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Save The World’s Rivers submits formal Stagecoach Mountain Ranch comments to Routt County planners

Save The World’s Rivers, a Colorado-based river conservation nonprofit, has submitted formal comments to the Routt County Planning Department on Discovery Land Company’s Stagecoach Mountain Ranch application, with the organization’s remarks limited squarely to the proposed development’s impacts on water. 


In a six-page comment letter dated Oct. 7, Save The World’s Rivers Executive Director Gary Wockner asked county planners to require a comprehensive list of documents and analyses from Discov...
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Steamboat budget discussion exposes city-county divide over dispatch funding

The Steamboat Springs City Council has tentatively settled on a balanced budget for 2027, which proposes roughly $117.9 million in budget expenditures and $126 million in revenue, budgeted 2% down from the 2026 budget. 


A nine-hour budget retreat on Oct. 6 encompassed conversations around personnel, capital improvement projects, public safety and more, all among the backdrop of declining sales tax revenue, which makes up roughly two-thirds of the city’s general fund. 


The most contentious...
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Meet the candidates for the Yampa Valley Regional Transportation Authority’s first executive director

The Yampa Valley Regional Transportation Authority’s board of directors has officially identified four finalists for its first executive director, with community members valleywide invited to meet the candidates at two community meet-and-greet events on Oct. 23, according to a recent statement. 


The candidates are William Higdon, transit division manager for Okaloosa County, Florida; Charles Odimgbe, COO for the Toledo Area Regional Transit Authority; Carson Priest, executive director of the...
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Prairie Run affordable housing development west of Hayden now leasing units

Prairie Run, the 135-unit for-rent affordable housing project on the west side of Hayden by developer Gorman & Company, is now leasing units, having welcomed its first residents in August following the completion of construction, according to Gorman Colorado Market President Kimball Crangle. 


The $70 million development includes 32 two-story townhomes, 18 two-story live/work units and 85 one- or two-story apartments. 


Infrastructure work began in summer 2024 for the deed-restricted, 23-acr...
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Trout Unlimited/Yampa Valley Fly Fishers submit formal comments on Stagecoach Mountain Ranch

National fisheries conservation nonprofit Trout Unlimited and its Steamboat Springs chapter, the Yampa Valley Fly Fishers, have submitted public comments to Routt County planners on Discovery Land Company’s proposed Stagecoach Mountain Ranch development. 


In relatively brief comments dated Sept. 30, Trout Unlimited Colorado State Director Drew Peternell voiced apprehension regarding the development’s impact on water resources and urged county staff to require the developers to clearly and com...
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A guide to local ballot measures facing Routt County voters this November

With sample ballots for the November election officially approved, Routt County voters will face a series of choices this fall, with perhaps the most notable local ballot measure being a half-cent sales tax measure to fund the Yampa Valley Regional Transportation Authority. 


Routt County has 22,452 registered voters, including 19,593 active, eligible voters, according to Clerk and Recorder Jenny Thomas. These include 5,470 Democrats, 4,059 Republicans, 12,403 unaffiliated, 197 Libertarians an...
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Bureau of Land Management concludes wild horse helicopter gathers in Sand Wash Basin

The Bureau of Land Management concluded helicopter drive-trap gather operations of wild horses in Northwest Colorado’s Sand Wash Basin on Friday, Sept. 25, having gathered 301 horses across six days of operations, according to the agency’s website. 


The 301 gathered horses include 133 stallions, 130 mares and 38 foals. Fifty-five horses will be returned to the range, 22 of which are noted to receive fertility control treatment to “help slow future population growth,” wrote BLM representatives...
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Yampa Valley Housing Authority releases development update on The Cottonwoods

The Yampa Valley Housing Authority has released a State of the Development update for The Cottonwoods at Mid Valley, where 62 of the project’s 86 units have now closed and nearly 90% of the units sold have been purchased by first-time homebuyers since the development received its temporary certificate of occupancy in March. 


The Cottonwoods, Steamboat Springs’ first for-sale affordable housing development in decades, consists of 86 deed-restricted condominiums available to local workers and r...
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Town of Oak Creek hosts mayoral candidate forum

The town of Oak Creek held a mayoral candidate forum last week, where community members heard from incumbent Mayor Melissa Dobbins and new candidate Alvin Powell on their respective visions for the town, what changes they hope to facilitate and what makes them qualified for the job. 


David Bonfiglio, owner of Oak Creek’s Bonfiglio Drug, moderated the 1.5-hour forum on Tuesday, Sept. 22 through a list of questions primarily submitted in advance from members of the public. With just two candida...
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Bureau of Land Management investing $30M in wild horse fertility control

The Bureau of Land Management has announced it is investing $30 million worth of U.S. Department of Agriculture funding to “expand and accelerate” wild horse and burro fertility control efforts in the United States, according to a Monday statement.


The announcement, formally proclaimed at the National Wild Horse and Burro Roundtable, comes amid several ongoing wild horse gather operations across the West, including helicopter drive-trap operations in Northwest Colorado’s Sand Wash Basin, wher...
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Development-fee debate reveals no easy answer to Steamboat Springs’ housing challenge

After months of comprehensive discussion regarding a potential linkage-fee program that would require commercial and residential developers to help fund workforce housing for jobs and residents their projects create, the Steamboat Springs City Council signaled a split last week on how to move the program forward — or whether to move it forward at all.


At council’s regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 15, Planning Director Rebecca Bessey presented city staff’s final recommendations on implementin...
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Yampa Valley Housing Authority board president to retire one year early

Yampa Valley Housing Authority Board President Kathi Meyer has announced her retirement from the board effective Dec. 31, one year earlier than the end of her slated term. The announcement, made at the start of the board’s Sept. 10 meeting, marks an end to Meyer’s 22 years of service on the YVHA board. 


In an announcement to her fellow board members, Meyer said she aims to focus on two things through the end of the year: the sell-out of units at The Cottonwoods at Mid Valley — Steamboat Sprin...
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Bureau of Land Management begins wild horse helicopter gathers in Sand Wash Basin

The U.S. Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management has officially begun wild horse gather operations in the Sand Wash Basin Herd Management Area west of Craig, where the agency plans to gather 300 horses — 55 of which will be returned to the range — through helicopter drive-traps over approximately 11 days.


Initially slated to begin on Sept. 10, operations were eventually moved out to Sept. 17. The start of gather operations, however, was delayed until Saturday, Sept. 19 due to “sche...
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Western Resilience Center submits formal comments to Routt County on Stagecoach Mountain Ranch proposal

The Western Resilience Center, formerly known as the Yampa Valley Sustainability Council, has submitted formal comments to Routt County planners on Discovery Land Company’s proposed Stagecoach Mountain Ranch development.


In a 21-page comment letter dated Sunday, Sept. 14, the Steamboat Springs-based environmental organization strongly opposed a proposed 7-megawatt natural-gas generation facility described in an April project load-forecast letter, arguing that it conflicts with the development...
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Yampa Valley Regional Transportation Authority pursuing $5.26M grant for 6 regional buses

As voters prepare to consider taxpayer support for regional transit this fall, the Yampa Valley Regional Transportation Authority board of directors continues to work diligently behind the scenes, with a plan to have an executive director and robust grant funds in place by the start of the new year. 


At the RTA’s Monday meeting — the first since they officially approved sending a half-cent sales tax funding measure to the ballot in November — the board agreed to apply for a $5.26 million 5339...
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Oak Creek awarded $161K for 550 bear-resistant residential trash containers

The town of Oak Creek has been awarded $161,625 in grant funding from Colorado Parks and Wildlife to purchase 550 96-gallon bear-resistant residential trash containers, furthering the town’s efforts to minimize local bear conflicts and promote conservation efforts, Mayor Melissa Dobbins told the newspaper on Friday. 


Each of the town’s residential trash customers will receive one free container, which will be accompanied in the near future by the adoption of an ordinance by the town trustees...
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Routt County approves $3M to conserve 17,300-acre Nottingham Ranch

Routt County commissioners have unanimously approved allocating $3 million from the county’s Purchase of Development Rights Open Space Fund for acquisition of a conservation easement on Nottingham Ranch, permanently protecting one of Northwest Colorado’s largest intact working ranches. 


The move, made official at the commissioners’ Tuesday regular meeting, amounts to a cost-per-acre of $350 and ensures the conservation of roughly 17,300 acres of land across Routt and Eagle counties, including...
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Hayden Town Council eyes data center moratorium after public pushback

The Hayden Town Council tentatively plans to implement a moratorium on data centers, after over a dozen residents spoke out last week on the council’s addition of data center language into its development code, raising concerns about water use, public-health and environmental impacts, and the transparency of the town’s process.


The public hearing, which took place at the Town Council meeting Thursday, was scheduled after the council voted 4-1 on Aug. 6 to add data center language into its mun...
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State leaders call on BLM to ‘immediately halt’ wild horse helicopter gathers in Colorado

Gov. Jared Polis and U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse are calling on the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management to “immediately halt” helicopter gathers of wild horses in Colorado, citing the “inhumane and unnecessary” nature of the agency’s gather methods following operations this year in the state’s northwest corner, states a Thursday news release. 


In a letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of Interior Doug Burgum and BLM Acting Colorado State Director Tom Heinlein, Polis and Neguse acknowled...
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Mental health survey finds Yampa Valley residents struggle with loneliness, substance use disorders

The Steamboat Springs City Council heard a sobering assessment of behavioral health in the Yampa Valley on Tuesday: Despite strong awareness of local resources and a reputation for community support, many residents still face loneliness, high levels of substance use and persistent barriers to getting care when they need it.


Brittney Wilburn, executive director of Northwest Colorado-based nonprofit The Health Partnership, summarized to council at their Tuesday meeting the results of two survey...
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Property managers say conditions at YVHA affordable housing complexes have stabilized

Nearly eight months after this past winter’s controversy over living conditions at three Yampa Valley Housing Authority affordable housing complexes in Steamboat Springs, property management representatives are assuring city and YVHA officials that they have made “significant progress on all items.” 


Steamboat city leaders, along with YVHA Acting Executive Director Elliot Lawrence, met with representatives from Mission Rock Residential and Overland Property Group on Monday. 


It is the firs...
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Regional Transportation Authority half-cent sales tax measure approved for November ballot

The Yampa Valley Regional Transportation Authority Board of Directors voted 5-1 on Wednesday to submit a 0.5% sales tax funding measure to the ballot this November, positioning voters in nearly every Yampa Valley municipality to consider their financial support of regional transit service.


Oak Creek Mayor Melissa Dobbins cast the sole nay vote, citing apprehension from many Oak Creek residents to support a half-cent sales tax measure on top of the 2% municipal sales tax question submitted to...
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Routt County planners issue second corrections letter regarding Stagecoach Mountain Ranch proposal

The Routt County Planning Department has issued a second corrections letter to Discovery Land Company regarding its Stagecoach Mountain Ranch proposal, identifying more than 120 questions, conflicts and missing materials that must be resolved before the county completes its review of the project’s 10 pending land-use applications, according to a Monday update on the county’s Stagecoach Mountain Ranch page. 


The 11-page letter, dated Aug. 10 and signed by Routt County Assistant Planning Direct...
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Town of Hayden becomes first Routt County municipality to add data center language into development code

The Hayden Town Council has voted 4-1 to amend the town’s municipal code to include language around data centers, making it the first Routt County municipality to add language directly addressing data centers into its development code. 


The formal decision, with council member Elaine Hicks casting the sole “nay” vote, came at the Aug. 6 town council meeting after a series of July discussions regarding how the town should regulate potential data center development and close gaps in its land us...
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