The Yampa Valley Is Voting on Buses. It's Really a Housing Bill.
On November 3, voters in Steamboat Springs, unincorporated Routt County, Craig, Hayden, Oak Creek and Yampa will decide whether to add a half cent sales tax to fund the Yampa Valley Regional Transportation Authority. The Steamboat Pilot's ballot guide puts the haul at about $7.87 million a year. In Steamboat, where most purchases already carry an 8.4 percent sales tax, the rate would go to 8.9 percent.
On paper this is a transit question. I read it as a housing question with a bus attached.
Look at what the authority was formed to deliver. Its stated priorities are fixed route service on Highway 131 between Steamboat, Oak Creek and Yampa, more frequent runs on U.S. 40 to Craig, a circulator in Craig, airport service, and park and ride lots for commuters. Those are routes that carry people from where they can afford to live to where the jobs are. When the tax was first floated last year, the Yampa Valley Bugle reported that officials saw the RTA as one way to respond to rising housing costs by making it easier to live outside Steamboat. That is an honest description of what the bus is for.
I am not against it. Every resort valley I know runs on a commute, and the Eagle Valley took this path in 2022 when voters approved a half cent sales tax for what is now Core Transit. A reliable early morning run from Oak Creek can be the difference between keeping a lift mechanic and losing one. Buses are faster to stand up than housing.
But a bus treats the symptom on an annual subscription. That money comes back every year, and it pays to move workers across the distance that housing prices put between them and the job. It does not shrink the distance. If the valley keeps pricing workers further out, the routes get longer and the tax has to work harder.
The details also show how early this still is. When the RTA board voted 5 to 1 in September to send the tax to the ballot, Complete Colorado reported the revenue estimate had moved from about $1.25 million in a July survey to $7.7 million, a swing blamed on human error. Oak Creek's mayor, who supports the authority, said residents keep asking how the money would be spent and the details had not been worked out. The authority is still hiring its first executive director. Oak Creek voters are separately being asked for a 2 percent town sales tax, groceries included, to fix infrastructure. Small towns are being asked to fund the commute and their own pipes in the same election.
Then look at who anchors it. Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. agreed to contribute $1 million a year for three years if voters formed the RTA, according to the Steamboat Pilot, a shorter window than the 20 year commitment discussed earlier in 2025. That is about an eighth of what the sales tax alone would raise, for three seasons. The largest employer in the valley is a minority funder of how its own workforce gets to work. Meanwhile, Discovery Land's 6,100 acre Stagecoach Mountain Ranch proposal is still in front of the county, and a local water district's ballot measure this fall is framed around whether that project gets approved. The valley is planning for more high end demand while the people who serve it ride further.
This is the part I keep coming back to. The employer gets the most direct value from a worker living close to the job: lower turnover, fewer missed shifts, a crew that can actually show up on a powder day. That is the logic behind employer anchored workforce housing, and it is the model we are building around at Oldivai. The employer commits to the units over a long horizon, the community helps with land and entitlements, and the housing lands near the work. Transit then connects a valley instead of rescuing it.
So here is my view. A valley like this probably needs both. But the order and the funding split matter. If sales tax payers, including the people riding the bus, carry the cost of the commute while the biggest employers sign three year pledges, the incentive to build housing near the job never shows up on anyone's balance sheet. A bus vote is a fine place to start the conversation. It should not be where the housing conversation ends.
If there is a transit or housing question on your mountain town ballot this fall, read the service plan and ask who pays after year three. You can also track land and housing pressure in your own town with LandBriefing's free Mountain Watch tool at landbriefing.com/mountain-watch.
About the Author
I'm the founder and CEO of Kaufman & Company, a private investment and holding firm working across real estate development, venture investment, and infrastructure. My focus is workforce housing and employer-anchored development in mountain resort communities, including through Oldivai.
Reach me at Daniel@kaufmanredev.com or find more at danielkaufmanre.com and danskiandbuild.com.
