The Buzz: Build halt

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.- Most of you know by now that the Board of County Commissioners passed the temporary moratorium on large subdivisions and major upzones last week.

The move will likely shovel dirt atop the infant-sized sarcophagus of the 500-home Teton Meadows Ranch proposal. Four hundred of those units would have been deed-controlled for the valley workforce.

In a short, special meeting on the matter Tuesday, commissioners Ben Ellis, Hank Phibbs and Leland Christensen voted in favor of the moratorium and kept Teton Meadows in the halt on new subdivision approval. The moratorium is set to end either when the county adopts an updated Comprehensive Plan, or at the end of this year, whichever comes first.

Commissioner Bill Paddleford, who said he has seen previous moratoriums send land prices skyrocketing, and board chairman Andy Schwartz, arguing to exclude Teton Meadows because the project was in front of commissioners after months in the county application process, voted against the measure.

Commissioner Ellis, who proposed the moratorium, said in an interview this week that the Teton Meadows site, situated at the southern end of South Park, might be excluded from areas the county is eyeing for dense housing clusters as part of the comprehensive plan update. According to a draft of a county-wide, density overlay map, available online at www.JacksonTetonPlan.com, authorities are eyeing town and just south of town (at the north end of South Park) for high-density clusters, where housing projects with significant affordable components will have a better chance to take hold.

“I’m a strong proponent for smart growth,” Ellis said, adding that at the end of the day, Teton Meadows did not represent smart growth. “When you have houses at the end of a cul-de-sac, you don’t have that.”

Additionally, there is a move to protect some rural county lands by scaling back zoning for less density, setting aside wildlife migration corridors and preserving riparian habitats in wetland areas.

Ellis said he favors an affordable housing exaction rate as high as 60 percent. Currently, 25 percent of units in a new development have to be built as workforce housing. A developer would have to sell new free-market homes for considerably more if the affordable housing exaction increases so dramatically.

“So what if the median price goes from $1.9 [million] to $2.4 [million], who can possibly afford to pay that much for a house?” Ellis said.

The Sequoia Development team behind Teton Meadows canceled a meeting set for Wednesday, the day after the moratorium passed. Attorney Robbin Levy, who represented the project, did not return requests for comment Tuesday.



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