Mad Rabbit funding decision part of Tuesday’s packed Steamboat Council agenda
- Dylan Anderson
- Jun 17
- 4 min read
Updated: 7 days ago
City will decide whether to send the U.S. Forest Service $1.6 million to support the trails project after an adaptive management plan was altered.
Editor's note: Following the initial publication of this story, Routt County Commissioner Sonja Macys tolde The Yampa Valley Bugle that the formation committee has not agreed to pursue a funding question for an RTA in 2026, nor have they agreed that a tax is the best way to pay for RTA service. This item was removed from Council's Tuesday agenda.
Steamboat Springs City Council is expected to meet for more than five hours on Tuesday as they discuss the ongoing Brown Ranch deliberation and stewardship process, next steps with forming a regional transportation authority, a potential deal with Steamboat Resort on a lift tax and whether the city will still give $1.6 million to the U.S. Forest Service to fund the Mad Rabbit trails project.
The last of those is perhaps the most controversial item of the meeting, with city council receiving more than 118 pages of public comment prior to the meeting. Council will start its meeting an hour early on Tuesday at 4 p.m. and the first item on the agenda is an executive session related to negotiations with Steamboat Resort on a lift tax.
Mad Rabbit funding decision
The final item of Tuesday’s meeting is a supplemental budget appropriation that would approve sending $1.6 million from the city’s 2013 2A for Trail ballot measure to the U.S. Forest Service to support the buildout of Mad Rabbit.
Council approved that funding for Mad Rabbit in December, but city staff postponed a resolution sending the money after the Forest Service made changes to an adaptive management plan developed in partnership with state wildlife officials. The Colorado Department of Natural Recourses now says they cannot support the trails project as approved.
Council’s decision Tuesday is not whether or not to do Mad Rabbit — the Forest Service has already approved the project and says they will proceed whether the city provides funding or not. If the city were to pull its portion of funding, Forest Service officials say it would likely slow, but not stop the project.
The packet for Tuesday’s meeting includes 118-pages of public comment — the vast majority of it opposing Mad Rabbit with many of them copies of a form letter. Comments come from across Colorado, not just in the Yampa Valley.
Comments primarily mention the altering of the Adaptive Management Plan as reasoning to deny funding.
“It was the plan submitted and presented to City Council, with the Forest Service praising key features of the plan,” wrote Steamboat Springs Olympian Mick Dierdorff, a letter identical to a dozen other comments. “This is terrible public policy. They misled not only the state, DNR, and CPW, but also the City Council and people of Steamboat Springs, Routt County, and beyond. They clearly are not acting in good faith.”
Not all comments opposed the project however. Kris and Julie Hagenbuch wrote that council should proudly support the project as part of their legacy.
“At this point, the trails have been studied enough by experts and are deemed to be an important amenity,” the couple wrote. “You have community support for the trails and improvements.”
Council initially approved the funding in a 5-2 vote, with Council President Gail Garey and Council member Brian Swintek voting against.
City looking for deal to avoid lift tax vote
Tuesday’s meeting will start with an hourlong executive session at 4 p.m. about negotiations with Steamboat Resort on a lift tax. Council will then have a discussion about the lift tax in public later in the meeting.
The city has been working through a parallel process on a potential lift tax. This has included a process to publicly discuss a potential ballot measure that would put a ballot measure in place along with separate negotiations with Steamboat Resort on a potential lift tax behind closed doors.
In an update last week, City Attorney Dan Foote said the city was hoping to avoid bringing a lift tax to a vote, but that they were in a position to do so if needed.
“The previous discussion we had puts us in a position to move forward if we need to, but hopefully we’re not going to need to,” Foote said. “I think we should wait on that for the final negotiating session.”
RTA formation won’t include taxing question
Council will hear an update on the process to form a regional transportation authority in the Yampa Valley — a process that the formation committee could stretch out over multiple years.
In a communication form about the agenda item, city staff write that officials want to go to the voters this fall to form a regional transportation authority without tying it to any new taxing measure. Commissioner Sonja Macys said the communication form is incorrect when it mentions a 2026 taxing measure, however. "We agreed not to discuss 2026 as we are working towards other funding solutions and mechanisms that may forestall the need for a tax, at least for a period of time," Macys said. "In addition, we have not agreed that a tax is the funding mechanism we will use. Within the [Intergovernmental Agreement] we left all statutorily available options open except a property tax."
Brown Ranch Deliberation and Stewardship Update
The first of three community updates planned for Tuesday will be an hour-long (probably longer) discussion on the ongoing work of the Brown Ranch Deliberation and Stewardship team.
The 40-member community team has met twice as a full group so far and has meetings scheduled for July and August. That August meeting has been described as a “go or no go” moment, where the group will decide whether they see a path forward on Brown Ranch and want to proceed to phase two.
The city hired Glenwood Springs-based nonprofit Community Builders to lead the process, which was spurred by the sound rejection of the plan from Brown Ranch by Steamboat Springs voters in 2024.