We, the undersigned Boulder, Colorado taxpayers, ask our city government to do a better job planning, implementing, managing, and engaging with the public on major construction projects in residential neighborhoods that impact the livelihoods and right to quiet enjoyment of its citizens.  

Currently, the City of Boulder is moving rapidly ahead with multiple massive taxpayer-funded public construction projects, often without reasonable avenues for participatory democracy, especially for those residents expected to bear the brunt of the impacts.  

Therefore, for all current and future city construction, we ask the following:

1)    Restore Participatory Democracy

All residents potentially impacted by construction projects in their neighborhoods must be personally notified by mail at the earliest stage of planning to allow full involvement in the process. Once construction is underway, city staff must engage in a timely and responsive manner with residents while operating in good faith to ameliorate reasonable concerns.

2)    No Construction on Weekends or Before 8 a.m. or After 5 p.m. on Weekdays

Residents forced to deal with the worst impacts of neighborhood city construction projects (some of which take years) are being deprived of their legal right to quiet enjoyment. Therefore, at the very least, residential construction must not occur on weekends or before 8 a.m. or past 5 p.m. on weekdays. 

3)    Employ Quietest Technology

The city must either finance or require contractors to utilize the quietest OSHA-compliant technology on construction equipment. This includes but is not limited to replacing outdated and ineffective single-tone backup beepers (whose decibel levels may breach legal nuisance limits in residential neighborhoods) with white noise filters. Studies have found white noise filters to be SAFER than the current unreliable backup beepers that workers either tune out or find confusing and hard to localize.