Steamboat Pilot & Today

Topping the news this morning, city officials ruled in favor of a Meadow Lane vacation home rental permit Monday night, but decided to temporarily ban new permits due to disputed regulations that one official called "unenforceable."

The Steamboat Springs City Council's decision to not revoke the vacation home rental permit held by Suzanne Noble, who co-owns a large home adjacent to Whistler Park at 1530 Meadow Lane, is the council's second such ruling in two weeks. During quasi-judicial hearings that led to the rulings, council members, attorneys, vacation home owners and their neighbors have all debated how to interpret sections of the city's vacation home rental ordinance. Due to the uncertainty, the City Council agreed Monday to place an "emergency moratorium" on tonight's council agenda. The moratorium will ban city issuance of new vacation rental permits for up to 90 days, while the City Council works to revise the ordinance.

The expansion of Bud Werner Memorial Library could get a final stamp of approval tonight.

The Steamboat Springs City Council is scheduled to take action on final plans for the 23,000-square-foot, $11.4 million library expansion that would more than triple the size of the current library at Lincoln Avenue and 13th Street. Construction of the expansion could begin as early as July 1, should the library's Board of Directors decide not to wait for completion of the new Steamboat Springs Community Center west of downtown.

Concerns about moving lunchtime at Strawberry Park Elementary School from the gymnasium to the arcade has the Steamboat Springs School Board rethinking current construction plans.

Those plans call for new flooring in the arcade area to accommodate elementary children eating lunch in the open area at the center of the school. Then the gymnasium, which currently doubles as a cafeteria, could be freed up for physical education classes and indoor recess.

But during Monday's School Board meeting, board member John DeVincentis, former principal at Strawberry Park, questioned whether moving lunch into the arcade would solve anything.