Boulder City Council is advancing a vacancy tax proposal through its standard legislative process. Separately, a citizen initiative group is collecting signatures for a different vacancy tax design that would go directly to voters. Both tracks could appear on the November 2026 ballot, creating procedural complexity for the city and for the downtown district that would be affected by whichever measure passes.

For city governments watching the citizen-versus-council policy divergence, Boulder is the live experiment. Two parallel tracks, neither coordinated with the other, both potentially appearing on the same November ballot.

VISUAL: Side-by-side timeline of the two ballot tracks. Comparison table of council vacancy tax design versus citizen initiative design (commercial inclusion, exemption structure, rate, enforcement).

Watch

May 27 signature qualification deadline.

Source

Boulder Reporting Lab, March 26, 2026; City of Boulder DDA project page.