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When voters rejected the proposed annexation of Brown Ranch to Steamboat Springs last week, the vision of a pretty little can-do town with a thoughtful, pragmatic, achievable plan for a brighter future dimmed.
In the three years since a local family donated $24 million to the Yampa Valley Housing Authority to buy the 534-acre ranch on the edge of town, a feeling of hope and possibility buzzed through the community. It was downright exciting.
The housing authority welcomed public involvement. It conducted more than 250 meetings, engaging an estimated 4,000 people over the past 15 months to develop a concept for creating a walkable neighborhood where young doctors, teachers, nurses, first-responders, electricians, plumbers — even dishwashers — could afford to live in Steamboat.
It would be a model for resort communities struggling to hire essential workers, the planners thought. It would create a more dynamic, diverse and sustainable economy. It would unfold gradually over 20 years, allowing the town to adjust plans to accommodate new economic trends and face unanticipated problems.
It would be a proactive approach to addressing the crushing problem of homelessness that afflicts Colorado’s resort communities and drives young people away.
It failed by a decisive margin, roughly 800 votes out of around 5,000 cast.
Among those who worked on Brown Ranch, “there’s a lot of disappointment and profound sadness,” said Tim Wohlgenant, CEO of the Yampa Valley Community Foundation and a member of the project’s steering committee.
The rejection was not a total surprise, he said, but the strong support in the community had given them a sense of optimism.
Both the Yampa Valley Community Foundation and the Steamboat Springs Chamber of Commerce endorsed the project, and it’s highly unusual for either organization to issue endorsements for ballot measures.
But when Wohlgenant went door-to-door to campaign for a yes vote, he heard a lot of negative reactions to the plan.
“There was a strong opposition campaign that created a lot of uncertainty in voters’ minds,” he said. “They succeeded in making people think it was a huge project with a lot of risk. We saw it as a huge opportunity.”
The problem is age-old and pervasive.
Every time somebody proposes affordable housing in a community, if you pay attention, you can almost see the hackles rising across the neighborhoods.
Most of the opposition in Steamboat came from people worrying about increased traffic in a town that already experiences crowded downtown streets, especially during peak tourist seasons. Others complained that providing workforce housing would spur more growth, not merely accommodate what’s already happening.
A few expressed hostility toward those who might choose to live at Brown Ranch, including one speaker at a Steamboat City Council meeting who said folks who live in affordable housing are “a different group of people … It’s terrible.”
And then there is the problem of the electorate itself. It only included the folks who live in Steamboat, not those who work in the city and commute long distances each day because they can’t afford to live there.
In morning-after calls, proponents speculated that the rest of the state will look at the outcome of the vote and wonder what’s wrong with Steamboat, Wohlgenant said. They imagined people from other communities that are facing the same problems saying, “The opportunity was handed to them. The land was donated. What’s their problem?”
But while the Brown Ranch project is certain to be delayed, it’s far from dead.
Proponents are determined to ramp up communication, build consensus around the project and proceed … eventually.
The delay comes with a cost, however, and not just in the inevitable increased costs for construction.
“Over the next two years, we’ll lose a lot of people who saw Brown Ranch as their hope for staying in the community,” Wohlgenant said. “These are young families — teachers, nurses, waiters, first responders — who thought they could hang on until the opportunity to have affordable housing became available.
“I don’t think people weighed the cost of the no vote against the risks of the yes vote.”
Meanwhile in Steamboat, locals appear blasé about an application under review for a luxury private club development that would include 750 high-end homes, an 18-hole golf course and five ski lifts in the Stagecoach area of town.
It would certainly affect traffic in town, population growth, infrastructure needs. And it would increase the demand for teachers, doctors, nurses and others who keep a town running but usually can’t spring for a multimillion-dollar mansion in a private club development.
For the proponents of Brown Ranch, the Stagecoach development solidifies the case for planned workforce housing more than ever.
“No one’s walking away from this,” Wohlgenant said.
“We’ll get over it. We’ll get back to it.
“We’ll get it done.”
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