Funding jeopardized for CDOT planned child care, housing facility in Steamboat Springs
Steamboat Pilot & Today

Scott Franz/Steamboat Pilot & Today archives
State funding is now in jeopardy for a proposed combined child care and housing facility planned for Steamboat Springs, according to an update from Routt County Commissioner Angelica Salinas during a joint meeting between the county commissioners and the Steamboat Springs City Council on Monday.
Through a partnership between the county, the city, the state and the Colorado Department of Transportation, the plans call for the construction a four-story building next to the Steamboat Springs Community Center that would include residential units, a child care facility and a parking structure.
The project is part of — and reliant on funding from — the state’s Public-Private Partnership (P3) Collaboration Unit and is listed as one of eight projects on the program’s website. Other projects range in scope from expanding broadband services in a mental and behavioral health treatment facility to a renewable energy research and innovation park.
Senate Bill 11 on Wednesday will go before the state’s Transportation Committee, seeking to transfer some of the P3 program’s funds “to establish a contract with a company that produces AI-powered wildfire detection cameras,” according to the bill.
If approved, $6 million would be transferred out of the designated P3 funds over three years, and Salinas said other projects on the list could be cut, including the Steamboat project.
The original plan for the facility — estimated at a cost of $37 million — called for 36 workforce residential units designated for local child care workers and CDOT snow plow drivers; along with 10 infant and toddler child care rooms.
However, due to high projected costs of both construction and operations, the architect, Vega Architecture, is in the process of redesigning the project without underground parking and a “mass timber” construction method, according to a Monday memo from the interim city manager, Tom Leeson, to the council and commissioners.
“The redesign will result in the loss of one child care room and a different residential program to maximize efficiency and improve the cash flow to reduce the required subsidy,” according to the memo. “We expect new drawings and revised cost estimates in early February.”
While Salinas noted wildfire mitigation efforts are “undeniably important,” she didn’t feel that should necessarily come before early childhood education, which already faces “grim funding” prospects at the state and federal level.
Locally and nationwide, a lack of available and affordable child care options for working families has long been deemed at crisis level, with ripple effects observed throughout the economy.
The joint housing and child care project in Steamboat gained momentum in September 2024 when council members voted for the city to take ownership of the facility — an agreement required to move into the project’s design and development phase.
The county and city each committed $1 million toward construction costs, with the hope that state funding and nonprofit donors could make up the difference.
The council and commissioners discussed weighing in and taking an official joint position on Senate Bill 11. Commissioner Chair Sonja Macys said the joint housing and child care design had been scaled back as much as possible. “No question, we want to protect” the project, she added.

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