Steamboat Springs City Council members spent hours Tuesday discussing how to handle illegal uses at a split industrial and residentially zoned property called Riverfront Park.
The 14 “work and live” units at the property, located adjacent to the Yampa River near the James Brown Soul Center of the Universe Bridge, feature a 16-foot-high ground floor working space with residential spaces above in each unit.
Approved nearly two decades ago under a planned unit development application, the property’s units were required to be used for living and for industrial use and were supposed to be deed restricted.
Now, the problem is that those units are out of compliance with those regulations.
In some cases, the ground-level industrial spaces were split to add another story. In other cases, the areas were used as garages or for storage — violations of the city’s zoning codes.
Additionally, city staff have discovered that none of the 14 units are registered as deed restricted and that commitments included in the original planning approval process to provide access to the core trail have not been followed up on.
After discovering the violations last year, city planning staff worked with owners of the units, many of whom did not realize they were living in spaces that violated the city’s zoning rules, and came up with a plan to bring the property into compliance.
That plan, endorsed by city staff, proposed that City Council approve a zoning map amendment for the property to change its designation from “live/work industrial” to a commercial services designation, which would allow a wider variety of uses to include residential development.
Outside of the proposed zoning map adjustment, another option presented to council would require owners of the units to abide by the zoning code as written and remove any construction deemed to be illegal.
“The consequences are big if this doesn’t pass through,” said Steamboat Springs Planner Jeremy Brown. “We are telling people to rip out hundreds of thousands of dollars of unpermitted, illegal work … and that is something that is an option on the table if it is in the best interest of the community.”
Council members voted 5-2 Tuesday to approve the zoning map amendment on its first reading. At their meeting July 16, they will consider the zoning change on a second reading, along with accompanying proposals for a community plan amendment and a development plan for the property.
The vote followed a prolonged discussion over the decision to change the zoning for the property, with council members Joella West and Bryan Swintek voting against the approval.
Swintek pointed out that city staff do not have a grip on how much industrial land is needed to support growth and are worried that changing the zoning for the area could hurt future business development.
“This is exactly how industrial land gets chipped away and gets removed. … You make one pocket zone change, and then it leads to this cascading effect,” Swintek said. “Right now, it does make sense; but because of small decisions like this that seem not to be big, it creates a long-term, big ripple effect.”
For West, the issue came with a “dichotomy” involved with certain property owners seeking exception to local rules as the city works to update its community plan and zoning regulations.
“If we are going to continue to ask questions, like how much industrial zone do we need in this town moving forward and where it should be, those are some of the questions that we are going to be dealing with as we put together the new community plan,” West said. “We are now making a one-off choice for a one-off situation. I don’t want to be in a position of awarding people who are coming to us ahead of the curve by saying, ‘Oh, you can do this now.’ That doesn’t make any sense at all to me.”
Residents of the Riverfront property offered their perspective during the public comment section of council’s discussion.
On a night that they should have spent celebrating their wedding anniversary, Shawn and Diane Bertini both spoke to urge council members to approve the zoning change.
“The reality is, we moved in as is. … We do have a middle level in our lower (space) but its permitted with fire suppression and everything in place that we believed we were moving into a unit in the same way that, as far as we can tell, was used for a decade,” Shawn Bertini said.
Stephanie Yarbrough bought her unit with her husband four years ago. They lived there and started a small business that quickly outgrew the 1,200-square-foot industrial space included with their property.
“Moving forward with this commercial zoning space, it would allow us to actually, legally build one additional apartment downstairs and would potentially provide additional workforce housing for our community and our four business in particular,” Yarbrough said.
She noted the illegal construction violations at her unit “are pretty minor” and include an additional single bathroom and kitchen sink. “We could easily take those out if we were to be required to go back to industrial zoning, but it would unfortunately stop us from providing additional housing for our employees.”
Before council members voted to approve the zoning change for the property, City Manager Gary Suiter said he thought a type of “casual Western Slope” attitude in recent years in Steamboat led to the lack of documentation and enforcement over the type of zoning issues council dealt with Tuesday night.
“When I got here, I was pretty dismayed with how informal the whole planning process was,” Suiter said. “The council (in 2015 and 2016) was approving pretty major developments by motion. I was kind of appalled; I was going, ‘Wow, this could be trouble. We don’t even have documentation for what we are doing and why.’
“It just is what it is. And when you come across these types of issues … you just have to try to find a way to navigate a course and find a compromise to where you can document it, create the findings, find a solution and try and achieve some of the council’s goals and move on.”
Trevor Ballantyne is the city government and housing reporter. To reach him, call 970-871-4254 or email him at tballantyne@SteamboatPilot.com.
