New plan for Brown Ranch will wait until 2026, at least

Ben Saheb/Courtesy photo
It could be at least a year before Steamboat residents decide on a new Brown Ranch proposal as the city pursues a more careful and deliberate approach to the housing plans with a focus on community engagement.
City Council members last week agreed on the timeline pitched by Glenwood Springs-based Community Builders, a nonprofit hired as a consultant to guide a community engagement process to find a path forward for Brown Ranch.
The city contracted with the group for $54,700 to perform an initial “situational assessment,” which was completed last month and included approximately 30 one-on-one interviews and six group meetings. The city will now work to iron out an amended contract for future work, according to Senior Planner Brad Calvert.
The need for outside assistance stems from a failed Brown Ranch annexation vote in a March special referendum that came after City Council had opted to approve an annexation agreement outright by a 4-3 vote months earlier — a decision that left many in the community troubled over the process, especially those who were already concerned about the project’s impact.
Approved by council members and subsequently denied by voters, the annexation agreement was developed over more than 10 months of negotiations between the city and the Yampa Valley Housing Authority, which purchased the Brown Ranch property with a $24 million anonymous donation in 2021.
Out of those negotiations, a plan was developed to construct as many as 2,064 affordable and attainable housing units on the roughly 420-acre Brown Ranch property by 2042.
Community Builders Executive Director Clark Anderson told council members last week that he believed the next iteration of an annexation agreement could take between 10-14 months.
“I think it could be longer than that,” added Anderson. “Depending on how things go and how detailed we want to get in terms of the technical work.”
The Community Builders situational assessment delivered to the city last month states that the annexation process “was a high-stakes, pressure-filled process.”
“The split council vote and subsequent ballot referendum that placed Brown Ranch on the ballot increased the stakes and urgency, with many people feeling rushed, confused, or frustrated at not having enough time to talk about and work through key questions and concerns,” according to the assessment.
Following the vote, City Council members and Yampa Valley Housing Authority agreed any future annexation decisions would be left to the voters. Council members also declared the city’s intention to take more of a leading role in a future agreement process.
YVHA Executive Director Jason Peasley told council members last week that he and his staff were comfortable with the approach demonstrated by Community Builders and the proposed 10–14-month timeline for a new agreement.
“It gets us to a point where getting to an annexation agreement is relatively easy because we have hashed out a lot of the big-ticket items,” said Peasley.
“I like involving more people in that process, and I think that is really going to be critical for success. I am completely comfortable with us ceding some control over the outcome,” he added. “We thought throughout the (prior) process that we had absolutely the best thing for the community, and clearly we were not right, so let’s go back and do it again and hopefully we get it right this time.”
City Manager Gary Suiter voiced support for the Community Builder plans, which lay out a multi-pronged approach between a combined YVHA-and-city project oversight team, a community deliberation and problem-solving team, and community engagement and public involvement measures.
“Neither the City Council nor the housing authority board should view themselves as a steering committee because if that is the role you put yourselves in, the community perception will be that you are steering it to a pre-determined outcome and we could be repeating the same mistake,” said Suiter.
“Sometimes being a good leader is knowing when to follow, and I think that (Community Builders) are spot-on that we need to let the community and the groups lead that process and then come to you with those decision points,” he added.
Council member Michael Buccino said he was encouraged by the plan to engage the community over future plans at Brown Ranch but he was also hopeful that it would bring added involvement from city staff and give them a stronger voice in the process.
“To me, there were times when our staff, during our previous process, was too silent in what they really felt for their community as well, because they were balancing being a staff member as well as being a citizen of this town,” said Buccino. “And yet, they kind of didn’t speak a lot, and I am hoping that this environment that we create gets some of our experts, (city) staff, to have somewhat of a voice as well.”
Trevor Ballantyne is the editor for the Steamboat Pilot & Today. To reach him, call 970-871-4254 or email him at tballantyne@SteamboatPilot.com.

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