4475 Broadway | Boulder, CO

Affordable Housing

Resiliency Planning

Community Engagement

Extensive Entitlement Planning

Challenge

Ponderosa Mobile Home Park is a diverse mobile home community of 68 households in North Boulder. In August 2017, the City of Boulder purchased the Ponderosa county enclave with the goals of preserving long-term affordability, annexing the property into the City, replacing outdated infrastructure, and reducing flood risk to the community.

Approach

For the past 7 years, Trestle Strategy has been working hand-in-hand with the City of Boulder Housing and Human Resources department through the complex annexation and entitlement processes. Trestle has been leading a team of planners, architects, engineers, and community builders to design and facilitate a resident-centered and resilient neighborhood plan for permanently affordable housing and new infrastructure.

Trestle designed and implemented a resident engagement process focused on co-creation with the community, to ensure minimal resident displacement and the future Ponderosa neighborhood fits the needs and desires of current residents. Elements of this engagement process include:

• Bilingual outreach throughout the whole process to ensure equitable access to information and build trust through the community.

• The formation of a Resident Leadership Committee (RLC) throughout the design and entitlement processes, that led residents to setup a formal Home Owner Association (HOA) to keep serving as a liaison between residents and the City in the future.

• The creation of website dedicated to the Ponderosa community to share the most up-to-date information about the project with the community and keep them in the loop.

• The use of text messaging to inform residents of meetings, property management or construction updates, events, etc.

Results

The plan for the Ponderosa Community Stabilization was approved by the City of Boulder’s City Council in 2019. Infrastructure replacement started in 2020, and construction for the first Habitat for Humanity fixed foundation homes will start in the summer of 2021.

Partners

Our partners on the project included:

• Michael Baker International for community engagement;

• Caddis Architecture for the design and architecture of the new Habitat for Humanity homes;

• JVA Engineering for the civil engineering;

• JB Fieldworks for the landscaping;

• CLACE for the bilingual outreach and community building;

• Marathon for construction management.

Resources

Please click on the following links to read more about the project:

• Ponderosa community website, including annexation documents and plans for the future neighborhood;

• City of Boulder’s Ponderosa Community Stabilization project page;

• Daily Camera article: “Ponderosa Mobile Home Park affordable housing project takes next step in Boulder”