Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Routt County Planning Commission members will oppose the development of Elkins Meadow during Tuesday's Steamboat Springs City Council meeting.

County planning commissioners Thursday criticized developer Paul Franklin's plan to build 20 luxury homes on one of the last pieces of open land along Fish Creek Falls Road.

If the 104-parcel of land was within the county's jurisdiction, planning commissioners said, the project would never get their support.

"There would be no way that we would approve this," Commissioner John Ayer said.

County planning commissioners have prepared a letter for the City Council that outlines their concerns about the project.

Ayer said he and the other commissioners would address the City Council at its Sept. 3 meeting with those concerns.

The Steamboat Springs Planning Commission has approved Franklin's plan.

But the City Council tabled the plan July 17 and asked that Franklin take measures to alleviate density, lot size and home size; give the project a more clustered feel; and lower the skyline before it hears the plan again Tuesday.

Franklin agreed to look at the council's suggestions to reduce the size of lots and houses.

He gave the City Council a tour of the site last week to better illustrate lot layout and the way he would preserve the meadow's center corridor by tucking houses into wooded areas and at the bottom of slopes.

Neighbors concerned about the impact of the development on Elkins Meadow also had the opportunity to speak with council members.

Many of the county planning commissioners did not think the alignment of lots in the development plan would meet with county subdivision requirements, said Caryn Fox, director of the Routt County Planning Department.

City planner Tom Leeson presented the development to the county planning commissioners Thursday.

"Generally speaking, they felt the plan was inconsistent with the Steamboat Springs Community Area Plan," he said.

The development does not meet basic guidelines set forth by the community development code, as well as the community area plan, Ayer said.

"We oppose the development as proposed," he said.

Recommendations as to clustering, road access, visual impacts wildlife habitat, and the transition form urban to rural are included in the County Planning Commission's letter to the City Council.