The Brown Ranch Governance Group, convened by members of the Steamboat Springs City Council, the Routt County Commissioners and the Yampa Valley Housing Authority, is pivoting away from the “Brown Ranch” name, opting instead to refer to the long-proposed affordable-housing development as the “Slate Creek Neighborhood.”
According to the March 26 meeting minutes, “the group reached consensus to rename the project they are working toward (previously Brown Ranch).”
“From here on out,” the minutes state, “the property and initial efforts to create a development proposal will be referred to as the Slate Creek Neighborhood.”
In March 2024, Steamboat voters rejected the Brown Ranch annexation proposal required to move the project forward. The defeat paused development and prompted city leaders and housing advocates to seek new ways to engage the public and find consensus on Brown Ranch’s future amid the region’s affordable housing crisis.
This led to last spring’s formation of the 40-member Deliberation and Stewardship Team, composed of community members with diverging opinions on Brown Ranch, along with the introduction of consultant firms The Civic Canopy and Community Builders, who would go on to facilitate four 3.5-hour meetings with the team from April through August for what they called Phase 1.
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