Steamboat Springs City Council members approved a request for qualifications document in what is a fresh pursuit of an affordable housing plan for Brown Ranch.
A week earlier, council directed city staff to begin the process of identifying a consultant to lead a community feedback effort as a way to inform future project designs at the property.
City Manager Gary Suiter said staff recommended the pursuit of a request for qualifications — rather than a request for a proposal — from prospective consulting firms.
Suiter said the approach would allow city staff and a consulting firm to better define the scope of work for the community engagement effort.
“It is also quicker when you are asking consultants for a (request for qualifications) that have all of this information that is readily available,” Suiter said. “It’s pretty easy for them to put a package together rather than responding to something that requests a proposed project approach.”
Some council members, including President Gail Garey, said they felt the request for qualifications approach lacked leaving a path for “some sort of actionable project at the end.”
Speaking on behalf of the Yampa Valley Housing Authority — which currently owns the Brown Ranch property — the housing authority’s deputy director, Elliot Lawrence, offered similar feedback, saying the request for qualifications “should state a commitment to a path to annexation.”
“We feel there needs to be a sense of urgency to this as well,” Lawrence said.
Council member Steve Muntean argued against narrowing the scope of the request for qualifications to include some sort of path forward.
Muntean said the outcome of a consultant’s work is “direction and input” and asserted that city staff — not just the housing authority — should take a role in determining how to move forward.
“We need the city staff here to be the ones to input strong to whatever direction the housing authority takes in designing this stuff,” Muntean said. “When the plan comes back, or the housing authority makes recommendations, I want to hear from city staff also.”
The city’s senior planner, Brad Calvert, drafted the request for qualifications, and cautioned council members over focusing on potential outcomes.
“The focus is more on the process and making sure the process yields an open and transparent conversation that is both a look back and a look forward,” Calvert said.
The senior planner said it would likely be mid-June before a consultant is under contract, working with the city and the housing authority. He added that the entire project could take 9-12 months.
“A little bit of space (from the March 26 referendum) probably isn’t the worst thing to happen so people can reflect on where we are and where want to go in the future,” Calvert said.
The March referendum asked voters to decide on a proposed annexation agreement that outlined conditions for the phased construction of more than 2,000 affordable and attainable housing units on the Brown Ranch property by 2042.
Fifty-eight percent of Steamboat voters rejected the measure by a vote of 3,163 to 2,292.
After their protracted Brown Ranch conversation Tuesday, council members voted unanimously to direct the city to issue the drafted request for qualifications without making any changes or narrowing the document’s scope.
Council member Bryan Swintek said he thought the back-and-forth prior to the relatively innocuous decision was a sign of caution among council members.
“My assumption is I think everyone is afraid of doing it wrong and they want to make sure that we are doing the steps right.”
Swintek noted the desire among some council members to make the request for qualifications more specific, but contended that step would come after the request for qualifications with a request for a proposal.
Rather than focus on how quickly council should pursue a new plan for Brown Ranch, he said it was more important to focus on the process “so we don’t repeat the mistakes that happened last time.”
“There’s the product side of it, and what people need,” Swintek said. “Unfortunately, the customer and the electorate are two different people … What we have heard is that the electorate has concerns and therefore we need to think about that, and I don’t think enough emphasis was put on that.”
Trevor Ballantyne is the city government and housing reporter. To reach him, call 970-871-4254 or email him at tballantyne@SteamboatPilot.com.
