After a more than seven-hour meeting that, at times, appeared to be headed nowhere, the Boulder Planning Board voted early Friday to conditionally approve Google’s plan to construct a massive campus in the heart of the city, a facility that would give the tech giant room to expand locally to about five times its current size.
“Conditionally,” of course, is the operative word.
“Nobody’s getting exactly what they want,” planning board chairman Aaron Brockett said toward the close of the meeting, just after midnight.
Google had intended to develop 4 acres near the intersection of 30th and Pearl streets through a two-phase development that would require the razing of several structures to build three four-story buildings and a large underground parking lot.
The proposed campus could accommodate 1,500 employees. Currently, Google’s Boulder workforce totals about 340.
The company is mostly getting what it wants, but the planning board insisted
Google set back the fourth floor of one of the three buildings — by 60 feet on one side and 30 feet on the other — in an effort to make the top story invisible to passers-by.
Google also must add a pedestrian connection to the west side of the campus.
