Citywide Retail Project

The strategy has six components intended to align with and support existing city work plan items.

• Strategy 1. Improve small business experience with permitting and licensing. Building upon the recent improvements completed and underway with Planning & Development Services and the Finance Department, continue to improve the customer experience for small businesses in the permitting and licensing processes to provide efficient, consistent and predictable service.
• Strategy 2. Reduce small business costs. Enhance the viability of small and independent retailers:
  • a. Support existing city programs/pilots that promote the creation of permanently affordable commercial space and the retention of small and independent retailers.
  • b. Maintain and enhance programs to reduce small business operating costs, such as Partners for a Clean Environment (PACE), advisor services and financial rebates for efficiency upgrades.
  • c. Remove or reduce regulatory barriers to “right-sizing” retail to promote the private creation of affordable commercial spaces.
  • d. Conduct economic impact studies when new policies are being considered that may increase small business costs and explore possible tools to offset these costs.
• Strategy 3. Streamline online support for small businesses. Respond to council’s suggestion to create a “one-stop shop” portal on the city’s website for how to start a business in Boulder, local regulatory requirements, and programs that support small businesses. Include information to support worker retention, i.e., existing affordable housing and worker access products.
• Strategy 4. Expand geographic access to retail. Complete the East Boulder Subcommunity Plan engagement effort to establish a process for expanding walkable access to retail that results in recommendations to the Planning Board for the use table update.
• Strategy 5. Expand access to affordable/inclusive retail. Pilot a tenant recruitment program to attract retailers who sell affordable and inclusive goods, including a community engagement process to establish priority businesses or business types.
• Strategy 6. Ongoing monitoring. Continue to monitor the performance of the city’s retail base, and periodically revisit the goals of the Citywide Retail Project.
  • a. Maintain the existing retail base financial reporting on the city’s website.
  • b. Revisit key benchmarks of the citywide retail study in five years to assess progress toward goal achievement.

The City of Boulder wants to know whether the goods and services available in Boulder meet the needs of its residents and workers of all ages, incomes, backgrounds and areas of the city. Community members were invited to participate in a questionnaire during the Citywide Retail Project study phase. Additionally, staff reached out to retail business operators with a separate retailer questionnaire. The shopper questionnaire received almost 900 responses, and the retailer questionnaire received close to 60 responses. The information collected, as well as other analysis conducted in the preliminary data gathering phase, was shared with the public as part of a presentation to City Council on May 21, 2019.

Public outreach in the data collection phase included:

• Mailer to 6,000 randomized Boulder households
• Postcards distributed at public libraries, recreation centers, senior centers, the Municipal Building, and at various locations throughout the city
• Promotion at the What's Up Boulder city open house on April 4, 2019, through an "Inside Boulder News" feature, and on the city's social media platforms
• In-person interviews at Boulder Housing Partners, Emergency Family Assistance Association, and through the city's Community Connectors
• In-person engagement at more than 100 Boulder retailers throughout the city
• Engagement to reach employee populations through community partners such as the Boulder Chamber, Downtown Boulder Partnership, The Hill Boulder, University of Colorado, Boulder County
• Youth engagement through the city's Youth Opportunities Advisory Board, and Families and Educators Together