City abandoned talks for a fundraising agreement with the Steamboat Springs Youth Hockey Association last year to allow a more extensive planning process to complete.
Talks to build a second sheet of ice at Howelsen Hill will restart, Steamboat Springs City Council decided on Tuesday roughly a year after the city took a step back from negotiations to allow ongoing planning to be completed.
Following the completion of that process referred to as the Howelsen Hill Charrette, key user group leaders are largely proposing the same projects they have long wanted at Steamboat Springs’ flagship park.
In a presentation Tuesday, Kerry Shea with the Steamboat Springs Youth Hockey Association pitched Council on essentially the same deal to build a second sheet of ice the city declined a year ago. That request would need the city to contribute $3 million toward construction.
Brian Krill, executive director with the Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club, then pitched their hopes for a new indoor youth sports center for Howelsen that would include many of the amenities that were part of a strength and conditioning facility the Club proposed in 2022. Krill emphasized that plans from 2022 are being reworked to include additional community benefit and that building this wouldn’t require city dollars to build.
Lastly, Brent Romick, chair of the Steamboat Springs Pro Rodeo Board, shared their plans currently in the works to extend the seating at the rodeo arena, a project that is already going forward and wasn’t focus of the discussion on Tuesday. That $750,000 project is being managed by the city and paid for by the rodeo.
While the planning process appears to have led to few changes in the main projects being proposed at Howelsen, Parks and Recreation Director Angela Cosby said it was a valuable process that identified priorities and helped bring the user groups together.
“The user groups coming together and supporting one another’s projects and helping to prioritize those, that we haven’t seen before and that is great,” Cosby said. “We used to see actually competition between the user groups. … And now they are working together, understanding joint priorities and that is great to see.”
City trying again on second sheet of ice talks
City council directed staff to restart talks with the Hockey Association for a fundraising agreement to build a second sheet of ice, picking up the process where it was left last February. Once an agreement is reached, it would then be sent to the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission before being considered by city council.
This project is for a covered, open-air sheet of ice and was most recently estimated to cost $6.7 million. The initial fundraising agreement to build a second sheet of ice did not include city dollars, though the city has spent $4.5 million on projects like relocating utilities that would be needed for expansion at the ice arena. Last year’s discussions saw the Hockey Association ask the city to contribute $3 million to the project.
Shea, with the Hockey Association, emphasized that programming at the ice arena is at or above capacity currently and that the solution is to increase available ice.
“We have free introductory programing that are waitlisted, we have adult rec leagues that are also waitlisted. We’ve got kids in school that are skating upwards of nine or 10 o-clock at night,” Shea said. “We’re really looking to take it off the shelf and let’s just get it done.”
City Finance Director Kim Weber said money for a city contribution to this project would likely need to be considered through the city’s capital improvements process, which allocates funding each year to various capital needs across the city.
“The money could be available, it’s all about priorities and what is more important for the city to utilize that $3 million for,” Weber said.
The capital improvements program includes more than 100 different capital projects each year, the majority of which do not receive funding. The cost to build everything on the CIP list of projects exceeds $100 million.
Council member Bryan Swintek questioned how the city would be able to pay for that contribution as they are already making tough decisions annually when considering CIP projects.
“It’s nice to be able to sit here and say, yeah I support this, but it’s cruel to just go through this process and have it languish on a CIP for the next 20 years,” said Council member Bryan Swintek. “We can’t in good faith sit up here and say we care about our youth but don’t do what we need to do which is find a funding source for Parks and Rec. We simply cannot pay for this; we have no money.”
Council members Dakotah McGinlay and Joella West each responded to say while it may mean other projects have to take a backseat, the city does have money for such a contribution.
“I can’t disagree with what you are saying, that we have roughly $100 million worth of unfunded projects that are on a list,” said Council member Steve Muntean. “I would like to have that dialogue to see if there may be ways of doing this and not just say no.”
Council President Gail Garey said another place to look for funding could be the city’s accommodations tax, which can be used to construct new amenities.
“I’m supportive of moving forward with the conversation,” said council member Gail Garey. “It’s a choice in terms of where the money is spent.”
Steamboat Springs Winter Sports Club’s Youth Sports Center
Council agreed to allow the Winter Sports Club to move forward with a feasibility study for a new Youth Sports Center at Howelsen, which would assess potential locations at Howelsen and create a conceptual site plan.
Krill explained that the facility would include strength and conditioning space, multi-use recreational space, indoor and outdoor trampolines, and potentially office space for the Winter Sport’s Club.
“There would be extensive time that this facility would be available for some level of public or partner use,” Krill said, who included an estimate of times during the week that the building could be available for non-club use.
While the Club has had proposed a similar idea before, and this proposal includes elements previously included, Krill emphasized that this is a re-visioned idea that is being designed to meet “maximum community benefit.” One group called out specifically was Routt County Riders, with Krill saying that the building could be used by them and other mountain bike users of Howelsen Hill as a sort of trailhead. Krill said he wanted to get a feasibility study completed by late summer of early fall of this year.
In addition to a feasibility study, Council directed the Winter Sports Club to conduct a statistically valid survey of the community to gauge support. The Charrette process did include a survey, but Parks staff repeatedly pointed out that it should not be viewed as capturing the view of the community at large.
Conducting a statistically valid survey could take some time, as the city isn’t scheduled to conduct one until next year. Another option would be the Club paying for the survey. Krill said they would pay for the study if needed, but that they preferred a lesser public engagement process over a full survey.
“We would just ask that that is maybe more of a general step that we presented for community feedback,” Krill said. “We’re not concerned about the community feedback as much as the timing and the expense. That’s been estimated to us at $30,000 to $40,000.”
Council waffled for a bit about whether to require a survey, considering letting the club do a feasibility study and then come back to see if council still wanted a survey, but ultimately decided to go with the staff recommendation that required the survey at the start.
Other developments at Howelsen Hill
In addition to the headline projects, parks staff shared several “low-hanging fruit” projects like increasing wayfinding signage and adding more bike parking at Howelsen. These two projects, which CCouncil told staff to move forward with as well, would have lesser costs. Constructing new signage would cost between $80,000 and $400,000 while more bike parking would be between $50,000 and $80,000, according to Deputy Parks and Recreation Director Drew Pickle.
Council agreed to move forward with each of these ideas by adding them to the city’s Capital Improvements Program for 2026, which will be considered for funding later this year. They also opted to keep a project to replace restrooms at Howelsen with a building with multiple uses on the CIP as well.
Staff also suggested a plan that could add about 30 parking spaced to the Howelsen Hill area by adding them on the side of River Road across from the Parks and Recreation offices near Brooklyn Park.
User groups said they didn’t feel that Howelsen needs more parking, rather it needs to be managed better. One management idea suggested is not scheduling events like a Free Summer Concert on the same night as the Rodeo.
“The parking problems are primarily caused by conflicting events,” said City Manager Tom Leeson. “The recommended management and scheduling changes is going to have to be a component of that.”
Council members opted to put this idea off as other upgrades are implemented.