Future of the Yampa Valley
Steamboat Wrestles With Prosperity
By Richard Martin, 7-11-07
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| Looks good now -- but in a decade watch out | |
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I’m headed up to Steamboat Springs tomorrow for what promises to be the first in a long series of 50th-birthday celebrations – since 50 is the new 40, the half-century mark is now celebrated by younger Baby Boomers as the passage to full adulthood rather than the gateway to middle age, it seems. The celebrant is Steven Wesley Dearborn, whose nickname in high school was “Yondu the Mountain Boy,” which pretty much tells you all you need to know about what kind of weekend it’s going to be.
I make it up to Steamboat a couple of times a year, and my preparations for this trip got me wondering: what’s the future of the Yampa River Valley?
Hard to predict, but it’s safe to say that 10 years from now the area will look quite different than it does today. More than the twin jewels of Colorado ski resorts, Aspen and Vail, Steamboat has managed to keep its down-home quality and its sense of being a real “town” as opposed to an artificial wonderland for jet setters and visiting intellectuals. And working with groups like the Nature Conservancy, local governments have done a remarkable job of preserving the rural, agrarian quality of the Valley, extending out to Hayden where Wes “Yondu” Dearborn’s 100 acres (plus the house he built himself while living in a teepee) lie. Steamboat has also done a better job than the tonier resorts at creating affordable housing.
That’s all good, but Steamboat is now part of a “second wave” of high end development that has overflowed north from the resorts along I-70. The population of the valley is forecast to double by 2020. Last night, by one vote, the Steamboat Springs City Council selected a site for a new $34 million recreation center that will include spaces for youth and teen programs, an indoor playground, a gymnasium, a fitness center, plus a six-lane lap pool, diving well and leisure pool. Called “ Ski Town Fields,” the new center – which would be built near the future Wildhorse Meadows development, must be approved by voters in November.
The personality of the place may also be changing. Famously laid-back and tolerant, the Steamboat community is reeling from what appears to have been a race crime last week. A black oilfield worker named Alfred LaVaughn Turner says he was attacked at Sunpie’s Bistro downtown by two white men who called themselves “Nazis.”
As the Yampa Valley grows, can it become more cosmopolitan while retaining the more appealing elements of its cowboy heritage? That’s a question that many resort towns across the West are facing. And it’s one only the citizens of Steamboat can answer.
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Comments
Already we see a MASSIVE housing shortage in our oil and gas enclaves like Meeker, where 1 bed, 1 bath houses are renting for $1500/month. Grand Junction reported a rental vacancy rate of 1.9% earlier this year. We are literally seeing families living in tents because there are no hotels, no rentals and property values have skyrocketed an average of $50,000 in the past year. Essentially the boom has priced out middle class and blue collar families. I for one can no longer afford to even look for a decent house in any of these towns.
Steamboat Springs may look like it is thriving and booming from the outside, but half the houses are empty for a portion of the year. However, due to the unbelievable profit margins that contractors are making there, they are refusing to come and build in the western slope communities that truly need them because of the slimmer margins.
The western slope of Colorado is seeing the perfect storm when it comes to affordable living and I for one am questioning if I can even ride it out.
While The Nature Conservancy should be commended for their interest in conservation and support of ranching in this area, please don't forget that the impetus to preserve the local ranching culture, which incidentally safeguards most of the values that brings folks flocking to the valley, was a locally driven vision guided and facilitated for the most part early on by the local Yampa Valley Land Trust and the community itself.
Today the Community Agriculture Alliance also exists to make a direct connection between the resort and ranching communities, the premise being 'we don't value what we don't understand.'
One does indeed wonder at times if this community will hang onto its unique identity that sets it apart from other resort areas but even so, there is a great deal to be hopeful about because of these groups and the people themselves!