A long-anticipated expansion of Boulder’s St. Julien Hotel has cleared the city’s Planning Board. The project is set to move ahead to permitting and eventual construction unless the City Council decides to review it.
The expansion of the St. Julien, located at 900 Walnut St., will mark the end of a years-long quest to develop the “civic use pad” area that sits just east of the hotel. The hotel plans to add a 55-foot tall, 50,070-square-foot building there that will include extended-stay hotel rooms and a new event space for community groups.
The civic use pad, which currently consists of an open concrete deck, is not public property: It is privately owned by the St. Julien. But the decades-old Ninth and Canyon Urban Renewal Plan requires private development projects in that part of Boulder to reserve at least 20% of their building space for “civic use.” The urban renewal plan listed recreation centers, museums, cultural centers, city office space and transit facilities as some examples of civic uses. To meet that requirement, the St. Julien has proposed allowing local civic groups and not-for-profit organizations to rent the event space at a discounted rate…