A newly formed housing advisory committee in Steamboat Springs has settled on a set of recommendations for City Council to consider when deciding how to spend up to $10 million in short-term tax revenue collected last year.

City Council members called for the formation of the Ad Hoc Housing Advisory Committee in May and tasked the 10-member group to issue a request for proposals with the goal of identifying local investment opportunities based on their ability to deliver affordable and attainable housing units in the near term.

Selected through a process led by City Manager Gary Suiter and other city staff members, the advisory committee’s membership includes real estate developers, banking and finance professionals and members construction and design industry.

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It also includes members representing the Yampa Valley Housing Authority, Alterra Mountain Co., the Steamboat Springs Chamber and the property-management firm The Resort Group.

The committee met Wednesday to review all seven of the applications received.

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The applications represented a range of projects asking the city to invest in new affordable and attainable housing developments or requesting funding to subsidize rent payments for existing units.

A request from the housing authority asked for $10 million to support the second phase of its development at The Cottonwoods at Mid-Valley. If completed, the project would see 236 affordable and attainable housing units for rent and for sale with deed restrictions.

Under the proposal, $5 million would be used to convert 63 middle-market rental units owned by the housing authority into for-sale, deed-restricted homes. The other half would be used to subsidize rent payments for 87 rental units for county residents earning between 80-140% of the area median income of roughly $55,000.

Advisory committee members expressed some concern over supporting for-sale, deed-restricted units, where property value appreciation is capped making it harder for homeowners with growing families to purchase larger homes.

The committee did find a general consensus in support of buying down rent for the housing authority’s units as a way to help push their availability to those earning closer to 60% of the area median income.

Consensus was also found with a proposal from May Riagler Properties, owner of The Lofts at Basecamp apartment complex on the west side of Steamboat.

Under the property group’s proposal, short-term rental funding would be used to convert up to 20 market-rate units to affordable rentals for those earning 60-100% of the area median income.

The proposal says the conversion could be achieved through a master lease or similar agreement awarded to the city and that the amount of needed funding was yet to be determined.

The strongest support from the advisory committee emerged with a joint application submitted by Routt County, the city of Steamboat Springs and the Colorado Department of Transportation seeking $10 million to support the construction of 28 housing units for child care workers and eight units for CDOT snowplow drivers.

The housing units are a component of a development that would combine the residential space with a new child care facility.

The application noted the government agencies would be willing to accept less than the requested amount and would return the funds should the project, which has already received $20 million from various sources, not move forward.

Three of the applications dealt with the future use of Casey’s Pond. The advisory committee quickly tossed two of those aside while expressing approval for an application submitted by Alterra that proposed purchasing Casey’s Pond and building 144 multi-family units. Of those units, the resort would use half to house its employees with the other half available to Routt County residents earning between 40-120% of the area median income.

At the time of the committee’s discussion, the Yampa Valley Community Foundation had announced a verbal agreement was in place for Northwest Colorado Health to purchase the senior living property. The foundation announced the agreement had been signed on Friday.

The resort’s request asked for $8 million in gap financing to complete the Casey’s Pond property purchase, but it also included a caveat: Should the senior living community be saved from receivership, Alterra would revoke its application.

After more than 2.5 hours of discussion, the advisory committee settled on a recommendation for City Council to fund Alterra’s proposal to the tune of $8 million and direct $2 million to the child care housing project put forth by the city, the county and CDOT.

But judging that Casey’s Pond would eventually be purchased through the Yampa Valley Community Foundation’s coalition, the advisory committee formed a contingency plan: With Alterra’s application out of the picture, the committee recommended directing $2 million for the city’s child care housing project, roughly $5 million to the housing authority’s proposal and an undetermined amount to subsidize 10 rental units at Basecamp for an undetermined number of years.

In making their decision, the committee members added a stipulation for the housing authority to use the funding to make rental payments “as affordable as possible.”

Two committee members — YVHA Project Manager Emily Katzman and Alterra’s vice president of workforce housing — recused themselves from Wednesday’s discussion.

City Council members are scheduled to review the advisory committee’s recommendations on Sept. 17 before making the ultimate decision on how to direct the money.

No matter their decision, Senior Planner Brad Calvert said he was encouraged by the advisory committee’s process, and he hoped the committee’s effort will help shape the city’s short-term rental tax investment criteria in the future.

“I will likely be suggesting to council, I think there is value in this group to continue to meet in some shape form or fashion to help us with this momentum,” Calvert said last week.