Parks and Recreation staff presented an update on the Civic Area Phase 2 planning analysis, saying the city has allocated $18,000,000 from the Community Culture, Resiliency and Safety (CCRS) tax to support planning, design and construction of an initial portion of the project.

“All of the work that we do is also combined with all of the policy that actually overlays this space,” Shihomi Kuryagawa, senior landscape architect and the Civic Area project manager, told the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board (PRAB). Kuryagawa added, “It is for both. It'll be covering this planning and design phase and then for construction of a smaller portion.”

The Civic Area sits between the Pearl Street Mall and the University of Colorado campus, a location staff said makes the park important for everyday recreation and major regional events. “The Sundance Film Festival, when it comes to Boulder in 2027, is going to live on the Pearl Street Mall and up on the campus,” Allie Rhodes, director of Parks and Recreation, said, noting that the festival increases the strategic urgency of some design and activation decisions.

Why it matters: staff said the site’s constrained developable footprint and local floodplain rules will shape what can be built and where. City planners presented maps showing large areas within the park that fall inside Boulder’s high-hazard floodplain; staff said occupiable buildings are limited to the higher, orange areas on the plan and that many uses will be limited to non-occupiable elements such as benches and pathways in the blue floodplain areas.

Staff described a multi-year schedule: the project completed two engagement “windows” in 2024, will advance concept design in mid-2025, do technical documentation in 2026 and expects to begin construction on the funded portion of Phase 2 in 2027. Staff said the timeline could see targeted “micro investments” or interim connections before full construction, but the park construction schedule itself is not expected to accelerate automatically because of Sundance.

Key constraints and tools:
- Floodplain and LOMR: staff emphasized Boulder’s strict floodplain standard and said any changes that would alter the high-hazard boundary could require a Letter of Map Revision (LOMR), a federal process that can take nine months to a year.
- Deconstruction and repurposing of city-owned buildings: staff said some municipal buildings that sit in high-hazard areas may be vacated and removed after staff relocate to the Western City Campus; structural and cost studies are underway.

Design priorities and East Bookend: staff reported that community input and market analysis have identified recurring themes for the East Bookend: community residential, local food and beverage (including expanded farmers market opportunities), arts and culture spaces, and health/recreation. Staff said Rios, the design consultant that won the RFP, synthesized public preferences into several concept “schemes” and that the emerging design is a hybrid drawing top priorities from each scheme.

Parking and access: the meeting included sustained concern from several board members about how parking for the library and the Civic Area would be phased. Staff said the 2015 Civic Area Park Plan shows a long-range shift toward parking garages on the East and West Bookends and that staff are conducting parking-garage studies for East Bookend. Staff emphasized the intent to preserve accessible parking and to avoid a net loss of parking in implementation, and said any final decisions about removing surface lots would wait for the design stage and coordination with the library and other stakeholders.

Governance, operations and activation: staff said they are studying governance models (for example, conservancy or nonprofit partners) that could help operate, activate and fund programming. Staff said such a governance body would likely focus on raising recurring funds for activation and volunteer coordination while the city would retain capital and core operations responsibilities.

Engagement and next steps: staff described an extensive 2024 engagement program (about 1,500 online survey responses, workshops and pop-ups). Window 3 engagement — a summer-long pop-up and programming series including a nature-play installation — is planned for June–September 2025. Staff told PRAB they will brief City Council on the planning analysis and community engagement before returning with concept alternatives and schematic design later in 2025.

What’s next: staff said they will present the project to City Council on April 17 (dry run materials were discussed at this meeting), launch concept alternatives and the Window 3 pop-up engagement in mid-summer 2025, and aim to finalize schematic design by the end of 2025 so the city can prioritize which elements will be funded with the $18 million.

Ending: PRAB members asked for continued updates on parking, floodplain work, governance options and how the city will sequence construction to avoid removing critical library parking before alternatives are available. Staff said they will capture the board’s comments in their memo to council and bring more detailed design and cost information in subsequent briefings.