Focus Team Weekly Report – March 4th 2022
Review: Week of February 28 – March 4, 2022
- Housing & Non-Residential Demand #3 – February 28, 2022
- Natural & Built Sustainability #4 – March 1, 2022
- Stewardship & Project Economics #3 – March 2, 2022
- Infrastructure #5 – March 3, 2022
Combined Focus Team Attendance Total: 76
Top 10 things we heard
- The community wants homeownership opportunities, from the “affordable” market segment, through the “move-up” segment. Prioritize homeownership in Phase 1 to the greatest extent possible per project economics.
- People are open to lots of different housing types at Brown Ranch including multifamily options, long as there are amenities that support long term living: access to gardening space, yards for pets, and garages to store our outdoor toys. Most high-density places don’t have any of this.
- Community overall seems comfortable with density around 10-15 units per acre, as long as we balance preserving the character and identity of the town as we develop.
- Sustainability Team is asking Economics Team to be sure to assess and prioritize long-term affordability over first time cost. “Economics of efficiency.” Model for future conditions / understand building performance for the full life cycle of the project.
- Sustainability Team is asking Infrastructure Team to be sure when modeling for energy use in buildings & water, to model for future climate projections (2080). Are the teams looking at the right analysis and time horizon?
- Design to provide infrastructure for handling waste in a way that is most efficient. It would be good to have centralized pick-up for recycling, compost, trash, rather than curbside. • YVHA should prioritize seeking outside subsidy and maximizing other sources of revenue to help cover infrastructure costs and make housing as affordable as possible.
- Modular homes are a great option to reduce construction waste and efficiently produce units. However, the cost of producing modular homes is increasing and the gap between modular and stick built is decreasing.
- Community is interested in exploring ground source heat pumps as option to reduce electricity demand. Need more information.
- Community is interested in consultants’ ideas to integrate storm water management with the task of improving riparian function at Slate Creek.
Top things we learned
- There is a mismatch between local housing needs and cost to build in Steamboat. • It likely costs $200M – $400M to build out infrastructure at the site (average of $100,000/unit). The more YVHA can subsidize infrastructure, the less expensive houses will be.
- Denser development (product types like apartments and townhomes) result in less infrastructure costs.
- There is demand for a large first phase of housing development at Brown Ranch, and more housing early on will help reduce costs and enhance feasibility.
- Water and electricity are limiting constraints for development at Brown Ranch. Need to design for resource conservation. One primary way to do so is by maximizing density. • More education/conversation is needed around density and the key tradeoffs. • Today, there are a large number of families and empty nesters in the Steamboat area. In the future, there will be more small families and more seniors. There are trade-offs between the degree to which Brown Ranch caters to existing households vs. expected new households. • There are trade-offs between the amount of housing and types of housing Brown Ranch can provide.