Campus Master Plan Update University of Colorado at Boulder

Campus Master Plan Update

• University of Colorado at Boulder

Master Plan Process

• Three Phases

• Phase I – Assessment
• Initiation (Plan to Plan)
• Issue Identification (Stakeholder Interviews)
• Task Force Formation
• Phase II – Plan Development
• Task Force Reports
• Inventory
• Analysis
• Draft Plan

Master Plan Process

• Three Phases

• Phase III – Review and Adoption
• Reviews and Editing
• Approvals

• Completion by March 2011

Phase I Findings

• Conversations with Deans, Faculty, Students and City, on a wide variety of topics

Phase I Findings

• Majority View is a view held by most of the people that were interviewed.

• Minority View is a unique view that indicated an area that needs additional investigation

Phase I Findings Challenges

• Majority View: “Aligning our aspirations with our resources” will be our greatest challenge in the next ten years

• Minority View:

• Moving the university beyond tolerance to acceptance on diversity.
• Financial constraints on other institutions will make CU pick up a greater share of the burden than we will be able to handle.

Phase I Findings Growth

• Majority View: We will meet our predicted growth (3500 more students) and it will be difficult on our students and faculty.

• Minority View: We will greatly exceed our growth expectations in order to make up for lost state support.

• Minority View: We will fall short of our expected growth because we can’t afford the faculty that would be required to do so.

• Minority View: Support infrastructure is not in place to handle the student services required for growth, thus becoming the limiting factor.

Phase I Findings Transportation

• Majority View: Parking will be needed in the future. It a severe issue for faculty and staff that commute.

• Majority View: Perimeter parking is appropriate as a campus. It may become more remote as time goes on.

• Majority View: A freshman car ban would improve campus parking supply.

Phase I Findings Transportation

• Minority View: A freshman car ban would be hard on students. Out of state students rely heavily on their cars.

• Minority View: Peripheral parking is a safety concern at night. High nighttime use areas need to have close parking.

• Minority View: “We have a walking problem not a parking problem.”

Phase I Findings Transportation

• Majority View: Good transit service is very important to access campus.

• Critical for the success of East Campus
• Need an efficient shuttle service to and from all parts of campus.
• Supports regional goals for reducing traffic.

Phase I Findings Transportation

• Majority View: A gondola to the East Campus is not workable

• Minority View: A gondola to the East Campus is the answer to transportation problems.

• Minority View: A gondola may not work but it is far more attractive than busses and we need a creative solution to transit.

Phase I Findings Density

• Majority View: The campus is getting too dense due to all the recent development.

• 18th & Colorado is an unattractive urban environment.
• The new buildings are too tall and block mountain views.

Phase 1 Findings Open Space

• Majority View: We are consuming our open space for buildings and it is changing the character of the campus in a negative way.

• Minority View: The campus and in particular the landscape and open areas are more beautiful now than it was 20 years ago.

Phase I Findings Housing

• Majority View: The freshman residential experience will continue to be the primary first-year experience.

• Critical to acclimating students to college life.
• We will be housing about the same number of students in the future
• More upper division students should be housed in the residence halls

• Minority View: We cannot afford to continue housing all freshman and we will move toward a commuter model.

Phase I Findings Housing

• Majority View: Family housing will be an important tool in recruiting the best graduate students.

• Minority View: Consider also single student apartments for graduate students.

Phase I Findings Residential Academic Programs

• Majority View: Residential Academic Programs will become prevalent and most students will experience it in their first year.

• Minority View: We are reaching the limits of new programs because we won’t be able to recruit faculty to live and teach in the residence halls.

Phase I Findings Sustainability

• Majority View: Sustainability will be an important part of the university’s future.

• We have to do our part.
• We will need to meet the carbon goals of the 2030 plan

• Minority View: Can we afford it?

Phase I Findings City/University

• Many of the underlying issues from 2001 remain

• Grandview
• CU-Boulder South
• The Hill

• Both entities want to work together better

• Potential for university affiliates to integrate into the City’s community boards and commissions

Phase II Immediate Next Steps

• Master Plan Task Forces

• Recreation, Open Space and Athletics
• East Campus Vision
• Academic Needs and Space Utilization
• Transportation
• Sustainability
• Living/Learning Environments
• North of Boulder Creek
• Community Partnerships

Phase II Immediate Next Steps

• Data Gathering

• Space Projections
• Area calculations
• Traffic analysis
• Sustainability benchmarking
• Mapping
• Topographic
• Flood

Phase II Immediate Next Steps

• Next report will be in December or January

Questions?

• Campus Master Plan Update

• University of Colorado at Boulder