A unanimous Steamboat Springs Planning Commission vote last week revived a residential development planned for an 8.8-acre lot on Shield Drive adjacent to the Yampa River.

The commission approved plans for the development in 2022 before the group behind the project returned last week to present a revamped vision for the property.

The development group, which is called Streamside at Steamboat, is led by Chad Fleisher, a local resident who owns Fleischer Sport and competed as a ski racer in the 1994 and 1998 Olympics.

---

---

The property at 1605 Shield Drive is currently zoned for industrial use and provides a storage area for portable toilets, dumpsters and an office building.

The plans will see 15 residential lots created in the space, which is roughly 1.5 miles west from Old Downtown Steamboat. The lots will contain 10 single-family units, three duplexes, townhomes and a single lot hosting 20 workforce housing units.

---

---

Under the city’s workforce housing deed restriction, the units included in the development would be available to individuals who are employed within Routt County and work at least 40 hours per week and have a maximum household income of 120% of the area median income for Routt County.

The developer’s plans would rezone the area to accommodate the multi-family, single-family and duplex housing structures. It would also provide a 0.15-acre plot along the Yampa River to the city for the development of a pocket park that would link to the Yampa River Core Trail.

The application for the project used the city’s expedited application process, approved by City Council last year, which is designed for housing developments that provide at least 30% of their capacity toward workforce housing.

“I think this has been a good project since we first heard about it — it’s high density, provides workforce housing and it moves some undesirable industrial (development) off of the river,” Planning Commission member Derek Hodson said.

According to City Planner Bob Keenan, the next steps for the project will include an infrastructure build-out and approval of a final plat before development plans and building permit applications are submitted.

This article was updated to reflect Planning Commission member Derek Hodson’s quote. The previous version of the article quoted Byran Swintek.