The question of whether Steamboat Springs should annex the Brown Ranch property for the purpose of constructing more than 2,000 affordable housing units will be decided by voters after a 4-3 City Council vote Tuesday night.

During the first reading of the annexation ordinance, Robin Crossan, Joella West, Heather Sloop and Ed Briones voted to approve the agreement with a stipulation that it be enacted with voter approval.

Unless changes are made at the council’s second reading of the ordinance next week, the annexation vote will take place June 25 of next year.

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A ballot question asking voters to decide on directing 75% of the city’s short-term rental tax revenues to the Brown Ranch will still be on the ballot Nov. 7. If approved, it would provide funding for the housing development and lock in the short-term rental tax collection at 9%.

But even with the short-term rental revenue directed to the housing authority to support the project, financial projections estimate the city’s side of the non-utility capital funding budget for Brown Ranch would be more than $52 million short. As a result, the city would need to find an additional funding mechanism to support important infrastructure work including constructing parks and upgrading U.S. Highway 40.

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Plans to construct more than 2,000 affordable and attainable housing units at Brown Ranch came together after the Yampa Valley Housing Authority purchased the 534-acre plot of land with a $24 million anonymous donation.

Ultimately, the projected funding gap and financial implications of the large-scale project left the majority of council members uneasy over approving the annexation without voter input.

“After nine months of going at this level of intensity, it is hard to know how to condense this, but I will give it a try,” West said before declaring her vote on the annexation ordinance. “I am proud of the annexation document … I think it is a good document and I am very happy with it.

“I am not happy with the actual solution to how this project gets financed; we have tried everything that we could possibly try.”

West acknowledged that she ran on, among other things, the importance of Brown Ranch and affordable housing in general but stated she, “didn’t run on a proposal that we should be uncaring about whether the city can be run, and the numbers that exist after all these months of work on Brown Ranch are kind of frightening.”

 “I am not comfortable in saying that council should simply act on its own and approve the ordinance,” she added. “I would like to know what the citizens of the city think about this.”

Signaling a preference to approve the annexation ordinance without sending it to a referendum, council members Dakotah McGinlay, Gail Garey and Michael Buccino voiced concerns over further delaying the project.

“I am sitting here tonight working hard to represent the workforce, and people tell me every single day they are struggling to find housing. … All I can say to them is we are committed to housing, and we are working hard on Brown Ranch and I have hope,” McGinlay said. “If we sit back and wait longer for the problem and funding questions, they are only going to get worse while our people are suffering every day.”

On whether to send the annexation decision to a vote, McGinlay noted the issue of housing affects people living in surrounding communities, not just in Steamboat.

“Over 2,000 of our workforce is commuting every day into Steamboat, and they won’t have a vote on this if it goes to referendum, so I think that is an important piece to consider,” McGinlay said.

City Manager Gary Suiter recommended council members send the decision to the voters given the size and expected impact the project would have on the community.

Prior to the meeting, a staff report included in the council’s agenda packet underscored the complications with the city’s budget gap and recommended City Council delay approving the ordinance to allow for, “a work session to discuss new taxes, fees or other revenue sources and/or reduction in existing city services.”

Noting the potential for a citizens’ petition to force the annexation question to a referendum if council did not choose to do so, Suiter asked, “Why put the community through all of those gymnastics and the petitions, the signatures, the verifications by the city clerk and everything else?”

“Just acknowledge that up front and send it to the electorate. We have already budgeted for a special election,” he added. “That would be my recommendation. I think the residents deserve to have a voice on this issue.”

Sloop reiterated her concerns over the available funding for the project while taking issue over its size.

“If this project were given to us in one phase at 1,100 units, and you can quote me on this, paper, you would have my full support,” Sloop said. “My issue will always be that even after or before these 1,100 units are built, we do not have a funding mechanism to pay for this infrastructure.”

Leaving Centennial Hall after City Council’s decision, the housing authority’s Executive Director Jason Peasley said he was “confused” over the June 25 date for the referendum.

“It’s not the expediency that I think this issue really deserves,” Peasley said. “It just pushed it out another year, so we are another year away from being able to deliver on the housing people need.”

On the suggestion the project should be scaled down to roughly half its size, Peasley said the housing authority believes addressing the city’s entire housing issue “is far more compelling than addressing half of it.”

“We didn’t hear from the city at all about shrinking the project down until like the last month of meetings,” Peasley said.

In a report released in May, the housing authority estimated the city is about 1,400 units short of the number needed to house the local workforce. That number is expected to grow to about 1,960 units by 2030 and about 2,300 additional units by 2040.

Despite the confusion over the referendum’s date, Peasley said the housing authority will be “happy to take (the project) to the voters because when it gets approved, we have a mandate, and we are ready to roll.”

“We will not rest until we have fulfilled our mission no matter what,” he said.