TMR moves forward

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-In case there was any lingering doubt, things in Teton County are about to get really interesting.

On Monday night, the Teton Meadows Ranch application to build 500 homes in South Park passed through the county planning commission by a vote of 3-to-2. Planning commissioners Larry Hamilton, Paul Duncker and Joe Palmer voted in favor of the plan, while Commission chairman Tony Wall and commissioner and Forrest McCarthy voted against it.

Palmer admitted he had “considerable” concerns about traffic impacts to South Park Loop Rd. and its intersection at Hwy. 89, before he concluded, “Better this plan now than [valley workers] transporting to Star Valley and Teton Valley, Idaho.”
Wall said he opposed the project in part because he favored more affordable housing than the 50 percent proposed in the application and took issue with the 1,000 percent upzone sought in pursuit of the special affordable housing zoning.

“The baseline finding we have to make is that the community benefits outweigh the impacts,” Wall said. “It’s clear to me that a density to appease the project’s opponents would be so small” that it would not benefit the shortage of housing within reach of valley workers.

The planning commission finalized a set of recommended conditions the Board of County Commissioners will have say on if, at the end of what might be a long series of talks, it finally gives the proposal the nod.

Among conditions amended Monday was that applicant – Sequoia Development’s James Reinert – would cap appreciation rates for the project’s 150 “gap” units at 2.5 percent. Those units, intended to create a deed-controlled housing product for valley workers who desire and can afford more than one of the valley’s affordable housing options but cannot break into the exorbitant free-market, have had their price points removed for the time being, leaving the discussion for a later time with county commissioners.
Teton Meadows Ranch proposes to build 100 homes – 20 percent of the project – to sell on the free-market to offset the costs of building 400 deed-controlled, sub-market units.
The planning commission recommended a condition that Teton Meadows Ranch develop road access to the neighboring Rafter J and Melody Ranch subdivisions.

That condition, in part a result of an unusually terse letter from the Wyoming Dept. of Transportation warning against the development’s single proposed access from the already outmoded South Park Loop Road, is likely to stir even more reaction from residents of those neighborhoods. At earlier informal meetings, the development team, hoping to assuage neighbor concerns, said it had no intent of connecting the subdivisions with roadways.

Planning commissioners also asked for more clarification on the project’s partnership with the Greater Yellowstone Business Partnership, a pilot project that would stamp the development with seal of approval for “green” design principles based on those of the LEED program, a global standard for eco-aware development.

Blair Leist, principle planner with the county, praised planning commissioners, who sat through nearly 10 hours of divided public comment in a series of meetings.
“This is a good planning commission,” Leist said. “They really vetted the issue. They made it a great community conversation.”
And, the conversation has a ways to go.

“I think the overriding consensus is that the community benefit outweighs community impacts,” Kari Cooper, a development spokesperson said after the meeting.
Cooper said that Teton Meadows Ranch would provide easements for road interconnectivity with Rafter J and Melody Ranch, if county commissioners condition it.
She acknowledged that neighbors at earlier meetings were “adamantly opposed to neighborhood connection.”

Rich Bloom, a neighbor of the proposed project site and community opposition organizer, said he would continue to rally against the project as it moves through the county pipeline.

“The developer has divided the community by falsely making this a referendum on affordable housing,” Bloom said Tuesday morning. “It should be judged, and rejected, by county commissioners on the basis of the [land development regulations] and the Comprehensive Plan.”
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TMR moves forward | Planet JH News Article: County News

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