Steamboat Pilot & Today

Steamboat Springs — The Yampa River Core Trail could be nearly a half-mile longer, with a new park underway at its western end, by the end of next summer.

Craig Robinson, open space supervisor for the city's Parks, Open Space and Recreational Services Department, said Monday that two new projects are planned to begin this summer to extend the popular trail, which currently runs for about six miles along the Yampa River. The Steamboat Springs City Council is scheduled to act tonight on a $135,000 grant from Great Outdoors Colorado, or GOCO, to help fund one of the projects.

The City Council meeting also includes continued discussion of proposed revisions to the city's inclusionary zoning ordinance, which regulates how the city provides affordable housing for its workforce, and an update on efforts to create a special tax district to fund infrastructure improvements in downtown Steamboat Springs.

After a weekend of blue skies and warm weather drew hundreds of Steamboat residents to the outdoors, extending the core trail is a timely topic.

"I think expanding the core trail in both directions helps people not only for recreation, but also for transportation needs," Robinson said. "Hopefully a healthier Steamboat will be out recreating, biking and walking."

Robinson said one project would install a bridge over wetlands and a seasonal creek at the trail's western end, while extending the trail to a proposed park near the new Routt County Justice Center. The other project would place concrete over about 2,000 linear feet of existing soft-surface at the trail's southern end, near Walton Creek south of downtown Steamboat Springs. It also would add about 1,000 linear feet of new trail that would bring the path all the way to Dougherty Lane, on trail easements already owned by the city on its extreme southern edge.

The City Council will act on funds tonight for the southern project near Walton Creek.

"Hopefully we'll start it this year and complete it in 2008," Robinson said.

GOCO awards funds for projects that preserve, protect and enhance parks, wildlife, trails, rivers and open space.

In June of 2006, a $190,000 GOCO grant helped the city purchase about 13 acres on the west side of Steamboat, south of U.S. Highway 40, including a half-mile plot along the Yampa River.

Robinson said the new park west of downtown, called Bear River Park, could include a new skate park, which has been requested by local youth for years.

"There's a master plan for Bear River Park, adopted by the City Council a couple years ago, that has a skate park located out there," Robinson said. "Hopefully, park construction will begin in 2008."

Robinson said that combined, the projects at each end of the core trail will add "a little less than half a mile" to the existing trail.