Steamboat Springs City Council members received their latest update on a draft version of the city’s proposed Community Plan at a work session last week.

The Steamboat Springs Area Community Plan, originally adopted in 2004, had its vision reaffirmed through a public process in 2014. Routt County adopted a new Master Plan in August 2022, paving the way for a new Community Plan that addresses the city’s evolving challenges around growth, affordability and community character.

“This community has not stopped planning,” said Brad Calvert, the city’s principal planner. “So how we bring forward contemporary planning work that has happened, whether it’s the Climate Action Plan, the Transportation and Mobility Plan — let’s understand the community continues to have conversations about what’s important to us. Let’s make sure the comprehensive plan can reflect those and integrate them.” 

Calvert addressed City Council members during their work session last week, saying the effort to update the current Community Plan has been informed with input from city and county staff and an advisory group consisting of community members.

“We spent four to five meetings with the (Area Plan Coordinating Committee) in 2023 to scope this project,” said Calvert. “The importance of having it values-centered and values-forward was really important, so that’s one of the things we’re trying to get out of this process.”

“We understand that we are a place where a lot of people visit, but we’re feeling a little overwhelmed,” he added.

The city hired a consultant, SE Group, based in Burlington, Vermont, in January 2024 to help the city update the current plan. Calvert said he hopes to release the updated draft plan some time this quarter, with the release to be followed by a 45-day public comment period. 

Calvert said the proposed plan identifies eight core values: a well-connected multi-modal city, a thriving community, a diverse economy and identity, a vibrant culture, outdoor recreation and conservation, emphasizing honor and heritage, investing in values, and sustainability and resilience.

In addition to those values, Calvert said the new plan is organized around specific themes — maintaining the community, managing the destination and funding the future.

“How do we maintain the character of this community that we cherish as everyday residents, while also acknowledging that, in many ways, we’re a global destination” said Calvert. “There are two things that we heard over and over and over again.”

“One is simply affordability and the ability to actually make the life that people want to make in this community,” he continued. “The other one is really a declining sense of community … people have this innate feeling that something about the community and the character of the place in terms of people’s willingness to give back to it maybe feels a little bit different than it did in the past.”

“How do we manage that destination so that it works for visitors, it works for residents, and we maintain our natural built environment so that it works for everyone who interacts with this community?” Calvert said.

“The reality is, we’re going to be talking about some big ideas, and big ideas aren’t free,” he added. “So how do we actually fund and resource the future that the plan imagines? If we aren’t talking about that, we’re kind of living in fantasy land.”

Cost of living and community character emerged as the top priorities from previous public engagement. 

Calvert said the proposed plan offers actions such as supporting housing costs, expanding in West Steamboat and adding 600 new affordable housing units by 2030.

“We need to be able to assess how we’re doing as a community. Are the actions that we have pursued actually having the intended outcome?” said Calvert, who added that the plan commits to a five-year evaluation and assessment cycle.

Transportation and mobility were also highlighted as pressing concerns. Residents have expressed to the planning commission frustration over congestion and a general sense that it’s “visitors first, residents second.”

The plan’s “managing the destination” theme encompasses actions like parking management, expanding mobility options and developing a sustainable tourism strategy. 

The “funding the future” theme addresses the need to diversify city revenue and support economic growth beyond tourism. Recommended goals include increasing the percentage of jobs in non-tourism sectors, aligning land use policy to support the economy and creating dedicated funding streams for priority services like regional transit. 

Council members engaged in a candid discussion about the plan’s structure and the council’s role in reviewing the draft before it goes to the public. A key point debated was whether council should review the draft plan before it is released for public comment.

Swintek argued that “this is not council’s document, this is the community’s document,” while Buccino, Council President Gail Garey and Councilor Joella West vocalized wanting to see the plan first to better answer constituent questions. 

“I would like to see it so that when I run into somebody at the post office who wants to tell me about their objection to a chapter, I can say that I have read that chapter,” said West. “That’s all.” 

City Manager Tom Leeson noted that council review would add time to the process but could enhance transparency. 

“You can certainly review it before the public and then get it out to the public to make sure it sort of aligns with your values and your expectations are,” said Leeson, “but there’s also an advantage to hearing what the public has to say first as well.”

“We’ll put it as a community report on a city council meeting, and we’ll have a kickoff in terms of the presentation,” Garey said, “and like any other community report, the opportunity is for us to ask questions, get clarification and take public comment.”

“If it gets slaughtered, it gets slaughtered,” said Calvert. “I’ve lived through that, it will roll right off me, but I want to get to the point where it is the best version of the plan that has come out of this process.”