Mar 8 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Heath Urie Daily Camera, Boulder, Colo.



Boulder is on a mission to find out how the public feels about proposed rules that could soon change the city's rental housing codes and require landlords to make energy-efficiency upgrades to their rental properties.

Beginning Monday, an online survey will ask Boulder residents for feedback about the city's planned SmartRegs project.

The survey asks people to weigh in on technical changes to the city's rental codes, how increased fees to check rental licenses would affect people and whether allowing inspectors to arrange random property inspections would increase or decrease efficiency. It also asks whether people approve of a proposal to add a complaint-based enforcement system for rental licenses.

 The survey, which will be available at bouldercolorado.gov/smartregs through March 18, is part of a public outreach campaign. A second survey focused specifically on proposed energy efficiency requirements will be released in April.

The city's overall goal is to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions coming from homes by 94,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide by 2012. About 57 percent of the city's housing stock is made up of rental units, but convincing landlords to make investments that they won't necessarily see a return on has been difficult.

SmartRegs could mean landlords have to replace old furnaces, add insulation and install new appliances.

The results of both surveys will help inform a draft proposal being presented to the Boulder Planning Board on April 22. The City Council is scheduled to take up the first reading of the proposal on May 4.

Sheila Horton, executive director of the Boulder Area Rental Housing Association, a nonprofit group that represents the interests of about 9,000 renters and landlords, said she continues to question why the city is targeting the rental housing industry.

"The total gas and electric usage, when you look at all of residential ... is only 17 to 18 percent," she said. "If rental housing is half of that, we're talking about 9 or 10 percent of the total usage.

"It just doesn't make any sense that we would be starting with our sector," she said.

Contact Camera Staff Writer Heath Urie at 303-473-1328 or urieh@dailycamera.com.

Online

Take a survey about the proposed SmartRegs project at bouldercolorado.gov/smartregs.

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