Growth experts offer advice during series meeting
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
Steamboat Springs — Extra seating was required in Centennial Hall on Monday night for "The Present and Future Impacts of Resort Development on the Yampa Valley," the third installment in the "Dynamics of Growth in Resort Communities" series presented by a collection of local organizations.
The discussion was led by Terry Minger, president and CEO of the Center for Resource Management, and Harry Frampton, managing partner of East West Partners. Steamboat Springs City Councilman Towny Anderson moderated the discussion.
Minger and Frampton practically created Vail - Minger as the resort's first city manager and Frampton as a private developer. The two have been or are involved in the development of other resorts such as Beaver Creek, Whistler Blackcomb and Lake Tahoe. They were invited to speak candidly about their experiences in those places, discuss unintended consequences of resort growth and what they might have done differently.
The discussion fortuitously coincided with a New York Times article published that day that discussed one of Steamboat's most influential sources of growth, the migration of "location-neutral" businesspeople who choose to live in Steamboat while earning their income from elsewhere. Minger said the article proved the discussion was "timely and relevant."
In his opening comments, Minger addressed the angst some people have about growth. Minger said that worry is very common in communities experiencing change.
"All of these communities have a certain level of angst," Minger said. "You're not alone. And you may be in a better position to actually do something about it."
Frampton said that while he feels Vail is a "special place," he understands that a lot of people don't want Steamboat to be like it. Ignoring growth, however, is not the answer, Frampton said.
"Certainly, Steamboat is nothing like Vail and never should be," Frampton said. "But this growth is not going to go away."
Frampton said the biggest problem facing Vail is workforce housing. He said taking steps such as Steamboat's inclusionary zoning ordinance might be part of the solution to that problem. He also said the Yampa Valley will benefit from having more land available for development.
"It's a hard problem to solve now (in Vail) because there's almost no land left," Frampton said.
Minger said regional cooperation is key to controlling growth, rather than each government entity in the valley acting on its own, and both men cited the need for consistent rules for developers.
Minger said Steamboat's growth is part of larger movement sweeping Western resort communities. He said Steamboat has been "discovered" and that the task now is to strike a healthy balance between no growth and rampant growth.
"It appears that the perfect storm is coming to Steamboat," said Minger. "Why don't you create the perfect harbor for the perfect storm?"
Comments
addlip2U 5 years, 9 months ago
I hope the presentation provided some insight as I got absolutely nothing from this article.
"It appears that the perfect storm is coming to Steamboat," said Minger. "Why don't you create the perfect harbor for the perfect storm?"
Wow, did somebody actually paid Harry and Terry for such professional recommendation?
Matthew Stoddard 5 years, 9 months ago
It's the same people who paid an unGodly sum of money to be told we need more trees and benches on Lincoln Ave. and are now spending money on free community input about the same.
nxoby36 5 years, 9 months ago
Steamboat was a real town and Ski Center before either Vail or Beaver Creek were even thought of ! Does anybody remember what a beautiful " Western " community this used to be ?
bubba 5 years, 9 months ago
The debate wasn't over whether steamboat was a town before Vail, nobody denies that, nor do most people care. One interesting thing that Minger said a few times was that it's nice to sit around and say 'we don't want to be the next Vail,' but doesn't accomplish anything- in Vail in the 70s they said they didn't want to be the next aspen, and they did some things right and some things wrong. His point, and the point, if you were going to take one thing away from the talk, is that saying what you don't want to be is nice, but unproductive. The productive thing to do would be to identify what we want Steamboat to be as a community, and determine how to shape the growth to become that. (that was what the harbor comment was about, planning for growth so that we can define it, rather than it defining us)
The recurring theme you hear around here is that people want steamboat to be just like they remember it from years ago, but that isn't going to happen, any more than baby boomers are going to stop retiring or technology is going to require people to live in New York or Chicago to do business. If the community comes together and comes up with a plan of how to harness this growth for the betterment of the community, then this can still be a nice place, but it will never be the same place that everyone moved to 20 years ago, and efforts to stop growth to re-create that will have the opposite effect, and drive up prices to where this really is like Aspen.
(OK, the second paragraph was more my commentary than anything from the other night's discussion, but reminiscing about the old days isn't going to change the regional and national trends that are changing Steamboat right now)
Vince arroyo 5 years, 9 months ago
Thank You bubba, We can identify our selfs. what we want to be. One good thing is that we have a group of people (Vision 2030) that really do care about what we will become. leadership, good stewards of the communities. Its just not only Steamboat, its the region Hayden ,Oak Creek, Milner north routt even Craig that support can evolve from. lets start with us in paving the way to a more positive furture.
Slapper 5 years, 9 months ago
Vision 2030 page http://www.yampavalley.info/vision2030.asp
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