On Tuesday, voters in Steamboat Springs, Colorado rejected a plan that would have created about 2,200 affordable housing units.
In a vote of 3,149 to 2,280, voters opted against annexing 420 acres from a property called Brown Ranch.
The annexation had been part of a local housing authority plan to bring more affordable housing to Steamboat Springs, where rents and home sale prices are more than twice the national average.
The Yampa Valley Housing Authority bought the land with a $24 million anonymous donation and had a development plan to build a mix of apartments, condos, rental and built-to-own single-family homes and commercial space. Brown Ranch is outside of the city limits, so the property needed to be annexed for the project to move forward.
Last year, the city council approved annexing the land. Then in November, about 1,500 registered voters petitioned to put the annexation to a vote.
Steamboat Citizens for a Better Plan, which led the petition efforts, called the development plan “overkill,” arguing it would radically increase the population of Steamboat, create excessive traffic and increase the number of people visiting “already congested” city parks.
In a statement, Yampa Valley Housing Authority Executive Director Jason Peasley said: “My heart aches when I think of the people who told us the Brown Ranch would be their first legitimate opportunity to own a home, and they compared it to the good fortune so many others had over the past decades to buy a home. With this vote, that same opportunity for those community members is two to three years further out of reach.”
Much of Steamboat Springs’ housing stock is out of the price range for low and medium-wage earners, pushing some residents out of the city to find less expensive options. Some local employers, like UCHealth Yampa Valley Medical Center, attribute high turnover to a workforce and affordable housing shortage.
Contact Streetlight editor Mollie Bryant at 405-990-0988 or bryant@streetlightnews.org. Follow her reporting by joining our newsletter.
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