Tom Ross, Steamboat Pilot & Today

07-03-2009

Who could blame members of the Wilton West development group if they felt a little overlooked?

The proposed annexation of Steamboat 700 and the potential for 2,000 new dwelling units in the West of Steamboat area have grabbed the headlines for more than a year. But Wilton West’s 360 Village is within a couple of months of closing a pre-annexation agreement of its own with the city of Steamboat Springs.

The plan calls for 638 residential units plus a 100-room hotel and as much as 62,000 square feet of commercial space. The project would be built on a gently ascending meadow just west of the existing Steamboat II and Silver Spur subdivisions, which lie outside the city limits. Steamboat 700 is on the opposite side of the existing subdivisions.

Tony Connell, a local partner in the project, agreed that his company’s proposal is operating in the shadows of its larger neighbor. But he is quietly optimistic that the lessons that his team and city planning staff have learned from Steamboat 700 could help 360 Village hit a target of annexation approval by March 1, 2010.

“By the end of September, we hope to have a completed pre-annexation agreement, a land plan, a traditional neighborhood design zoning map, a utility plan and a traffic study,” Connell said this week. “Staff says those steps took a long time with Steamboat 700, but we hope that it can be shorter,” for 360 Village.

City Council President Loui Antonucci expressed his doubts in early June that the March 2010 goal could be achieved.

“I’m impressed with the proposals, but I see some red flags,” Antonucci said during a City Council meeting.

With Steamboat 700 moving toward a possible final annexation agreement this year and the city entering a difficult 2010 budget process, Antonucci said there would be many crowded council agendas between now and the spring.

Connell remains eager to push the pace and went as far as saying that his project could enter the build phase ahead of Steamboat 700. That’s because the developers intend to construct rent-controlled apartment buildings in their first phase, Connell said. Consequently, they wouldn’t have to wait for a large number of single-family homes already on the market in Steamboat to be absorbed before launching a new product.

Connell added that principal partner Hank Wilton has a depth of experience in developing apartment buildings in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Connell said he perceives three-way benefits among the developers and the city if 360 Village can maintain pace behind Steamboat 700 and contribute to infrastructure needs — especially highway improvements.

“We want to be a teammate on solving the fiscal puzzle” Connell said.

Wilton West’s new neighborhood would be two miles from the western edge of the city limits on the north side of U.S. Highway 40. It would be built on 350 acres with an entrance from the highway roughly opposite the Heritage Park soccer fields. Of the total acreage, about 140 would be set aside for recreation, trails and open space.

Connell said there remain a couple of sticking points in discussions with the city. Before the pre-annexation agreement is submitted for approval, attorneys for both parties will hammer out language regarding funding of U.S. Highway 40 improvements.

Connell said he and his partners are willing and able to fund improvements commensurate with the impact 360 is expected to create.

“There’s never been any question, the increase in traffic that we create, we have to pay for,” Connell said.

Strategically, he thinks the best use of cash from Wilton West would be to leverage state and federal highway dollars. What worries the Wilton team is how to fund the gap that would be created if the city were not in a financial position to pay its share of highway improvements. Connell said his partners are afraid that if language in the annexation agreement calls for the developers to backfill any shortfall, government officials will interpret it to mean that they don’t have to kick in.

It’s important to get in the state department of transportation queue early and demonstrate willingness to provide a private sector incentive for state and federal dollars, Connell said.

Similarly, he thinks Steamboat 700 and 360 Village should have their own contingency plans should one or the other not go forward.

Wilton West and city planning staff also take different positions on how the requirement for affordable housing can be met in 360 Village. Connell said the developers are placing heavy emphasis on the rent-controlled apartments because they think they will fill an unmet need.

Staff is holding firm to the position that the developers should provide deed-restricted housing suitable for households making 80 percent of the area median income, Connell said.

Wilton West is pushing for a different strategy. The development team is not confident that it can deliver a housing product that households earning 80 percent of AMI can qualify for with lenders.

Instead, they hope to provide market-rate cottage style homes meant to be starter homes for households earning 80 to 160 percent of AMI. Meeting that need is one of the clear messages that came out of the housing needs assessment survey that came out late last summer, he said.