Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — Developers are working on two major projects in Hayden that could dramatically shape the next 30 years of development.

Partners Tom Fox, Peter Patten and Ron Sills just received approval from the Routt County commissioners for a 28-lot subdivision encompassing 770 acres southwest of Hayden. And, next month the developers will take their plans for a development on 990 acres before the Hayden Town Board. That development is planned for much smaller lots, higher density, multi-family homes and some affordable housing, Fox said.

"Hayden doesn't have anything like this," Fox said.

The Hidden Springs Ranch Land Preservation Subdivision received county approval Tuesday and Fox said there are plans for a series of three ponds with water running through the development. Fox said the 28 lots would be sold for what he believes will be upscale housing.

The development will be phased in two parts with the front lots bordering the county road sold first and expected to be done by next year. Excavation on the lots will start immediately.

Despite county commissioners' approval, they raised concerns about the availability of water and required a central water system and no wells.

The developers are planning to submit an application at the end of this summer for the 990-acre development. But before that happens, the developers plan to go before the Hayden Town Board to ask officials to consider annexation. The plans presented in the upcoming months will be on a 20- to 30-year timeline and just conceptual, Fox said.

A study is being done and the land will continue to be farmed until development plans are finalized. Fox said they have worked on the two projects for more than a year.

Although their development plans are by far the largest seen in Hayden so far, Fox said it is an active town with a growing number of subdivisions.

"There is activity. Hayden is like the seashore, when it becomes more and more expensive to live (along the coast) people start to move inland," Fox said. "People are moving to Hayden in order to find affordable housing."

Although Fox said there is no denying that Hayden is influenced by the ski area 25 miles down the road, it was a town and community long before the ski area existed.

"Hayden is ideal. It is along U.S. 40, a well-maintained and safe highway," he said. "And it was a community and town long before the built the ski area."