Massive affordable housing project annexation plan voted down by Steamboat Springs voters

While the Brown Ranch project for affordable housing has been in the works for years at this point, the citizens of Steamboat Springs voted down the more than 2,200 affordable housing unit project Tuesday night. It's clear Steamboat Springs has an affordable housing issue, so what happened? 

Jim Engelken, one of the leading forces behind the "Steamboat Citizens for a Better Plan" group that opposes the Brown Ranch plan, believes voters came to see the same thing he was seeing.  

"Our view, it was a major overreach," Engelken said. "Much too big."

Along with traffic concerns for the mostly one-street town, he said he was worried about the financial side of the project as well, without a heavy property tax in Steamboat to help cover the costs of the project. 

"The big question is where is the money coming from," Engelken said. "A lot of that has to come from the existing residents, some of it has to come from new development."

He said once the plan started to drop things like the public parks and downgrade public transportation options to cut costs (and with an estimated $482 million in info structure alone to develop the Brown Ranch raw land with things like sewer and power) he became worried the funding was simply not going to be there. 

The Brown Ranch land was paid by the Yampa Valley Housing Authority via an anonymous donor back in 2021, but the land is still outside city limits, and therefore the conversations surrounding annexation are necessary in order to start building within the jurisdiction. 

The plan, established and grown by the Yampa Valley Housing Authority, includes a "Top 10 Facts" sheet for Brown Ranch with commonly asked questions, like "do we need this?" and "will this raise my taxes?" 

While the YVHA declined to do an interview with CBS News Colorado on Wednesday, it's been very public about the drastic need for affordable housing in Steamboat and the consciences of falling behind on the solution to the issue. 

When asked what an appropriate next step would be considering the housing crisis was not fixed by the "No" vote, Engelken said starting smaller would be the right direction. 

"It needs to be a smaller buy-in and needs to have the same level of existing services," he said. "It needs to be a quality development that people will be proud to stay there. it can not impact negatively the city, up to a point." 

Engelken believes a possible solution to part of the funding issue could be to mix market rate homes into the development plans for affordable housing neighborhoods. 

And while he has harsh criticism for the currently defeated Brown Ranch plan, he has great respect for what the Yampa Valley Housing Authority has been able to accomplish so far.  

"They are having an impact, and they are doing it well! It is just... this is not the only thing that can be done," he said.