Citizen committee says Brown Ranch has a viable path forward
- Dylan Anderson
- Aug 29
- 4 min read
The Brown Ranch Deliberation and Stewardship Team agree on Tuesday to move to phase two of the process in a near-unanimous vote
In a near-unanimous vote on Tuesday, the Brown Ranch Deliberation and Stewardship Team agreed to move to phase two of the process — a more detailed conversation about how land long identified for growth in Steamboat Springs should be developed to address the Yampa Valley’s lack of housing.
Just one member of the community volunteers making up the Deliberation and Stewardship Team felt that there is not a viable path forward at Brown Ranch. Roughly half a dozen of them agreed to move forward with the process while noting they still have concerns about Brown Ranch’s viability. Another 27 people said they we’re sure Brown Ranch was a viable project.
“I know we’ve got some issues from the past,” said DST member Leon Rinck at Tuesday’s meeting. “We can learn from the past, but we also have to put the past in the past. … We have a unique opportunity to move forward in some capacity, and I think we need to take that opportunity.”
“Steamboat is going to continue to change, Steamboat is going to continue to grow,” another DST member in support of moving to phase two said. “This is an opportunity have a say and to shape that growth and shape that change.”
“I hear a lot of people saying that they don’t have trust in the process,” said DST member Trish Zornio. “I do have trust in that process moving forward, and I think my main hope for phase two is that we don’t let perfection be the enemy of the good.”
Brown Ranch, a 535-acre parcel bought by the Yampa Valley Housing Authority in 2021 with a $24 million anonymous donation, has been talked about as a solution to local housing woes many ski towns don’t have. But a plan for more than 2,200 units built out over 20 years was soundly rejected by Steamboat voters in March 2024.
Following that vote, City Council members indicated they intended to take a larger role in the next attempt at annexation, ultimately hiring Community Builders, a Glenwood Springs-based non-profit, in July 2024.
The Brown Ranch Deliberation and Stewardship process has largely started over on Brown Ranch, with the first question being whether to pursue the project at all. Tuesday’s vote from the DST is a clear ‘yes’ to that question, with many members saying they felt voters rejected a specific plan, not the idea of housing at Brown Ranch.
Exactly what phase two of the Deliberation and Stewardship Team process will look like has not been fully decided, said Bill Fulton, the executive director of Civic Canopy, a non-profit supporting Community Builders on the project. Consultants will present the results of phase one of this process to City Council on Sept. 9.
“I think it’s an illusion to think that eight smart people can solve this,” Fulton said. “Voters are the ones who really have to be in on the joke here. They have to know these nuances and how do we translate that and it’s not just a campaign. It’s a set of relationships; it’s building understanding and these guy’s being ambassadors. … This is now the most valuable group of 40 people you could have.”
When asked if anyone on the DST changed their mind about Brown Ranch’s viability during phase one, just one member said they had. Earlier in Tuesday’s discussion, some members indicated that they had long believed they needed to move forward with Brown Ranch and that they felt phase one of the process had failed to get into the issues that ultimately led voters to reject it.
“To me, … it was five different meetings that could have been a thumbs up vote,” said DST member Charlie MacArthur, during an earlier exercise on Tuesday. “I’m ready to move on to the how.”
Several members of the DST, including MacArthur, said that phase two needs to focus on what the voters of Steamboat are comfortable with at Brown Ranch, echoing a point frequently made by fellow DST member Jim Engelken.
While voting to move to phase two, Engelken said he felt there are some major hurdles ahead of any attempt to annex west Steamboat. Engelken was a vocal critic of the first annexation attempt at Brown Ranch and has stressed that the voters of Steamboat Springs need to be a focus as the process proceeds.
“I think polling needs to be done in this town to ask people the question, in exchange for affordable housing, which the vast majority of us know is a problem, what are you willing to give up?” Engelken said. “We need to know some idea of what that answer is before we design any project.”
Board members and staff with YVHA have attended each of the Deliberation and Stewardship Team meetings. In comments following Tuesday’s vote to move to phase two, Jason Peasley, YVHA’s executive director, said his team is excited get to work on what the next plan for Brown Ranch looks like, noting that it will be smaller and more aimed at Steamboat Voters.
“We’ve been here and listening the entire time to hear everything you guys have been saying,” Peasley said. “We’re committed to taking on this next step in a different way, so that we can be part of a solution that brings about a great project at Brown Ranch, whatever that might be.”
