in consolidation. This was a key finding, for example, from engagement the city conducted as part of its Future of Recreation Needs Assessment. Community members gave feedback that they wish to continue to have core amenities, including aquatics, at each of the three current recreation center locations. If passed, the bond measure would fund a new South Boulder Recreation that will be an accessible, efficient and modern community well-being hub, while also supporting key investments to the North Boulder Recreation Center.

• The city takes its responsibility as a fiscal steward seriously and is committed to transparency.
• The city is legally required to have a balanced budget. Spending operating money to build new facilities or repair aging ones, beyond what has already been planned for in the existing Capital Improvement Program, would require a reduction in, or discontinuation of, some current city services. It would also require a closer look -- and potential increases -- in fees for some services.

The city has already reduced staffing and services because of economic pressures. In response to flattening revenue from sales and use tax and property tax, the city has implemented three rounds of budget reductions since 2025.

The first was a 5 percent reduction in spending in the middle of 2025. In a second round, which occurred while planning the 2026 budget, the city addressed a $7.5 million gap, specifically in the General Fund. Right now, staff are preparing for an additional 4 percent reduction in the 2027 budget.

The following are some examples of cost-savings actions the city has taken that have had public-facing impacts:

• Implemented a hiring freeze in 2025, impacting existing services, programs, and staffing across the city.
• Made personnel-related decisions, including not renewing some fixed-term positions, despite the high performance of individuals in these roles, as well as eliminating several vacant ones. This has led either to reduced services levels or already stretched staff absorbing more duties.
• Combined two core crisis response programs – the Crisis Intervention Response Team (CIRT), which pairs a clinician with an officer, and Community Assistance Response and Engagement (CARE), which pairs a clinician with a paramedic – when someone calls 911 about an individual who may be experiencing a mental health challenge.
• Reduced investments in new OSMP land, as well as water and mineral rights acquisition. This reflected a planned strategic shift the department had already been contemplating, but the decrease was significant in 2026, from $3 million to $500,000.
• Discontinued $100,000 in one-time post-COVID Human Services Fund grants that had been used to support low-income community members.
• Discontinued the Neighborhood Services program, including the associated grant program.
• Reduced custodial contracts to clean city buildings from five days a week to three days a week.
• Streamlined the limited resources available for homelessness, with several changes and reallocations designed to support a more coordinated approach to services through a partnership with All Roads.
• Reduced staffing in the Safe and Managed Public Spaces program, reflecting data related to demand and signaling a shift to more proactive solutions.
• Cut some funding for the Park-to-Park Shuttle program, which offers free rides from centralized locations to the popular Chautauqua area.
• Increased parking rates for garage and on-street parking.
• Increased fees across nearly every category and for every service in Parks and Recreation.
• Reduced operating hours and levels of service for lap and leisure pools in our recreation facilities.
• Reduced and/or eliminated services across our public parks, such as removing trash cans from small parks and reduced service frequencies for services that don’t impact park safety but do affect appearance.

• The community supported investments in our downtown park, now called Boulder Creek Park, with the renewal of the CCRS in 2021. This project addresses poor conditions across one of our oldest parks, while also investing in amenities that support the Boulder County Farmer’s Market and other community gatherings like the Boulder Creek Festival. The city has continued to prioritize this investment due to previous voter support, poor conditions in the park, and because well-maintained and activated parks are proven to contribute to economic vitality.
• With a significant portion of city services funded by sales tax, downtown vibrancy is critical to quality of life. Studies show that investments in downtown parks have a 3 to 1 return on every dollar invested, and in some cities, the rewards are as high as seven to one.
• Because the project was approved in 2022 and planned for through the CIP in 2024, significant funding has been spent on planning and designing the park improvements. Delaying now would result in:
  • Cost escalation for planned and needed improvements to park infrastructure.
  • Continued costly repairs to aging assets, like the irrigation system.
  • Lost opportunity to drive sales tax collections through a connection between activity on The Hill with the new convention center and hotels and the city’s main economic engine, Pearl Street and Boulder’s downtown.
  • Lost opportunity to create positive activities in our downtown park through the new children’s play area, improved Festival Street and gathering spaces in the park.

If the bond passes and the city borrowed the full amount of $400 million, the estimated total cost (the amount that is borrowed plus interest) is $650 million. The city’s financial model is based on assumptions using the 20-year term length and estimated interest rates available to municipalities with good bond ratings. City Council would annually impose a mill levy on property owners to fund the debt service of the bond and this amount could change annually. If the city were to take out a $400 million bond for a 20-year term, property owners would likely see a mill levy increase of approximately 6.352 mills.

The city has developed preliminary scopes for design and construction and is providing cost estimates for the projects, assuming they are started within the next five years. These costs total more than $400 million. The city plans to sell some buildings, which may offset the additional costs. The city reassesses its six-year list of capital projects every year and would re-scope projects if there are funding gaps after the identified buildings are sold.

Not currently. Projects of this scale require additional skilled project managers. The city anticipates the projects covered by this proposed bond include some new positions. These positions could be term limited to the time necessary to complete the projects.

Work on the city’s Public Safety Building relocation would begin first. The city has identified this building as having the greatest number of repair needs. This project would cost the most and would take the longest to complete. By starting soon, the city could limit cost increases that come with delays. If the city can add staff, it would be able to start planning other projects at the same time. The goal would be to finish all the projects within 10 years.

If the bond measure does not pass, the city would still need to address its challenges with its existing buildings.

The upcoming 2027 Recommended City Manager’s Budget will identify projects in the city’s capital improvement program to address the most essential repairs in the highest priority buildings. This funding would allow the city to perform some routine maintenance items, such as roof and boiler system replacements and electrical upgrades, that would keep the buildings functioning for a while. It is not sufficient, however, to support any new facilities or more complete rehabilitation of older building systems that require frequent repairs and replacement. The city anticipates that eventual replacements or significant unfunded renovations would still be needed, and delays are expected to increase the costs in the future.

Another way the city could prioritize the needs of these buildings would be to identify services that could be scaled back or discontinued, create or increase more fees, or both.

Without new revenue, the city would have to make trade-offs that it anticipates would affect current services.