BC-2 Zoning

2738 Pine Street is located in the BC-2 Zone, which is community business (commercial). 

Some of the highlights of the zone include:

– Residential units can be built, one unit per 1600 square feet of lot size, or up to 4 residential units on 2738 Pine.  Lot size is 7,010 square feet.

– BC-2 allows for 100% commercial use for neighborhood or community retail or office.  The square footage of building allowed is determined by the number of parking places, as the zone requires one parking place for 300 square feet of commercial building.

– Within the BC-2 zone, the code allows for detached housing to only require one parking space per each detached single-family unit.

– Attached unit parking requirements are calculated upon bedroom count.  One bedroom in an attached residential unit would require one parking space. 2 bedrooms in an attached building would require 1 ½ parking spaces per unit, a 3-bedroom attached unit would require 2 parking spaces and an attached 4-bedroom unit would require 3 parking spaces.  In utilizing parking off the alley, the parking density for an attached 4-unit building would be best applied as 2 one-bedroom units, requiring 2 parking spaces and 2, two-bedroom units requiring 3 parking spaces for a total of 5 parking spaces for the entire project off the alley. 

– Although the house is not designated within the historic district, the age of the house and the character would make complete demolition difficult.  The easiest demolition would be removing up to 50% of the roof and leaving 2 walls remaining within the existing house structure.  Several years ago, the back garage did receive a demolition permit issued from the City of Boulder, but was never demolished.  It is assumed that demolition permit would be able to be reissued to a new buyer.

– Variances to the Code are not allowed on the size lot of 2738 Pine Street.  The BC-2 zone requires a one-acre lot minimum for any kind of site review, which is the process for obtaining variances. All development and redevelopment of the property at 2738 Pine Street would need to be done under a buy right scenario as the code allows. Setback modifications, parking reductions, and other such variances which are typical, are not obtainable upon the 2738 property.

– The property has frontage on Pine Street and is accessed with an alley on the south.  The width of the alley is 20 feet on the dedicated plats and as such when a 24-foot backup distance is required would require parking spaces to be set inside the property line by 4 feet if designing perpendicular parking from the alley.

– Side yard setbacks.  With the BC-2 zone the side yard setbacks are 0 feet with no openings or penetrations, or 12 feet on each side allowing full windows and doors.  As part of the code, when constructing residential on the second floor, the code requires a setback of 5 feet on the second floor if zero lot line at ground level, for the residential component of the development.