Modular Home Factory Sparks Community Pushback

Ridglea residents have filed numerous complaints and a lawsuit against the new factory, but the city is moving ahead with the project

Kate Myers moved to Ridglea Hills in northeast Boulder seven years ago, drawn to the calm atmosphere, community feel and overall safety of the neighborhood. Her home is near the Sombrero Marsh, a Boulder Habitat Conservation Area, which has forged a relationship between local residents and wildlife living nearby.

But construction of a City of Boulder modular housing factory is changing the area, Myers said.

“I would go out at seven in the morning, and normally when I heard birds, I would hear this construction noise,” Myers said. “I know things need to be built, but this just seems like a real incursion on people in my neighborhood and on me, that they would just go ahead and do this without really telling anybody.”

The Affordable Housing Modular Factory broke ground at 6500 Arapahoe Road late this summer and the city plans to have it fully operational by Summer 2024. The goal is to produce 12 to 15 modular homes each year for the next five years to replace aging mobile homes in the nearby Ponderosa Mobile Home Park. But the project, which is being completed in collaboration with the Boulder Valley School District and Flatirons Habitat for Humanity, has faced intense pushback over environmental concerns and zoning disputes.

The city expects the factory to eventually produce up to 50 modular homes each year, which take a fraction of the time and cost of a traditional house to construct, and hopes this will help to address affordable housing challenges.

“Not only are we hopefully making significant progress on affordable housing challenges, but we can also help with our challenge of workforce housing, or workforce development,” said Jay Sugnet, senior housing manager for the City of Boulder.

The idea for the factory began in 2019 with Kurt Firnhaber, Boulder director of Housing and Human Services, who founded the Boulder Habitat for Humanity affiliate and helped start BVSD’s Construction Trades Program.

BVSD became involved in early 2020 to discuss a partnership that would allow students attending the Boulder Technical Education Center to participate in a work-based learning program that will give them hands-on experience with construction technology, in part by working on factory operations.

“We definitely had an interest in it because it aligned with our port priorities in expanding current technical education opportunities for our students,” said Rob Price, assistant superintendent of operations for BVSD.

The city, Habitat for Humanity, and BVSD collaborated to determine an ideal site for the factory. They considered three sites, all within the Ridglea area, and ultimately chose to build at 6500 Arapahoe Road because of its proximity to the Boulder TEC campus, the large footprint required to fabricate modular homes, and existing easements in the area.

Any site will prompt complaints and challenges because people are resistant to change, Sugnet said. “There’s no easy site left in Boulder County, so every site has challenges,” he added.

The land where the factory is being built was annexed from BVSD to the city in 2020 as public property so that the school campus could continue receiving sewer and water services from the city.

And that’s where the pushback began.

Zoning disputes and city regulations

A lawsuit, filed in January by residents who live near the factory site, claimed that when the city decided to build a factory on publicly zoned land, it defied the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan.

The Comprehensive Plan guides decision making for development projects in the city and county of Boulder based on core values, like sustainability, inclusivity, diversity, open space preservation, health and wellbeing, and encouraging compact development and infill to create a sustainable urban environment.

Within the plan, publicly zoned property can be used for developments like municipal and public utility services, educational facilities and nonprofit use, but doesn’t permit manufacturing, which are typically zoned to industrial land.

According to the lawsuit brief, of the 53 publicly zoned properties in the city, only 6500 Arapahoe Road has been approved for manufacturing use.

“It really looks like the city use that as an opportunity to bleed, just kind of simple annexation and zoning, that they’ve bled it over into really paving the way and giving authority and authorization to the city to build this modular housing factory at this site,” said Jordan Porter, legal counsel for the residents in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit alleged that the city had previously attempted to submit an application for the factory at a different location, also zoned public, but the application was rejected. To build a factory on publicly zoned property, City Council had to pass a separate legislative ordinance permitting it, which it did on December 15, 2022.

Sugnet is mentioned 48 times in the 70 page brief over conflict of interest concerns. Sugnet became BVSD’s representation for the annexation proposal and land use application, while also serving a direct role in the city’s review process for land development applications.

This prompted criticism from the Planning Board Committee, including Chair John Gerstle, who stated at a board meeting on September 6, 2022 that he was concerned with the Sugnet “sitting on two sides of the table” and found his involvement “problematic.”

A July 2023 investigation into the factory project found that Sugnet had not violated any city codes because the city endorsed his role in the Intergovernmental Agreement with the District, and Sugnet openly disclosed his representation.

The court issued an order on Nov. 22, denying the plaintiff’s requests for relief, declaring Boulder Valley School District’s sovereignty as a state school district prevented challenges to the city’s zoning actions.

“We’re disappointed in the court’s ruling and believe the ruling is in error,” Porter stated in an email to Yellow Scene Magazine.

Porter added that they are looking at all routes to continue seeking relief, including appealing the Court’s decision.

Pollution concerns

During the public comment period on the project, 58 residents submitted comments in opposition to building the factory at 6500 Arapahoe road, mostly citing concerns of disruptive noise during construction and daily operation and environmental impacts on the Sombrero Marsh.

“Folks in the neighborhood have been approaching this from several different aspects: some are horrified that you would build a factory next to a protected wetland, others are upset that you’d build a factory next to people’s homes, others are upset by the apparent disregard for the policies and procedures about zoning,” said Marc Rosenberg, a resident in The Reserve.

Boulder County Open Space, Rocky Mountain Indian Chamber of Commerce, Boulder County Audubon Society also expressed concerns over the project’s environmental and cultural impacts in advance of its approval on December 15, 2022.

Myers is particularly worried about the health impacts of building and operating a factory near her home. Since construction began Myers has noticed dust coating her car every morning and her eyes and throat burning when she’s outside. She submitted a complaint to Health Colorado about conducting a study on the factory’s potential health impacts but it didn’t result in any progress, Myers said.

The factory is within 1,000 feet of residential property, raising concerns about noise and air pollution. The city conducted a noise assessment at the request of neighbors which resulted in measures to reduce noise pollution like abiding by city noise regulations and quiet hours, disabling back-up alarms on forklifts and trucks unless required by state or federal rules.

The noise analysis results show that the expected noise generated inside of the factory will not violate Boulder Municipal Code or to be audible at the nearest residential property line, though it does not mention noise created during the construction phase.

In an effort to reduce noise pollution, the city will ensure all operations abide by city noise regulations and quiet hours and disable back-up alarms on forklifts and trucks unless required by state or federal rules.

Though the required Environmental Assessment did not yield evidence that the factory would cause stress to the surrounding environment, it has been criticized for being incomplete.

The EA didn’t sufficiently assess impacts to open space and unique natural features, wetlands and low-income populations, and the city defied environmental law by securing a construction contract, annexing and rezoning the project site, and committing City funds to the project before the EA was available, according to environmental lawyer Dietrich Hoefner in a May 2023 letter to the city.

The city was never concerned about environmental impacts of the factor because the site was already experiencing road activity, Sugnet said. Before construction, more than half the site was a crushed asphalt parking lot and about 30% of the site was native grass, according to BVSD.

In compliance with county regulations, the city will treat waste and stormwater in a tank constructed beneath the factory, preventing it from draining into the surrounding area, Sugnet said.

“With the environmental impact, from my perspective, I think we’re actually improving the situation on this site,” Sugnet said.

Affordable housing

Rosenberg feels that the factory’s ability to help with affordable housing is overstated, because the modular homes produced in the first five years will only replace homes, not add any additional housing.

“This claim that they’re going to increase the amount of low-income housing, is a foundation of sand,” Rosenberg said. “It’s just simple math when you look at what they’re proposing to do.”

After the Ponderosa homes are replaced, Habitat for Humanity will decide where else to place modular homes built at the factory to increase the amount of affordable housing in Boulder, Sugnet said.

There isn’t enough affordable housing in Boulder, leaving many workers, people with special needs and elderly people without quality housing options, said Jeremy Durham, executive director of Boulder Housing Partners.

But some city regulations also contribute to housing challenges, like forcing people whose income grows above the median income limits to move out of low-income housing into higher-rent areas, decreasing people’s ability to build intergenerational wealth.

Boulder’s housing regulations, like limiting the number and types of homes that can be built and how tall buildings can be, create additional costs that often fall heavily on low-income residents, Durham said.

The mobile homes in Ponderosa park are being replaced because they are dilapidated and don’t allow current residents to build intergenerational wealth through appreciating property values. No one will be displaced, rather all residents in the park will have the opportunity to purchase a modular home and the land their home is one, with financial assistance available from the city, Sugnet said.

Myers worries about the property value of her community’s homes. “Who wants to get a house next to either the construction that’s taking place or a factory?” Myers said. “It’s gonna be a real detriment if anybody around here wants to sell their house.”

Rosenberg and Myers feel that this project is in line with a pattern of Boulder development on the outskirts of city and county limits where the people voting for city council won’t be frustrated by the negative impact to their neighborhood.

But Ridglea residents are a part of unincorporated Boulder County, not the City of Boulder, meaning they are not represented by the city council members who approved the project, and therefore can’t vote against them.

“They said, ‘If you don’t like it, you can vote against us in the next election,’” Rosenberg said. “Well, no, we can’t.”

Myers is disheartened about Boulder’s lack of care for residents who are taking time and effort to voice their concerns but never feel heard, she said. City council priorities seem misaligned with those of residents, and don’t feel representative of what she loved about the county when she first moved to Boulder — like concern for the environment.

She will continue to speak up for communities like hers that are too small to hold sway in these decisions, Myers said.

“They’re just moving ahead,” Myers said. “We’re not going to stop it. But at least we can say something about this before it happens to some other neighborhood.”