Monday, February 13, 2012

Housing News Digest, February 13

CU-Boulder east campus could eventually house dorms
CU's long-term planning document suggests that a new undergraduate community should house about 1,500 students in three separate dorms on either the east campus or an area north of Boulder Creek.

But there are no development plans drawn up, and the additional housing is still just a conceptual idea in the planning document, said Malinda Miller-Huey, a spokeswoman for the Boulder campus.

CU predicts a housing shortage of between 800 and 1,000 beds over the next decade or so because of the projected growth in the number of freshmen,

Colorado residents ask Feds to withdraw lease parcels to go up for oil, gas auction

Scores of residents in Colorado’s North Fork Valley aren’t nearly as keen about oil and gas drilling as the wide-eyed Democrats and Republicans who talk about tapping America’s energy reserves.

Representatives from nearly 50 ranches, farm restaurants, farm markets, and food producers sent a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar asking that he direct the Bureau of Land Management to withdraw all 22 of the proposed lease parcels scheduled to go up for an oil and gas auction in August.

Colorado panel tasked with weighing eco-devo projects, doling out incentives

Over the next few months, nine men will decide which projects get funding under a state law created in 2009 to bring new visitors to Colorado.

They are the members of the Colorado Economic Development Commission, which approves loans and grants from the state's economic-development fund to help businesses expand and to attract new companies to Colorado.

Mortgage industry eagerly ends robo-signing saga
Where one investigation ends another begins.

Representatives from mortgage banks, trade groups and organizations expressed relief throughout the day Thursday as the settlement with state attorneys general and federal prosecutors finally arrived.

The banks involved, Bank of America ($8.27 0.2%), JPMorgan Chase ($37.61 -0.25%), Wells Fargo ($30.69 0.43%), Ally Financial ($23.50 0.14%) and Citigroup ($32.93 -0.735%), each for the most part accounted for the penalties under reserves set aside last year.

Old zoning allowed tall buildings
When the Denver City Council in June 2010 rezoned three parcels near Highland Square to allow five-story building to be constructed on them, it also made another significant zoning change to the main commercial artery in the heart of West Highland.

As part of the first major overhaul of the city’s zoning code in more than a half-century, the City Council also unanimously rezoned much of the popular West 32nd Avenue corridor to U-MS-3 from B-2.