Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — An application that would relocate Strings in the Mountains Festival of Music and build 144 timeshare condominiums will come before the City Planning Commission tonight.

Applicants Trendwest Resorts from Oregon want to subdivide the 20-acre lot near the ski area's Meadows Parking Lot to provide a 9,500-square-foot performing arts center and 183,000 square feet of condominiums.

The parcel is located on the southwest corner of the intersection of Mount Werner and Pine Grove roads and would border U.S. 40.

In the pre-application process, the plan proposes that the rigid tent Strings currently uses at Torian Plum Plaza would move to the site and later be replaced with a permanent arts center.

It is Strings' board of directors' intent to move to the site by next summer and eventually build a 500-seat permanent facility.

Strings acquired the 6 acres of land from Trendwest, a company in the timeshare business.

The site, know as the Village at Steamboat, already holds two condominium buildings with 64 units and a community building. The proposed plan would add four three-story condo buildings, two remote spas and the performing arts center.

City planner Tracey Hughes said a concern the planning board might have of the proposal would be over-commercialization of the Mount Werner interchange.

The Mountain Town Subarea Plan asks for development along U.S. 40, such as Trendwest Resorts, to pay close attention to development patterns and open space.

Discussions could also arise over how traffic noise from U.S. 40 would impact the Strings' concerts.

If the subdivision is approved, Hughes said Strings and Trendwest would have two separate development processes.

In other business, the commission will decided if the Steamboat Springs Airport terminal can change uses to allow its tenants, Smartwool, to use the building. The proposed use change would move from an industrial to commercial use.