City Council members in Steamboat Springs are looking for guidance over how to spend the city’s short-term tax revenue through the creation of a temporary advisory committee.

According to the city’s finance department, Steamboat took in roughly $9.4 million in short-term tax revenue in 2023. The collections came after voters approved a 9% tax on short-term rental stays in 2022. The measure stipulated that the money generated by the tax be used for “affordable and attainable” workforce housing.

In November, voters in Steamboat Springs approved a ballot measure allocating 75% of the revenue collected by the city to the Yampa Valley Housing Authority to support the proposed affordable and attainable housing development at Brown Ranch.

But that ballot question became moot when voters rejected a March annexation referendum over the annexation of Brown Ranch prompted by a citizens petition. The housing authority and city officials had negotiated the annexation agreement, which would have seen the phased construction of 2,264 affordable and attainable housing units on 420-acres of the property by 2042.

Located west of downtown Steamboat, the Brown Ranch property is currently owned by the housing authority after the government agency purchased the land on the wings of $24 million gift by an anonymous donor in 2021.

With the Brown Ranch annexation failing, city officials can now direct the short-term rental tax revenue collected last year to other affordable housing project initiatives, and they are hoping the creation of an Ad Hock Housing Advisory Committee will help guide their decisions in the near-term.

Steamboat Principal Planner Brad Calvert provided an update on the creation of the committee at City Council’s work session last week after members directed staff to form the body in January.

The process of seating the advisory group will be left to City Manager Gary Suiter, Calvert explained, with a focus on finding between seven and nine qualified members of the community who would advise city staff and council members on proposals aimed at “structuring to ensure near-term development of units and ‘win-win’ opportunities.”

Calvert said staff hoped the advisory body would encompass perspectives from as many as 11 different industries including banking and finance, lodging, the housing authority and the construction industry — but the selection may not cover all of those viewpoints.

“Because this group is really focused on near-term impact, expediency is important, so we may not get one-to-one relationships from every perspective,” Calvert said.

“It will be like, ‘Who is available and willing to do the mission that is in front of them and could essentially deliver recommendations to council by August?’ which is sort of the timeline we are working on,” he added.

The committee, which would be facilitated by a housing strategy consultant already under contract, would also develop evaluation criteria for council and city staff to review proposals and help to define short-term rental tax fund investment criteria. Meetings of the advisory group are planned to be open for the public unless the handling of confidential and proprietary information is involved.

“The working assumption from my perspective has always been that these will be open meetings with an important asterisk,” Calvert said. “There would have to be some conversation about limiting access to that to some degree, if possible, mostly so that respondents would be comfortable sharing the information that is requested.”

While the decision to select members is ultimately up to Suiter, the city is accepting volunteer applications to serve on the advisory committee, which is slated to meet throughout the summer.

The application process is not a formal one, according to the city, and interested members of the community should send “a quick email” to Calvert at bcalvert@steamboatsprings.net by May 31.