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WSSAP is the “West of Steamboat Springs Area Plan” –the “recipe” for development west of Steamboat.  About 10 years ago, Steamboat was growing at a pace where the council members and commissioners felt it was time to get a handle on where and how growth should occur in Routt County.   They looked at several areas and decided that west Steamboat was the most logical area for expansion.

Steamboat II was already developed with lower priced housing.  (Steamboat II continues to be one of the least expensive places to buy a single family home in Steamboat.)  Heritage Park and Silver Spur were vacant lots. These three neighborhoods now have about 400 homes on 1/3 to ½ acre lots.

So a line, the Urban Growth Boundary (UGB), was drawn around Steamboat where it was decided that high density building should occur.  There are still 1000 acres (most of which are in Steamboat 700) that remain undeveloped within the UGB.  Council members and county commissioners have been reluctant to increase the size of the Urban Growth Boundary until the original UGB is “built out”.

To further guide future development, the WSSAP was written to clearly spell out what developers need to do to develop west of Steamboat.  It addressed issues like water, transportation, public benefit, etc.

The authors of WSSAP liked the character and feel of Steamboat’s Old Town and wanted new developments to have the same characteristics including:

• open space (Old Town is 40% open space),
• grid-like streets for walking and biking (no cul-de-sacs),
• diverse neighborhoods with different sized lots and different priced homes,
• closeness to public land like Emerald Mountain, Spring Creek, and Howelson Hill
• trails and parks like the Yampa River Core Trail and Stehley Park
• sidewalks and trees and garages hidden in alleyways

Most important, they wanted an affordable area where at least 20% of housing be available to residents who earn 80% of the area median income.  (This is proving to be difficult for developers, but that’s a whole other post.)

So WSSAP became the model for Steamboat 700.   Steamboat 700 did not create their model, they just followed the recipe outlined in the WSSAP.