YOUR AD HERE »

Hahn’s Peak Roadhouse refines expansion plans

Tom Ross

— Darren and Carroll Zamzow, owners of Hahn’s Peak Roadhouse, have a new date with the Routt County Planning Commission as they continue their bid to add to the guest facilities and host more live music events at their North Routt business.

The Planning Commission tabled their request Feb. 7 to amend their permit for a lack of details. However, they’ll sit down with the county commissioners for a brief meeting Feb. 19 after the Planning Commission voted to recommend that current restrictions that limit the Zamzows to hosting one live music event a week be relaxed.

“It’s kind of unorthodox,” Planning Director Chad Phillips said Monday about the Planning Commission’s action, but he added that “75 percent of the conversation on Thursday was about the bands, and very little of the staff report had to do with live music. We haven’t had complaints from neighbors about the bands (since public hearings in October 2012).”



Carroll Zamzow said Monday that her business will enclose a porch to help muffle any noise from concerts in the dining room of the Roadhouse and add a cooling system so doors and windows do not have to be opened for comfort during concerts on summer nights.

“We’re going to have to get some kind of swamp cooler or air conditioner in here and we want to enclose the porch for noise mitigation sooner than later,” Zamzow said.



She also confirmed that some changes are being made to the revised PUD plan for the Roadhouse since it was submitted to the county this winter. After learning that the North Routt Community Charter School is already going forward with plans for a summer day camp for area youngsters, a similar plan has been dropped from the Roadhouse’s PUD proposal. Instead, Zamzow said, her business will support the charter school by hosting field trips.

Also, plans to create eight sites for campers near Routt County Road 129 have been changed.

“We realized that was going to create an eyesore for neighbors,” Zamzow said. “We don’t want to do that.”

The latest plan is to provide four to five camper sites to the rear (north side) of the Hahn’s Peak Roadhouse property.

The Zamzows closed on their purchase of the former Steamboat Lake Outfitters in December 2011 and began building on its staple lineup of snowmobile, horseback tours, a dining room and convenience store. Live music had become popular, but neighbors complained to the county about the noise, particularly on summer nights, and pointed out the activity wasn’t specifically allowed on the business permit, formally called a Planned Unit Development, or PUD.

Zamzow disagrees that hosting live music should be subject to a PUD approval and counters that her research has not been able to produce any other permitted restaurant or bars in the county that are not being allowed to host live music.

“We want to be treated like any other bar and restaurant in the county,” she said. “Music is an accessory to our business.”

Other requests in the revised PUD plan anticipate building a machine shed that was previously improved in the PUD governing Steamboat Lake Outfitters. A covered picnic shelter also is in future plans.

The Zamzows similarly are seeking to someday swap an existing approval to build 12 bunkrooms, each with its own bathroom, for permission to build two more guest cabins, each with a bathroom. The Roadhouse currently has eight rental cabins.

The primary reason the Planning Commission tabled the revised PUD request, Phillips said, is that the site plan was too informal and lacked the specificity needed for him to refer it to other county departments for their responses.

Zamzow said that when she and her husband return to the Planning Commission on March 7 they will have produced a more formal and accurate drawing of their facilities, scaled to size and with more detail.

“I think we’re headed in the right direction and we have great community support,” she said.

To reach Tom Ross, call 970-871-4205 or email tross@SteamboatToday.com


Support Local Journalism

Support Local Journalism

Readers around Steamboat and Routt County make the Steamboat Pilot & Today’s work possible. Your financial contribution supports our efforts to deliver quality, locally relevant journalism.

Now more than ever, your support is critical to help us keep our community informed about the evolving coronavirus pandemic and the impact it is having locally. Every contribution, however large or small, will make a difference.

Each donation will be used exclusively for the development and creation of increased news coverage.