More than a dozen Steamboat Springs city staff and local stakeholders strapped into side-by-side all-terrain vehicles Wednesday morning for a tour of a property that could someday add hundreds of acres of open space to the city’s repertoire of parks.
Winding through wooded trails, open pastureland and groves of aspen trees, Parks and Recreation Director Angela Cosby explained most of the property — approximately 850 acres — would be preserved as open space and provide passive recreation such as hiking and mountain biking.
Across Routt County Road 29 from the Steamboat Springs Airport, the property borders U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management lands to the north.
“Conceptually, you are talking about open space areas,” she said. “I think my mind actually goes to uses similar to the backside of Emerald Mountain, looking at long seasonal closures because we know this is a winter-concentration area and then having less impactful trails.”
While more work needs to be done to determine how many trails would be built and where they could go, more unclear is what the city might do with 160 acres of the property currently used as a working ranch.
“We are not looking at putting a sports complex or anything like that here,” Cosby said. “It is trying to stay within the open space bounds of what we typically see for recreation use on open space and sticking with the heritage of a working ranch. The city is debating on what to do with the 160 acres of ranch land. Does the city retain that? Does the Trust for Public Land sell it off to help towards the acquisition of the property? So, that is one of the big questions.”
Representing the Community Agriculture Alliance on the tour, Patrick Stanko said it is exciting to hear the city is trying to save the property as open space, but he said balancing that with supporting the community’s agricultural heritage could be a challenge.
“It would be good to have it tie back to the heritage and agriculture, use that 160 acres as a base to allow someone to get into the agricultural business,” Stanko said. “One hundred and sixty acres isn’t a lot for an agricultural business, but if you knew you would get the grazing rights and the open space, that would be beneficial. The biggest challenge they are going to have is how are you going to balance all of the uses that people want on that land. How can you have grazing cows and bikers be together and people on the trails be together?”
The city will also need to form a plan about what to do with multiple houses on the property including a 6,000-square-foot main house and a modern hunting lodge built on a hill on the north side of the property.
“The city is talking conceptually about (the structures) too,” Cosby said. “If the city retains the property and rented them out, if the city worked with partners and leased them to (the partners), or if the city sold them off — we are investigating everything at this time.”
Cosby said the city was approached by The Trust for Public Lands about the potential land purchase shortly after the department developed a land-acquisition ranking system that put Copper Ranch at the top of the list.
“It just didn’t pop out of nowhere,” Cosby said. “The fact that it is for sale and our No. 1-ranked property is why we are all here today.”
County property records show the owner of the property as Josie Schroeder Ranch LLC, but Parks and Recreation staff refer to the land as Copper Ranch.
Staff declined to estimate what price the city might pay for the land due to the deal’s ongoing negotiations.
Cosby said the plan would be for the Trust for Public Land to leverage funding and grant sources to purchase the property at market price and then resell it to the city for a yet-to-be-determined but discounted price with conditions that the land be conserved.
The Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit started 50 years ago with a mission to create parks and protect land, has created 5,352 parks, trails and school yards and protected nearly 4 million acres of land across the U.S. In Colorado alone, the organization has created 319 projects and protected 174,867 acres of open land.
The Wednesday tour of the property for local stakeholders was the sixth such tour provided by Parks and Recreation staff in recent months.
City Council members have discussed the land deal in executive session. According to Cosby, council members will receive another update on the potential acquisition Sept. 17. Parks and Recreation members will receive an update on the potential land deal when they meet Wednesday.
Members of the public can submit feedback using an online form on the city’s website or by going to Bit.ly/3X11RY7.
Trevor Ballantyne is the city government and housing reporter. To reach him, call 970-871-4254 or email him at tballantyne@SteamboatPilot.com.