Routt County Planning Commission considers approving very private golf course
If you go
What: Routt County Planning Commission weighs a permit for Windwalker Ranch to build a private golf course along the Yampa River south of Steamboat Springs for owners, their families and guests only.
When: Windwalker is the third of three scheduled items on the agenda for the meeting, which begins 6 p.m., Thursday, May 21.
Where: Commissioners’ Hearing Room, Routt County Courthouse 522 Lincoln Ave., Steamboat Springs.
Steamboat Springs — The Routt County Planning Commission will hear an application Thursday for a nine-hole private golf course that intended to be more private than the typical country club.
The owners of Windwalker Ranch, a private lodge on the Yampa River just below Lake Catamount Dam, hope to build the course straddling the Yampa River on a 59-acre parcel within the 514-acre ranch.
If you go
What: Routt County Planning Commission weighs a permit for Windwalker Ranch to build a private golf course along the Yampa River south of Steamboat Springs for owners, their families and guests only.
When: Windwalker is the third of three scheduled items on the agenda for the meeting, which begins 6 p.m., Thursday, May 21.
Where: Commissioners’ Hearing Room, Routt County Courthouse 522 Lincoln Ave., Steamboat Springs.
Their proposal is scheduled to be taken up last on an agenda with three permit applications. The meeting begins with Nick and Tracy Metzler’s request to divide in two an existing .77-acre lot in the Alpine Acres subdivision, just outside the city limits off Fish Creek Falls Road.
Next up is a request from Darren and Carroll Zamzow, of Hahn’s Peak Roadhouse, for changes to their existing special-use permit regarding snowmobile, ATV and UTV tours. They propose to remove snowcat tours, increase the number of machines they can rent and allow rentals to non-overnight guests, among other things.
Plans for Windwalker Ranch were originally scheduled to be heard May 7, but were delayed at the applicants’ request.
There would be no commercial operation of the golf course, according to documents on file with the county.
In addition to expanding their recreational permits on the property to include the golf course, the applicants are seeking a waterbody setback permit that would allow them to build a suspension bridge over the Yampa they say they need to allow golfers using the course to tee off on the first hole from north side of the river and ultimately cross back over to hole-out on the ninth green.
County Planning Director Chad Phillips said Monday he doesn’t believe county regulations grant him the leeway to approve the water body setback permit, which is intended to protect the sensitive riparian zone along the river banks. County regulations state the need for the bridge must be “unavoidable.” Phillips has determined that golfers could leave the property by car onto Colorado Highway 131 and access the rest of the golf course via Routt County Road 18 — meaning the bridge is not unavoidable.
The applicants are expected to seek to persuade Planning Commission and, ultimately, the County Commissioners to allow the waterbody permit by offering to spend at least $100,000 to make improvements to the riparian area of the Yampa.
To reach Tom Ross, call 970-871-4205, email tross@SteamboatToday.com or follow him on Twitter @ThomasSRoss1
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