On Tuesday evening, I took my 14-year-old daughter to a Boulder Planning Board meeting in the municipal building. We were both mortified. Two representatives of Morgan Creek Ventures (the developer hell-bent on tearing down the iconic, beloved Dark Horse bar and restaurant on Baseline Road) presented plans to demolish the 50-year-old Boulder institution and everything around it to erect a combined commercial/residential village featuring six five-story buildings, with restaurants, shops and 600 apartment units.
“The area around the Dark Horse is broken,” one of the men said a few times. He and his colleague touted the benefits of a gigantic new development at Williams Village, including accessibility for students passing through from nearby student housing. Along with six five-story buildings that would greatly alter that part of town, and the mountain views for some residents in that neighborhood, the developers want to eventually get a pass from the city to build a 70,000-square-foot hotel on the site. They also plan to provide parking, including underground, for 800 vehicles.
My daughter and I heard promises of “open space” on top of a few of the proposed buildings, a small amphitheater for music, and a plaza for food trucks and community hangouts to juxtapose the six gigantic buildings and accompanying 800 parking spots. We also heard the developers’ suggestion that they’re “open to” throwing upset locals a bone by allowing the Dark Horse to move some of its famous decorations into a much smaller new space somewhere amid the new five-story buildings, creating what they called “The Dark Horse 2.0.”
If the area around the Dark Horse is indeed “broken,” why was this public meeting not about fixing it, rather than razing it and building a money-making behemoth on top of it? I have been living in the Boulder area for 16 years. My child has spent only one year of her life anywhere else. The Dark Horse, the Trident and the Boulderado are a few of the places I can now count on just one hand that truly feel like Boulder the moment you walk in the door. Admitting that most of what’s around the Dark Horse is a parking lot that could be made into something wonderful for the community is just fine; in fact, it’s inspiring to imagine Boulder’s residents and government coming together to save the Dark Horse and make Williams Village into a welcoming, even bustling—and green, in foliage and energy—little townlet around it.
The Dark Horse does not qualify as historic, despite its rich 50-year history, so it’s susceptible to “development,” i.e. being torn down and—if we’re lucky, as these developers say—scrapped for parts. Still, anyone who’s lived in Boulder over the last half century knows the Dark Horse’s charm, its tasty food and colorful staff, its pool tables and other games, its karaoke nights and tricycle races, sometimes even live music. The Dark Horse’s layout is strange and vast, including an upstairs and an outdoor patio that some people have never visited even if they’ve been to the Dark Horse dozens of times. And the antique-store decorations? You could visit the Dark Horse every day for 50 years and still smile at something on the walls you’d never noticed.
Doesn’t all that qualify a business as “historic” and worth saving?
I agree with Boulder Planning Board member ML Robles, who said on Tuesday night, “This project is not meeting the intent of a neighborhood center” after the representatives of the developer had spoken. I also agree with Sarah Silver, who said “I would suggest that it be a smaller development.”
Businesses in Williams Village such as Sprouts have already volunteered to close for years and then reopen after construction of the proposed commercial/residential behemoth. If there is to be redevelopment of the area, Sprouts and Cosmo’s and the adjacent liquor store can survive, although it would be far better for the city of Boulder to ensure that they survive in a new Williams Village that is community oriented, beautiful, sparse and green, and overall not aimed at making as much money as humanly possible by cramming as many apartment units, parking spots, businesses and hotel rooms as the developers can convince Boulder to allow.
Does this supposedly creative, unique, funky college town that’s become one of the most expensive places to live in the United States really need one of its few remaining truly iconic, special establishments torn down in order to create even more brand-new, expensive shops and restaurants and brand-new, expensive apartments? If their plan moves forward, the developers, as most of us know, will have the choice to either make a percentage of the 600 apartment units permanently affordable or just pay the city a fee; it’s no mystery how that would go, as Morgan Creek Ventures has already indicated it will pay the city the required fees instead of including affordable housing.
Unfortunately, we cannot portray the Dark Horse like the old man in the movie Up, staying put in a special place, trying to save it while developers crush everything around him, because the owner does not own the building. However, it’s within the city of Boulder’s power to preserve something special, that has been a vital community center for 50 years, and—if Williams Village is to be redeveloped, which obviously it should—build a tasteful, uplifting, and small set of combined commercial/residential buildings around the Dark Horse while leaving it intact, as-is.
I’d like to be able to show my daughter not to fear change but to be a part of it, and make sure it serves her community. I urge people who care about the Dark Horse to attend City of Boulder meetings to speak up publicity about saving it, and also send emails to city council — as many as possible. Lastly, I urge City Council and the Planning Board to let people who care about the Dark Horse, and don’t want six five-story buildings aimed at making some very wealthy people even more wealthy rather than improving the community, can do to either stop the development or have a real voice in it.
To contact Boulder City Council head to https://bouldercolorado.gov/contact-city-council-and-staff
Adam Perry 
It’s hard to leave things behind, but nothing is forever. The Dark Horse is one of those things that’s done and gone. Cherish your memories, but let the new replace the old and bring new memories to a new generation.
The Dark Horse has been here for 50 years and counting, and I had a great time last night with my partner and some of our friends. Why is it just “one of those things that’s done and gone”? Not only “Why?” but “Who decides?”
Everyone has a set of things that are done and gone and a set of things that they’d like to continue. Nobody decides and everybody decides. If there’s enough social weight behind continuing, it will. My opinion: housing trumps entertainment, especially in Boulder. No tears for the Dark Horse here.
What complete fucking horseshit.
it seems most things that have made Boulder special are being destroyed for UGLY new development. 30th & pearl and area around there is an example
Edward Gerety…it appears that you have a financial or business interest in the outcome of this process. People like me, who have been to the Dark Horse over the last 10 years and share important memories, take a very different stance. I love the history and quirkiness of Dark Horse and hope the public will rise up against the push of big development to besmirch the reputation of this important historical landmark.