Routt County Planning Commission unanimously voted last week to recommend approval of a subdivision application for the proposed 200-unit Tailwaters development along County Road 18A in Stagecoach.

The recommendation was contingent on 22 conditions of approval put forth by county staff that have been agreed upon by the applicant.

The Jan. 16 planning commission vote represented the second step in the approval process for the project, according to Routt County Senior Planner Alan Goldich.

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Under the current application, the developer is seeking to subdivide about 40 acres of an 89-acre Stagecoach parcel into 89 single-family lots, 33 duplex lots and 40 multi-family units. 

There are also plans for a commercial development located on 4 acres of the property, which could include a restaurant, grocery store, office and retail space, and live/work units.

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Under the county’s newly adopted code, Stagecoach is identified as a “Tier 2 targeted growth area” within Routt County. The Tailwaters application, however, was submitted prior to the county’s new Unified Development Code being adopted in 2024, meaning the subdivision does not have to adhere to requirements showing public benefit and providing affordable housing. 

Road improvements

Topping the list of conditions deemed overly “onerous” by the developers is a provision calling for $7.8 million, upfront, from the developers for road improvements along segments of County Road 14 and a number of intersections, including at Colorado State Highway 131 and County Road 16. 

The $7.8 million figure was calculated based on the developer paying 15.9% of the cost of seven different road improvement projects.

Presenting on behalf of the developers — Tailwaters at Stagecoach, LLC — Tim McGuire of Minturn-based Contour Design Collective argued against the amount, calling it, “not proportionate to the impact of the development” and “excessive and unjustified.”

The Tailwaters property was purchased by Edwards-based Saltbox Custom Homes Inc. for roughly $1.12 million in 2022 from the Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association. The land was then transferred from Saltbox to Tailwaters at Stagecoach LLC in April 2023, but the ownership group remains the same.

Goldich noted the applicant said requiring the road improvement money upfront made the project infeasible and that alternative structuring of the payment needed further discussion by the commissioners. 

During the course of the meeting, the majority of the planning commissioners agreed the full amount should be provided by the applicant while also supporting some kind of bond or phased payment plan.

Planning Commissioner Ren Martyn said he did not support the nearly $8 million request as a whole, calling it “not equitable.”

“We all need to come up with a better solution for how to improve CR 14 and that portion of CR 16,” Martyn added. 

Routt County Director of Planning Kristy Winser said the $7.8 million amount had been carefully vetted and that her staff, along with other partners, worked hard to come up with conditions of approval to help ensure the development’s viability. “Really, development needs to pay its own way,” she said.

Citing dueling traffic studies — one commissioned by the applicant and one by the county — McGuire and county staff disagreed on the development’s potential traffic impacts. 

Routt County Public Works Director Mike Mordi pointed to a 2023 traffic study that showed 1,791 vehicle trips per day passing through the intersection of CR 14 and CR 16. He said those numbers could be more than doubled by the Tailwaters subdivision, adding as many as 2,000 more vehicle trips per day through that intersection.

McGuire said the county’s traffic study unfairly took the Discovery Land Co.’s proposed Stagecoach Mountain Ranch resort in account, as well as other traffic assumptions he said lacked validity, such as the inclusion of significant traffic going to the new grocery store. 

At full buildout, the proposed private ski club would include about 700 new luxury homes requiring a staff of approximately 300 full-time and 600 part-time employees.

Addressing speculation about connections between Tailwaters and the proposed ski resort, McGuire said: “There really is no relation between the ski area and this project,” adding that the Tailwaters plan came first.

McGuire said the applicant’s traffic study found: “Existing roads can adequately accommodate the project … It was our understanding that our traffic study was adequate and approved, and then nine months later we were told there was a whole new traffic study that had $8 million in cost to the applicant.”

The Stagecoach Property Owners Association represents approximately 2,400 lot-owners and about 1,200 residents living on nearly 600 developed lots.

Water quality and quantity 

The condition of approval for the project also requires the developers to conduct regular testing of surface water in Little Morrison Creek, groundwater up to 30-feet deep, and stormwater. 

“We have begrudgingly agreed to it,” McGuire said of the groundwater monitoring portion. “We don’t think it is necessary because of the fact that the groundwater table is 70 feet below grade.”

McGuire asked the commission to reduce or remove the groundwater monitoring requirement. “We just don’t think it’s going to show anything,” he said.

The commissioners disagreed, however, and recommended the water monitoring conditions of approval remain. 

“Water is the number one commodity we have floating around and we need to take care of it,” said Planning Commissioner Todd Pedersen.

Dr. Robert Woodmansee, a Stagecoach resident, former county planning commissioner and ecosystem and soil scientist, said during the public comment session of the meeting last week that the project should be denied based on water quality concerns — or at least tabled until a panel of experts conducted an independent, science-based review. 

“I emphatically recommend denial of the proposal because in my professional opinion, this ridgetop development that drains directly eastward into Little Morrison Creek that in turn drains directly into Morrison Cove of Stagecoach Reservoir will further impair the water quality of the reservoir,” said Woodmansee.

On water supply, Morrison Creek Water District General Manager Giovanni Romero said the district currently has enough capacity for existing Stagecoach lots.

“Any new development would have to offset and pay their way toward growth,” said Romero. “Currently we do not have the necessary infrastructure to allow more growth and the district does not have the financial capacity to finance growth.”

The applicant has agreed to pay the Oak Creek Fire District $5,695 per unit for impact fees related to mitigating wildfire risk, which includes increasing water storage, according to the county.

The Tailwaters application was scheduled to next go before the Routt County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, Jan. 21. The commissioners’ agenda packet indicated the hearing was likely to be tabled until Feb. 4.