Steamboat officials punt proposed adult sports use for Emerald Park: ‘We are just going to turn the other cheek.’

Since the construction of its rectangular and diamond fields in 1996, the use of Emerald Park has been constricted to organized youth activities with limited allowance for some access for informal adult pick-up, drop-in and passive use.

But with the city’s recreational spaces already over capacity and a planned irrigation project scheduled for next year at Ski Town Park, the Steamboat Springs Parks & Recreation department is asking City Council members to consider a change to an ordinance (Ordinance 1511) to allow organized adult leagues the opportunity to use the park’s available field space.

“Current code does prohibit organized adult use at Emerald Park,” Rob Burdine, Deputy Parks & Recreation Director for Land Management, told council members last week. “With increased field use across the community, and the closing of Ski Town Park in 2024, we will displace current customers.”

Speaking to his point, Burdine noted the city denied over 1,000 organized adult-use hours at all city fields in 2023. He said the figure is expected to jump to over 6,000 hours with the closing of Ski Town Park next year.

“We feel Ordinance 1511 is contrarian to current community needs as conditions have changed since the adoption of that original ordinance,” Burdine said.

In July, city staff recommended an adjustment to Ordinance 1511 to City Council for a one-year trial period, not only because of the displacement of the irrigation updates planned for next year at Ski Town Park, where regular youth and adult league contests are hosted, but also because city staff are hoping to bring some current uses of Emerald Park into alignment with elements of the city’s code.

For example, Parks & Recreation Director Angela Cosby noted an “adult organized Hispanic soccer league that plays Sunday afternoons does go against our current ordinance and it’s one of the reasons we would like to see (the ordinance) changed.”

“That’s why we want to reserve that time, block it off on a schedule, pay the fees for that group for a year while we establish stronger relationships and have better communications on the regulations that are in place,” Cosby said. “How to overcome those barriers and work with them to be able to reserve the fields without the fee, etc.”

After hearing of the proposed ordinance change in July, City Council members asked staff to provide additional information related to their decision, including a request for data on how the move would exacerbate the already problematic parking issues at the site — which, along with the 14-acre Emerald Park space, is host to the 10-acre Yampa River Botanic Park.

“Parking issues have been ongoing since the inception of this park and they continue to grow as both aspects of this park continue to expand today,” Burdine said.

To subdue the parking woes around the park area, Burdine noted recent projects provided new access to the site, including the construction of a 136-parking lot and the dedication of 30 parking spaces to the botanic garden in 2019.

The city also introduced a special event permit policy requiring a parking plan at Emerald Park for any event drawing over 100 people.

Cosby reported an ongoing design study aimed at addressing parking issues is supported by a $30,000 commitment from the board of the Yampa River Botanic Park, and $10,000 drawn from a contingency fund controlled by Steamboat’s City Manager, Gary Suiter.

“I want to be clear that there is a parking problem at Emerald, regardless of this use change,” Cosby said. “Our peak challenge with parking at Emerald is youth soccer practice, not tournaments.”

Against city staff’s recommendation, City Council — by a vote of 5-2 — elected to make no change to the current ordinance banning organized adult-use of Emerald Park. Instead, they asked city staff to provide further information related to approved special events at the park and future updates on the results of the planned parking study.

The informal decision to quash the proposed ordinance change came after a lengthy discussion that included impassioned public comments on the matter.

At the City Council meeting Tuesday, Wendy Baumann, a member of the board of the Yampa River Botanic Park, spoke on behalf of the president of the organization, Kathy Connell.

“Let me be clear, the Botanic Park Board of Directors does not support changing the intent of the present ordinance about the use of Emerald Park Fields,” Baumann said.

She relayed to new City Council staff that it would be important for them “to understand why the present ordinance is in place.”

“It is not reasonable to approach this need by changing the intent of the ordinance that has been in place for the past 25 years,” Baumann said. “I ask that on behalf of the Botanic Park (board), the adjoining neighbors and hundreds of users that you be thoughtful and slow about making a change that goes against community will.”

Jim Engelken, who served on City Council before resigning his seat in 2010, also approached the podium to speak. He said he understands the issue facing the city’s Parks & Recreation staff when it comes to the closing of Ski Town Park, but stated that he remained concerned over the proposed ordinance with respect to how it would affect groups of people who use the Emerald Park fields on an informal basis.

“The number of people that are going there for this informal play, the Spanish speaking community, they are there regularly; all summer, all spring, all fall,” Engelken said. “They were there two weeks ago; there were 40 of them. They had two separate pick-up games going on and they set up a little ad-hoc badminton net. There were kids, there were wives, there were picnics; these folks need a place to go. You try to shoehorn in more tournaments into Emerald Park, you are going to displace them. They are valued community members. They need a place to go, and this is the only place they have.”

Suiter said the council’s decision to steer away from the proposed ordinance means city staff will keep City Council informed regarding special event requests submitted for field use. He also said staff will provide an update on the progress of the parking study.

With respect to the allowance of the unauthorized adult soccer league that utilizes Emerald Park each Sunday in the spring and summer seasons, Suiter said the city would continue to allow the “organized” play to continue.

“We will be allowing the continued use of adult organized sports, unauthorized, at Emerald Park,” Suiter said. “It’s against the ordinance, but we are just going to turn the other cheek.”

Cosby confirmed Suiter’s sentiment, adding that the city would not need to provide league-fee assistance for players participating in the informal Sunday games because, technically, city code does not allow them to play at Emerald Park in the first place.

“We wouldn’t be charging them, so we wouldn’t need to waive any of those fees,” Cosby said. “Like Gary said, we will be turning a blind eye and ignoring the use.”