BOULDER, Colo. — Neighbors and North Boulder Little League leaders are mounting a public campaign to preserve Iris Fields as Boulder County evaluates competing bids to sell the complex in North Boulder.
The community-backed proposal, developed in partnership with Academy Boulder, would leave the ball fields intact and place a senior living community and a small café on the western edge of the near 20-acre parcel of land. Boulder County confirmed it has received multiple offers and said in a statement it will “consider how the bids align with county goals and the commissioners’ strategic priorities.” A decision is expected by the end of the year, the county said.
“This space, for 70 years, has seen generations of families and tens of thousands of kids and adult volunteers come here to learn and grow,” Vice President of North Boulder Little League Thomas Click said. “You can’t replace this. This is a lot more than just baseball fields.”
Click called the league “the most storied Little League in America,” noting the program’s recent 17th state championship.
“This is green space for the kids,” he said. “This is where they come and play. This is where neighbors come and walk their dogs. This is where we have all kinds of events and concerts. This is the green space for the neighborhood.”
Click and other residents have collected signatures through their website, put up “SaveIrisFields.com” signs around the park, and approached developers directly when initial negotiations over the site stalled out.
Rather than wait for developers to present plans, residents came up with their own plans for how to use the land and interviewed developers nationwide. Eventually, they ended up partnering with Academy Boulder, whose Mapleton Hill campus is just under 2 miles from Iris Fields.
Co-managing partner of Academy Mapleton Hill Jay Hebb said they would build an independent and assisted living community that preserves the fields and fosters interaction between older residents and young ballplayers.
“We like to do things that we get excited about, that there’s more than just bricks and mortar,” Hebb said. The intergenerational connectivity can be really quite remarkable.”
Neighbors stressed that the collaborative plan with Academy Boulder keeps density low and will help limit traffic on Iris Avenue, which the city plans to narrow from four lanes to two.
President of the Broadway & Juniper Condo Association Aquiles La Grave said the fields are integral to the surrounding neighborhoods.
“Kids grow up in these fields,” La Grave said. “Oftentimes, kids are playing in the fields their grandparents played in. It’s multi-generational story. We're really seeing this as an opportunity to build, not just a new model as to how do we treat conversations, but how do we serve our young kids and our older populations.”
The plans also include a small café that would serve the senior living facility as well as the public, in an area of Boulder that can be difficult to find shops and restaurants.
“Everybody said, ‘we have to walk a mile from our house or more to spend one dollar. There's nowhere we can go and buy food within a mile of our houses,’” Click said. “This is going to address all of that. Beyond just improving the sanctity of such an important community resource, it’s going to actually improve it.”
Boulder County did not endorse any proposal but reiterated that commissioners will weigh bids against county priorities as they enter negotiations. The county’s statement said it is evaluating proposals and conducting good-faith negotiations with all potential purchasers.
Click urged residents to contact the Boulder County commissioners to express support for the community’s plan.
“Send them an email,” he said. “Let them know that you support Academy's proposal and the community's proposal to keep the baseball fields. We need help.”
