No idle chatter; affordable renting

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

By Jake Nichols

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-When I arrived at the council meeting at 5:50 p.m., I didn’t turn off my truck. I let it idle. I was helping Willie Neal prove a point.

Neal addressed the council on the ills of idling vehicles and asked that they consider proposing a ban on idling within city limits. There are environmental, health and financial components to idling, Neal said. He also dropped some interesting facts concerning idling vehicles in cold country: Cars made after 1985 typically need only a maximum of 30 seconds of run time - even in subzero temperatures down to 10 below zero before they can be safely driven. The temperature of diesel engines actually decreases when idling.

“We have addressed this in the past. There have been some issues with the police cars and their computers,” Ed Tabatabai, a councilman, said referring the Jackson Police Department’s practice of allowing their units to idle for the sake of not having to restart their onboard laptops.

Besides the emissions, just think of the money you are burning up going nowhere, Neal said, appealing to the pocketbook. “For every 10 minutes a vehicle idles, it could have driven five miles.”

Dang! I could have driven to Wilson and back at this point. It was 6:15 and I was down - at the current price of a gallon of diesel - about $327 according to my calculations. I missed what the council decided when I went out to turn my truck off. The gist of it was the mayor ordered staff to look into the matter.

Who’s idling anyways? We’re all biking to work, according to Pathways’ marketer Stephanie Thomas. She thanked the council for their continued dedication to Pathways and cycling and let it slip that Jackson was recently honored as a silver-level bicycle community. In fact, we made the cover of League of American Bicyclists magazine.

Rice in a pickle
Joe Rice brought up a good point. As the owner of both Sidewinders and Merry Piglets, he has a lot of people working for him. This being Jackson, they have nowhere to live. Rice does what he can to help them secure housing. He sells them his own property for cost. He rents them units he owns at below-market rates.

Rice’s Goal, Inc. project at the old Sagebrush Motel at 550 W. Broadway was being ping-ponged over the affordable housing and employee housing requirements. Rice offered ample units of both but was attempting to keep what he could off the affordable housing open market, where a lottery system might award it to “some kid in Teton Village,” as Rice stated, instead of one of his dishwashers currently sleeping stacked atop one another under the margarita mixer at Merry Piglets.

“It is just my desire to give my people housing,” Rice said. “How would it be fair to put it in the pool? Let me either rent or sell them to my people. I’m subsidizing my employees, some of whom have worked for me for a long time.”
“Affordable housing is applied to all projects and is generic,” councilman Bob Lenz said. “As much as I appreciate Joe’s desire or any developer to sell it to who they prefer, it opens up a whole can of worms.”

Jay Varley, the fifth council member by ‘Public Comment’ default, stated: “Rental affordable housing is still affordable housing. It doesn’t become the applicant’s personal employee housing. The employee housing within [any project] is supposed to mitigate the project’s impact.”

Teton County Housing Authority Executive Director Christine Walker suggested Rice trade off one affordable unit for an employee unit but the remaining three units would go into her lottery system. Melissa Turley liked that idea as long as Joe did. He consented, looking to end the confusing debate over affordable housing that will wind up costing him about $5 grand fee-in-lieu.

In other business
Public Works came to their senses and agreed closing Pearl Ave during the Art Fair in September would be riotous. Expect the road to now get ripped up between Sept. 29 and Oct. 15 to allow heavy machinery to erect the newest shadow-caster at 270 West Pearl.
PERMALINK:
No idle chatter; affordable renting | Planet JH News Article: Council Chronicles

Reader Comments

Regarding idling cop cars. So long as my wife and daughters spend time in Jackson and as long as bad guys also spend time here, I like the idea of rangers keeping their horses saddled and the cops keeping their cars ready to go. Long live our finest and everything they do to save seconds when seconds count!
Shepard Humphries

Go Rice. Fight back! "Joe Rice brought up a good point. As the owner of both Sidewinders and Merry Piglets, he has a lot of people working for him. This being Jackson, they have nowhere to live." One hopes he pays his employees enough to afford something at the Blair Witch Projects and that he doesn't hire immigrants to keep wages depressed, but as a business owner he is clearly fighting a stupid rule.
eyeson jackson