Steamboat Springs and Routt County leaders say they are working toward a clearer, faster path forward for the proposed affordable housing development formerly known as Brown Ranch, as questions about funding, community engagement and overall project scope begin to take sharper focus.

At a joint meeting between the Steamboat Springs City Council and the Routt County Commissioners on Tuesday, members of the governance group for the proposed project — now called the Slate Creek Neighborhood — outlined early progress on what group members describe as a more collaborative and structured approach to a potential annexation plan.

Councilor Gail Garey said the group’s work at their most recent meetings on April 30 and May 1 centered on defining roles, expectations and decision-making authority among the city, county and the Yampa Valley Housing Authority, which owns the property.

At the same time, officials said they are working toward a more defined roadmap, with a goal of outlining a clear planning process by the end of June. That roadmap is expected to include major phases of work, key decision points and when the public will be engaged.

“We want to make sure that we’re getting input, but we also want to make sure that we don’t in any way delay the process,” Garey said.

As part of that effort, the group is considering the development of two or three feasible scenarios for the property, potentially including a “do nothing” baseline. Those scenarios would vary in unit mix, land use, affordability levels and overall scale, and would be evaluated based on factors such as cost per unit, traffic impacts, environmental considerations and the number of residents served.

Leaders emphasized that any scenarios presented to the public would be grounded in realistic constraints.

Even as that work moves forward, funding for additional studies and analysis is emerging as an immediate hurdle.

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Commissioner Angelica Salinas said the housing authority has already received a $500,000 county grant that can be used for planning efforts, but additional funding will likely be needed for further feasibility analysis and scenario development.

The discussion also returned repeatedly to a central question lingering from the project’s failed annexation attempt in 2024: What will be different this time?

“You’ve talked quite a bit about the product and all of that, but there’s this whole thing out there called the community, and there were citizens who had a better plan,” said Commissioner Sonja Macys. “Have they brought their better plan? Are they engaged with this?”

“Are we keeping our eye on the folks out there who this will potentially go to?” she continued. “I would assume it would go to them, given that it’s now three times, and council has tried the annexation solely. 
It didn’t really work.”

Councilor Dave Barnes responded that the committee “hasn’t gotten there.” 

Officials did point to several changes already taking shape, including plans to bring a developer into the process earlier and to more clearly define when community input — versus technical analysis — will guide decision-making.

Garey said that outreach efforts are expected to ramp up after the roadmap is finalized in late June.

Councilor Bryan Swintek asked how local leaders can “give hope to anybody about things happening at Brown Ranch,” noting that his “hope and optimism has dwindled.” 

Councilor Michael Buccino echoed that sentiment, with both Barnes and Buccino questioning whether the city’s grant-funded facilitator, Community Builders, might be unnecessarily complicating the process.

“It seems like this process is taking years and years and years,” said Buccino. “To me, we’re just spending too much time on this facilitated kumbaya, trying to get to how we’re going to make the decisions. Could we just look at where we are with it and move forward?”

Salinas acknowledged that leaders are aware of public frustration and the need to rebuild trust, and that the fact that people are losing hope “needs to be said out loud.” 

Once the city is presented with a constraints analysis on June 2, Salinas added, the group will have further guidance in order to begin implementing the next phases of the roadmap. 

“Once we have the city’s constraints analysis, then we can go back and look at the previous feasibility studies that were done on the land,” she explained. “We can find the gaps that are identified and start having those answers.”

The governance group is set to meet again June 17-18, with plans to further define an end goal for a future annexation proposal, establish a timeline and identify where additional technical work and public input will be needed.

As those pieces come together, officials acknowledged both the urgency of the region’s housing shortage and the challenge of rebuilding public confidence in a project that has already faced significant setbacks.

“The community needs to hear … that we understand the sense of urgency,” Salinas said, “and that we want to see something come to life.”