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Steamboat Springs — Routt County commissioners gave their enthusiastic approval Tuesday to a plan to transfer development rights from a working ranch on Thorpe Mountain to the previously approved Alpine Mountain Ranch subdivision close to Steamboat Springs.

The transaction, the first of its kind in the Yampa Valley, would allow the developers of Alpine Mountain Ranch to purchase the development rights off more than 900 acres of the Flying Diamond Ranch, which overlooks the South Valley. In exchange, Alpine Mountain developers would receive the right to develop 20 more million-dollar-plus estate lots on their land, within five minutes of the ski area.

"This is a project and an accomplishment we've been working on for a long time," Commission Chairman Doug Monger said. "We applaud the ingenuity to have this happen for all the constituents of Routt County."

The net public benefit would be derived from concentrating development closer to the city and the placement of permanent conservation easements on Flying Diamond. The ranch is owned by the John Adams family, including land on the north and south sides of Colorado Highway 131, not far from the entrance to Oak Creek Canyon. Oak Creek supplies irrigation water for hay meadows on the ranch's north side.

In addition, almost 535 acres of forested elk habitat on the mountain would link three other parcels of conserved and public land, stretching to Service Creek to the southeast and comprising more than 3,000 acres.

"This really is an exceptional addition to our preserved lands," Commissioner Diane Mitsch Bush said.

She took pains to ensure the structure of the transfer would allow the 365 acres of agricultural land to remain in production. Directing her gaze at Adams during Tuesday's hearing, she asked, "The water rights will remain with the property in perpetuity?"

He nodded his head in the affirmative.

The deal, which could close by March, according to attorney Bob Weiss representing Alpine Mountain Ranch, gives the developers the ability to convert 20 conditional lots already recorded on the subdivision plat, to sellable lots.

That would add to 43 lots currently marketed by Alpine Mountain Ranch at prices in the range of $1.5 million, effectively adding about $30 million in saleable lots to the overall project.

However, the developers sent a signal through Weiss that they are not in a hurry to develop the 20 additional lots and begin marketing them. They asked the commissioners for an extended period of time to begin building new roads and extending water lines to them.

The commissioners voted to give Alpine Mountain Ranch 15 years from the date the new plat is recorded to complete the subdivision. When construction does commence, developers would be required to post a bond sufficient to restore the land should the work be abandoned in mid-process.

Adams thanked Assistant Planning Director Ellen Hoj and County Attorney John Merrill for their work on the project.