Plans to build up to 100 workforce housing units on 8-acres of U.S. Forest Service administrative land in Steamboat Springs got new life this week with the passage of a federal public lands and outdoor recreation legislative package.

The Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences Act, or, EXPLORE Act, passed the U.S. Senate on Thursday after the House of Representatives approved it in January. The legislation will now head to President Joe Biden’s desk as soon as Monday.

The legislative package is composed of several bills aimed at improving outdoor access and conservation on public lands, including the Forest Service Flexible Housing Partnership Act, which extends the Forest Service’s leasing authority for underutilized administrative sites for workforce housing until 2028. It will also allow the agency to lease a site for up to 100 years while providing a pathway for lease agreements to be renewed.

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The ability for the federal agency to lease underutilized administrative sites for the purpose of developing housing was originally included in the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill.

After being extended until September of this year, that authority expired after congress failed to pass a new Farm Bill before that deadline; but not before the Forest Service, the city of Steamboat Springs, and the Yampa Valley Housing Authority began work in recent years to sign a lease for the development between 80-100 units on a Forest Service land located on Hilltop Lane.

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The outlined plans imagine the federal land would see 20-25 of the units dedicated to Forest Service employees, with the city and the broader community benefitting from the rest of the rental apartments.

In April, City Council members indicated their support for the project and exercised a right of first refusal for the Forest Service’s Hilltop property, paving the way for the city to work with the Yampa Valley Housing Authority and the Forest Service to negotiate a lease agreement.

In August, the housing authority announced more progress with the hiring of a development partner for the project, Servitas, which is based in Irving, Texas, as work continued on the lease agreement.

The momentum hit a wall by the end of September, however, after Congress failed to renew the 2018 Farm Bill, which meant the leasing authority held by the Forest Service expired and the federal agency was no longer in a position to sign an agreement for the project unless congressional action was taken.

A contingency plan had formed in January when the House of Representatives passed the Forest Service Flexible Housing Partnerships Act. That bill was proposed by U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse, whose congressional district is nearly 60% public lands and includes Steamboat Springs.

Yampa Valley Housing Authority Executive Director Jason Peasley said at the time of Neguse’s bill being passed that he and other stakeholders supported the proposed legislation as an alternative route to extend the Forest Service’s authority through the 2018 U.S. Farm Bill.

“The objective that we sort of collectively talked about was we would like to get this done before you have to deal with either the authority within the Farm Bill not being authorized, or another government shutdown, or whatever,” Peasley said in January.

While it passed in the House, Neguse’s bill remained on the shelf in the U.S. Senate until Thursday when members of Congress’ upper chamber passed it as part of the EXPLORE Act. Now it is headed to President Joe Biden’s desk for a signature.

U.S. Senator Michael Bennet, who co-sponsored the legislation with U.S. Rep. Neguse and has adamantly pushed for the continuation of the Forest Service leasing authorization, said Friday that he was happy that congress members were able to work together to get the EXPLORE Act passed.

“It started out in the 2018 Farm Bill, the expiration was making it difficult for what people had to do on the ground, even in Steamboat, but we were able to get the parties to come together to agree that putting it in the EXPLORE act made sense and I am really glad that we did because we were running out of time,” said Sen. Bennet.

“It became clear, we had wanted to pass the Farm Bill and I think there was a sense, earlier in the year, that we would pass the Farm Bill, that is a deadline that we usually don’t miss, but we were not able to get to a bipartisan Farm Bill this year so we had to find a different vehicle in the Senate and that is what EXPLORE became,” he added.

The legislation included in the EXPLORE Act also improves what might have been continued in the Farm Bill by extending the limit for Forest Service lease agreements from 50 to 100 years.

“We heard from local communities that we needed that extended period of time for them to make sense from a leasing and a financing point of view. So, we were able to double the time, and I think we are going to make that program better and more durable and maybe give us more flexibility on the ground,” added Sen. Bennet.

On Friday, the housing authority said news of the leasing authority extension was “a step in the right direction,” but more work remained to get the housing project off the ground.

“We will continue to work with our partners at the City of Steamboat Springs and the USFS to take the necessary steps to execute the land lease, finalize design and permitting, and begin construction of our next affordable community,” said Peasley in a statement.

Beyond the leasing authorization, the legislative package also includes elements establishing a new federal body to coordinate outdoor recreation policies between various land management processes and creating processes to help slow and prevent the spread of invasive zebra mussels in the Colorado River and freshwater bodies across the West.

In a statement issued Thursday, Rep. Neguse, who serves as the assistant House Majority Leader underlined the act’s contribution to the preservation of public lands and their contribution to Colorado’s outdoor recreational economy.

“I am proud to see these bills through to the finish line—and even more excited for the ways in which they will deliver for our communities,” said Neguse in a statement.