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Steamboat Springs — The Steamboat Springs Planning Commission unanimously approved preliminary plans for the redevelopment of Ski Time Square on Thursday but reduced the developer's request for a 10-year vesting period.

Mark Mathews, vice president of development for The Atira Group, said the developers "obviously got blindsided with

the state of the economy," and that

an additional vesting period was needed to secure long-term financing for the multi-phase project. He said it wouldn't be in anyone's best interest to instead have brought the project forward one phase at a time.

"Our biggest concern here is getting started, getting the lender on board," Mathews said. "We feel very strongly that we need that kind of time in this kind of lending environment and to ensure the success of the project. This is not a strategy to say we're not going to start today. This is a strategy to get started and get through all the phases. : It's hard to get the first phase done if you don't know what the last phase looks like."

The project proposes about 681,700 square feet of primarily residential construction in five buildings on 4.6 acres. The project includes about 27,500 square feet of commercial space and public amenities such as improvements to Burgess Creek, restrooms and a fire pit. It is 105 feet tall at its tallest points.

In his motion to approve the project, Commissioner Brian Hanlen said he was uncomfortable with a 10-year vesting period and instead proposed six. He noted that the project would receive an additional three years of vesting after its final development plan is approved, and that the city is crafting an ordinance that would provide developers with further vesting flexibility.

"I just think 10 years is a long time to go by, and I just think it needs to be revisited after that amount of time," Hanlen said. His fellow commissioners supported the proposal.

Ski Time Square is the first pr-oject being reviewed under the city's revised standards for base area projects. Among the changes is that the highest allowable building height is now 105 feet. In practice, developments of about that height already have been built or approved at the base area through the city's planned unit development process. Through the PUD process, the city negotiated public benefits such as affordable housing and green building practices in exchange for increased height and other requested code variances. Critics said the process was frustrating, drawn-out and unpredictable, and earlier this year it proved such for Atira's other proposed redevelopment project on the former site of Thunderhead Lodge.

Unlike its Thunderhead proposal, Atira did not submit its Ski Time Square preliminary and final development plans simultaneously. Ski Time Square's development plan is still subject to review by the Steamboat Springs City Council in a hearing scheduled for Oct. 20. A final development plan for the project also must be approved before the project could be built.

Splitting review of the development plan and final development plan provides the city with an additional level of review for the major redevelopment and allows the developer to get approval of the basics of a project - such as mass, scale and mix of uses - before investing time and money in the development of a final development plan that includes details as specific as what materials will be used in construction.