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Steamboat Springs — When some of the folks representing Vision 2030 present their final report to elected officials Monday, they'll be unveiling more than just another study about Routt County and what its future might - or should - look like.

With input from more than 1,600 county residents, the Vision 2030 report is perhaps as comprehensive and representative a report on our community's future as we have ever seen. And although the report stops short of making specific policy recommendations, it provides a very clear picture of the desires and concerns shared by many who call Routt County home. For that reason, we hope policy makers and elected officials take heed of the report and consider its recommendations as they continue about the daily governance and direction-setting of our community.

Vision 2030 is a continuation of Vision 2020, a citizen-driven initiative that began in 1994 and hosted community discussions about topics including education, transportation, economics, city planning and government. Those discussions, as wide-reaching as they may have been, yielded some very tangible results.

Vision 2020 led to the creation of First Impressions of Routt County, which supports early childhood education; the Purchase of Development Rights program, which helps landowners use conservation easements to protect against future development; the Routt County Open Lands Plan, which furthers open space needs addressed in Vision 2020 discussions; and Yampa Valley Recycles.

Community organizations such as the Community Agriculture Alliance, Yampa Valley Partners and Yampa Valley Land Trust all have at least partial origins in the Vision 2020 process.

Such grass-roots, volunteer-driven efforts to gather community input and provide recommendations for our future certainly are worthy of consideration as local governing bodies and others continue to shape the future of Routt County and the Yampa Valley.

Vision 2030 volunteers say the intent of the project is to "define the community's vision, not to assign actions or methods, or to determine funding mechanisms." No one should be surprised about the values and goals set forth by Vision 2030 participants, but it nonetheless provides an important reminder to all of us about what our community is now, what we want it to be in the future, and how all of our actions in the interim could affect those ideals.

The issues Vision 2030 respondents said are most important to them include: sustainable economy, community character, sense of community, family friendliness, managing growth, transportation, housing patterns and heritage. Folks remain concerned about the availability of affordable housing and increasing traffic congestion, and they place high value on a clean environment, open space, low crime rate and good education, among other things.

The responses to Vision 2030 surveys weren't much different from the responses 15 years ago to Vision 2020 surveys. It's good to be reminded of our community values, and it's even more important to determine whether we are taking the appropriate actions to achieve our desired outcomes. Vision 2030 doesn't answer that question, but instead pushes each of us to question whether we are headed in the right direction.

The final report also asks community members to step forward and assemble a Citizens' Stewardship Committee to embrace the Vision 2030 final report, track progress and help hold the community accountable for achieving our desired outcomes. We urge interested residents to take on that role and maintain the momentum gained by the hard-working volunteers who made Vision 2030 a reality.