City Council members on Tuesday are set to vote on first reading of an ordinance that would approve funding a U.S. Forest Service trails project in the Rabbit Ears Pass area, despite a concentrated opposition to the plans.

The “Mad Rabbit” trails project encompasses Forest Service land in the Rabbit Ears Pass area to the south and the Mad Creek area to the north and has been in the works since 2017.

The trails would be built as part of a Forest Service project which aims to construct 49 miles of non-motorized, motorized and adaptive routes and rehabilitate roughly 36 miles of unofficial trails that currently exist in the area.

The plan would also add restrictions designed to limit bikes to designated trails, improve winter trailheads to accommodate summer use, and add seasonal human-entry restrictions in certain areas to protect local elk populations.

Steamboat voters approved the creation of a 1% accommodation tax in 1986. In 2013, voters approved ballot language that allowed the city to allocate the accommodations tax collections to support the construction of trails, “in and around the city in accordance with the Trails Alliance Proposal.”

As part of the 2013 ballot question, voters gave the green light for the city to spend $300,000 per year for three years and $600,000 for the following seven years — for a total of $5.1 million — on projects identified in the Trails Alliance Proposal. 

There is now roughly $1.9 million remaining in the 2A fund approved by voters that the 2A Trails Committee has recommended be spent on the U.S. Forest Service Mad Rabbit trails project.

“Over its history, the 2A Trails Committee has recommended funding for planning of priority trails and construction of the trails that were eligible for funding as funding requests for those trails were received,” a summary of the Mad Rabbit funding proposal reads. 

“Annual funding recommendations have been made to City Council through the budget process, or alternately, when a larger discussion was desired or timing of the recommendation required it, through a separate presentation to Council,” it adds.

“Mad Rabbit Alert!” was the title of a newsletter sent early Sunday morning from the group Keep Routt Wild, which has adamantly opposed the Forest Service’s trail construction project.

Referring to the council’s pending Tuesday vote, the newsletter flagged “several disturbing items” proposed in the ordinance set to be considered.

Keep Routt Wild argues three of the trails proposed for city funding were not included in the Steamboat Trails Alliance proposal referenced in the 2013 2A ballot question approved by Steamboat voters.

“Today we are facing the unusual situation (where) trails explicitly approved on the (Steamboat Trails Association) list are not being recommended for funding, while those never on the list are being advanced for funding,” reads the Keep Routt Wild statement.

“So, it doesn’t matter what the voters voted for if the Council determines funding something else promotes the public interest? Democracy indeed!” it adds.

The newsletter sent Sunday by Keep Routt Wild presents an argument to block the Forest Service’s trail construction project that is echoed by dozens of messages included in more than 300 pages of public comments collected by council members ahead of their Tuesday meeting.

Many of those who contacted council members felt that the funding should be used to extend trails in the city, including the Yampa River Core Trail.

“I voted to extend the Core Trail. Please honor the votes for the Core Trail. Please do not divert the funds that are being requested by a small group of bikers,” wrote Nan Porter in an email. “Okay, they may be a big group of bikers, but they do not represent the majority of voters for the core trail expansion.”

Diane Brower said she, “definitely wouldn’t have voted for 2A if I’d known it would be used primarily for a substantial expansion of mountain bike trails in the National Forest.”

Steamboat’s city attorney, Dan Foote, has rejected the argument presented by Keep Routt Wild and others who believe the ballot language does not allow the city to allocate 2A funds for the project.

In council’s agenda packet for the Tuesday evening meeting, Foote laid out the legal argument for the city to allocate funds to the Forest Service.

“Opponents of the proposal to fund Mad Rabbit Trails construction argue that the 2013 ballot question prohibits the proposed use of accommodations tax revenues because some or all of the trails proposed for funding differ from those shown in the Trails Alliance Proposal referenced in the 2013 ballot question,” wrote Foote in his memo to council members.

“There is no basis in Colorado law to support such a restrictive view of the City Council’s authority. The City Council retains full discretion over the appropriation of public accommodations tax revenues and may use those revenues to fund the proposed trail construction,” he added.

The city attorney explained that the ballot question approved by voters in 2013 included language that described the Trails Alliance proposal as “conceptual” and “states that the location of each (trail) is subject to change based on the relevant land manger’s approval process.”

In the case of the Mad Rabbit plan, the land manager is the Forest Service. The agency gained federal approval this year for the plans after an extensive multi-year process that included environmental and wildlife studies, as well as public comment.

“There is no dispute that the differences between the trails approved in the Mad Rabbit NEPA and the 2013 Trails Alliance proposal resulted from the U.S. Forest Service approval process,” wrote Foote in his memo to council members.

“The question in front of the City within the 2A Trails Initiative, is not whether or not the land manager’s process or decision is valid, but is whether or not an eligible project is one that the City desires to fund utilizing 2A Trails funds,” he added.

City Council member Michael Buccino said Monday that he was not sure how he and his colleagues would vote regarding whether to approve the $1.89 million in funding for the trails project.

“The only question that I have is, if we were going to not fund Mad Rabbit, could we use the money to do something to improve our trails on the inside of Steamboat Springs city limits,” said Buccino.