Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Even as City Council is knee-deep in the Community Development Code, the city is already drawing up a schedule to begin updating the Steamboat Springs Area Community Plan.

The document, which is already five years old, was supposed to be completed by 2000, but it was delayed because staff has been spending much of its time on the CD Code in preparation for adoption sometime late this spring or summer.

"To try to start up the community plan and get it going full bore before the code is done, it's not fair," said Councilwoman Arianthe Stettner.

The community plan addresses such issues as land use, natural and scenic resources, open space, housing and transportation and may come to include issues such as growth management and how to deal with environmentally sensitive areas. It differs from the CD Code in that it does not address what can go on in specific "zones" but rather delves into the broader issues that affect the community.

These issues are not discussed in a vacuum they fit into the day-to-day business of the city by directing how the city will permit growth in the future and address how it will deal with the potential positive and negative impacts of growth. The city often brings up the goals of the community plan when reviewing applications for new developments.

Throughout discussion of the CD Code, public comment has often drifted to topics the planning department felt may be more appropriate for the community plan.

The biggest of those issues is that of growth management, a high priority for the community as evidenced by a list of concerns compiled through a series of public forums last year and a survey taken in 1999. Another issue the city may be looking to address is how it will work toward preserving historical properties.