Osprey Creek scales down, resubmits

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-But how will the commissioners and public receive it?
Would-be developer Jamie MacKay submitted a revised concept plan last week that scaled down the controversial subdivision proposal he brought to the county earlier this year.

Osprey Creek – a former KOA campground still used seasonally on the Village Road – initially offered 88 homes on 15 acres, a dense development for the neighborhood, but one that allows for more than half of the units to be deed-restricted affordable housing.
Neighbors and some county commissioners, however, have said that it is too dense for the area, an ever-burgeoning commercial, residential and resort artery with increasing traffic, wildlife and character impact concerns.

MacKay and his design team at Pierson Land Works scaled down the proposal to 71 units – 38 of which would provide traditional affordable housing, with six of the 33 free-market homes deed-restricted to Teton County residents who live and work in the valley fulltime.

“My hope is that the county commissioners and the public realize we’ve made some major concessions and major changes to the plan,” said MacKay.

The proposal now offers better integration of affordable housing into the free market units, MacKay and his company said, as well as improved, less-dense feathering of the site’s peripheral units. The revision also does more to address open space and parks, setting aside one third of the acreage for such built amenities.

The resubmission comes on the heels of a previous iteration of the plan. At the August sit-down with commissioners, the applicant introduced a pared-down proposal that cut the 88 units to 80, and offered to remove home sites from a natural resource overlay, or NRO, which spills onto a 2-acre corner of the property.

The NRO triggers an environmental assessment for the new development along the West Bank of the Snake River corridor.

What MacKay and company got for what they thought would be a better-received application was instead a procedural slap on the wrist for unveiling the plan at the last minute. Commissioner Hank Phibbs expressed his disappointment at the tardy submission and called the move “trial by surprise.” Commissioner Ben Ellis, citing a “dire market failure” in Jackson Hole, said the benefits of the affordable units were outweighed by a coupling of density and too many free-market units.

“I would be challenged by this application,” Ellis said in August, but he also said he could support the development if it were 100 percent affordable housing.
Since the application began the county process at the planning and zoning board this spring, a group of neighbors and West Bank residents have been a steady fixture, voicing their concerns during public comment periods at Osprey Creek meetings.

Beyond scaling down the density of the entire development, MacKay and company now propose 10 free market lots to ease into the 15 adjacent lots.

“We’re trying to accommodate the neighbors’ and the county commissioners’ needs and concerns,” MacKay said.

The Jackson Hole native feels that a hometown distinction compels him to create a good neighborhood – he’s got stake in the community.

“I’m going to drive by there for years to come,” MacKay said, “and I want to make  something the majority of this community likes and is proud of.”
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Osprey Creek scales down, resubmits | Planet JH News Article: Development

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