Our View: Move ahead with rec center plan
Sunday, May 6, 2007
Results of a study into a possible community recreation center underscore our longstanding position that the city should give voters the chance to decide on an all-encompassing facility at a single site easily accessible by tourists.
After years of discussion and input from various interest groups failed to produce consensus, the city of Steamboat Springs hired consultants Barker Rinker Seacat Architecture of Denver and Greenplay LLC of Broomfield to work together on developing recommendations. The consultants talked to City Council members, city staff, representatives of the Old Town Hot Springs, parents who support an indoor swimming facility and others. The consultants researched multiple sites, including the possibility of putting different recreational amenities at different locations.
Last week, the consultants presented what they felt was the community's best option - a full-scale facility at the present site of Ski Town Fields, a softball and soccer field complex adjacent to the Tennis Center at Steamboat Springs.
"That's the area that I think has the most potential," said Chuck Musgrave of Barker Rinker Seacat. Musgrave said the site on Pine Grove Road offers "great access" from U.S. Highway 40, potential shared parking with the Tennis Center and ample room for a facility that could include a youth and teen center, indoor pool, running track and climbing wall.
We would add a leisure pool, gymnasium with multiple basketball courts, exercise equipment and a fieldhouse to the list of needs. Examples of such facilities exist in Durango, Summit County, Glenwood Springs and Gypsum.
Ski Town Fields, in our estimation, is the right site. It fits nicely with current uses and complements the Tennis Center. It's near an area of new growth that ultimately is expected to include a gondola to the base of the ski area. It is large enough to include the kind of facility that is needed.
Tourist use of any recreation center will be a key component in offsetting operational costs; therefore, the facility has to be in a site that maximizes such use. Ski Town Fields accomplishes that.
Other sites - the Old Town Hot Springs, Howelsen, Rita Valentine Park and school campuses - had substantial negatives in terms of location, costs, parking and traffic. And the consultants discovered that attempting to take a piece-meal approach to recreation facilities is cost-prohibitive and inefficient.
In the past, the recreation center issue has gotten mired in debates among different entities. Compromises among the City Council, the Old Town Hot Springs, community recreation center advocates and the city's Parks, Open Space and Recreational Services staff have been difficult to come by.
The City Council has been reluctant to embrace a full-scale community recreation center out of a desire to protect the historic Old Town Hot Springs, concerns about costs and worries that a large-scale center is similar to "big-box" retail. But each time the council has hired consultants or sought public input, a full-scale center at a single site is what emerges.
The site has been identified, as have the amenities. The next step is for the city to develop a plan and put it before voters. The City Council can and should start that ball rolling when it meets with the consultants on Tuesday.
Comments
another_local 6 years ago
Every resident and business owner should receive a credit toward annual membership fee in the amount of the property tax they pay toward this boondoggle.
jack legrice 6 years ago
What will be the daily and yearly fee for locals to use this center?
another_local 6 years ago
Skip the pool. We have one. Save the money. I have had enough of new taxes. Sell the tennis bubble and use the money to help pay.
frustratedSboater 6 years ago
I stopped going to Health and Rec 5 or so years ago. Too crowded. We need a new facility, a public one. I've noticed town is growing, just a little bit, and it's only going to get worse. Furthermore, we as voters need to decide.
Books 6 years ago
I like the Pilot's analysis, let the tourists help pay for it. I also agree with MomAboutTown that Strawberry Park is the wrong place for a gym for a lot of reasons. I have one quirk to add. The consultants did not look at relocating the rodeo grounds and building the rec center in its place. The rodeo grounds are in about the same shape as the lap pools. There are a lot of advantages to having the rec center in the Howelsen area. I think the traffic problems could be solved if we tried. The tennis meadows site has very little open space Howelsen has lots. I think we should look at it, if it doesn't work then tennis meadows is the next best site.
linus 6 years ago
MomAboutTown, you were doing fine until you called someone "narrow-minded and an idiot" for suggesting a gym at Strawberry Park. No need to be so rude.
linus 6 years ago
But I do agree with you. We need an indoor pool/aquatic center for the community and every other mountain town seems to have managed to fund one. Let's do it.
trollunderthebridge 6 years ago
And what will the City charge itself as the linkage fee for this one? And who will pay it? The taxpayers both in taxes and in the building permit fee!
ajrw40 6 years ago
What is the center that is being built by the bus depot? Should this have not all been built at one time? How many places do we really need? How much is this going to cost the homeowner?
sickofitall 6 years ago
lol. "Our View" Heres "My View", send the bill for the new Rec center to the Pilot. "My view " higer taxes will push low income families out of Steamboat. Since I have been a home owner here, my taxes have gone up 500-700$. So send the bill to the Pilot if they want thier beloved Rec. center so bad. Just report the facts. The newspaper shouldnt be Scott Stanfords personal forum. Thats "My View".
another_local 6 years ago
Property taxes may get 2nd home owners to help but small business still carries the greatest part of the burden.
Thanks to the balance of payments on property taxes that sets the rate for commercial property at four times the rate of residential and the fact that nearly all leases pass property tax straight to the tenant a small retailer occupying an average size store on Lincoln ave will pay as much tax on the property the business is located in as would be paid on 10 $500,000 homes.
Considering that on average a downtown retailer makes the same amount of money as an experienced tradesman in construction does this seem fair to you?
Let's use the money we have to buy land and not build anything at all until we get competent city leadership and the current construction boom subsides.
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