Steamboat Springs City Council President Steve Muntean on Tuesday provided an update on Monday’s meeting between city officials and Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. representatives to address potential impacts from the resort’s upcoming paid-parking program set for next winter.

The discussion — held privately and attended by Muntean, Councilor Gail Garey, City Manager Tom Leeson and resort leaders — emphasized shared goals of reducing congestion, carbon emissions and vehicle miles traveled while prioritizing mitigations for negative effects, said Muntean.

“We also know that we can’t address 100% of every potential impact or accurately project the future,” Muntean told council. “So we will need to learn over time and adjust accordingly as things develop.”

The Monday meeting followed an initial April 13 conversation between the two entities, where city leaders warned resort representatives that the paid-parking policy could shift traffic patterns, parking demand and transit pressure into nearby neighborhoods and downtown.

At council’s May 5 meeting, Councilor Bryan Swintek urged an “aggressive” push to put a lift ticket tax on the ballot in November if no tangible compromises were made at the upcoming paid-parking meeting. 

This week’s discussion, however, seemed to indeed yield several potential next steps, with another meeting scheduled for Monday, May 18 to nail down details. 

The two sides are close to a tentative agreement to utilize the Haymaker Golf Course parking lot as free parking targeted to locals coming from south of town, said Muntean, with Ski Corp. agreeing to provide that shuttle service for free.

Additionally, the city and the ski area plan to investigate the use of the Stockbridge Transit Center lot for those west of town, along with some potential options downtown near Steamboat Springs Transit bus stops to help locals get to the mountain. 

Ski Corp. has also agreed to provide free signage at no charge to business owners with parking lots around the base of the mountain. This signage aims to increase compliance with parking restrictions and reduce unauthorized skier parking that negatively affects businesses.

Lastly — and requiring significant work before Monday — resort officials are open to exploring a way to quantify the cost of additional ridership to SST caused by paid parking to offset impacts to the city, an issue Muntean raised at last week’s council meeting. 

“In order for (Ski Corp.) to support that, we have to have a formula that makes sense,” Muntean explained. 
”So we’re going to try to come up with this formula by next Monday to have further discussions about what that offset would look like.”

Garey noted that part of that formula should entail “quantifying who’s being left behind today and where they’re being left behind today,” and that “microtransit” — technology-enabled, shared transportation that lies between traditional fixed route transit and ride hailing technology — is being considered as well. 

Councilor Amy Dickson expressed skepticism about business-focused signage, highlighting neighborhoods like the Shadow Run and Walton Creek condominiums, where residents lack resources for gates or enforcement against skiers parking their vehicles. Muntean said he would plan to raise the issue Monday. 

“Work is proceeding across all these areas and will be the basis for our next meeting on Monday,” Muntean said. “We both realize we need to move forward with a sense of urgency on this and are trying to use a collaborative approach. We will provide another update at next Tuesday’s council meeting.”