Condo conversion regulation continues

Friday, October 10, 2008

By Henry Sweets

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Monday, the Town Council voted to extend a moratorium on condominium conversion for yet another 120 days to allow planning staff adequate time to write land development regulations governing the conversion of rental apartments to condominiums.

The time-out was called last winter by Town Council after condo conversion had gone “unfettered” for years, mayor Mark Barron said. The practice was said to contribute to the depletion of affordable rental housing and pose a “health and safety” risk to the community.

At a Friday workshop, the council requested that staff write regulations including affordable housing mitigation requirements, a tenant notification clause and a “first option to buy” clause, among other requirements.
A couple of reports, one from planning staff and one from a second party, caused consternation from at least one lawyer, representing Timbers LLC, owners of the Timbers apartment.

A planning staff report said that if the original proposal was approved with language for an “apartment” complex, then the town can prevent it from converting to condominiums. The Timbers, the Blair Place Apartments and the Webster/LaPlant apartments were included as examples. Council member Melissa Turley praised staff for effectively preserving the 498 units in those complexes as affordable workforce rentals.

Joe Moore, representing Timbers LLC, challenged the staff report, which he said violated the property rights of apartment owners, as well as state and federal law.
“We believe that the attempt to regulate the manner of ownership is inconsistent with fundamentals of Wyoming law,” Moore said.

A report from Clarion and associates reaffirmed Town’s concern that condominium conversion contributes to the shortage of affordable workforce rentals in Jackson, and that the condos’ sale price is too high for the typical working class Jackson resident.

Moore also challenged the clarion report, which he said was “fundamentally flawed from both a logical and statistical basis.”
He said that the report errantly excluded a percentage of Jackson’s stock of affordable rentals, and said the condos were actually affordable to Jackson’s working class. “Personally, I think you’re totally screwing the pooch on who can afford housing in Teton County,” he said.

To prevent working class residents from buying converted condominiums would “prohibit those people from ever building equity,” he said.
The definition of “affordability” is at the core of the condo conversion debate. One argument says that once an apartment becomes a condominium, it pulls an affordable rental off the market. The other argument says that converting apartments to condominiums is the only way to put entry-level housing on the market.

Condo conversions will have been frozen for about a year by the time the regulations are slated to kick in.


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