Poor timing to seek approval for a PMD project

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

By Jake Nichols

Jackson Hole, Wyo.-“When I first moved to Jackson, I lived at Meadowbrook and rented from Pete Karns, and thought I was getting ripped off at $450 month,” Ron Miller told the council. He said he met with the owners of the Meadowbrook Apartments in an attempt to alleviate their worries that his development next door – Miller Park Lodge – might muscle in on their alley and blot out their sun. “We tried to address most of their concerns. I think we worked through some issues,” Miller said.

Miller has come a long way from renting at the Meadowbrook. Now he could own a half-dozen Meadowbrooks. In fact, he does. The self-made real estate tycoon owns and manages five LLC’s that hold several investments including seven lodging properties. When Miller added the Miller Park Lodge to his trophy case in 2006, he told Planet JH, “Everybody thought I paid too much paying a million dollars for that property. At this time, it’s easily worth $2.5 million to $3 million.”

Two trends were working against the applicant seeking Master Plan approval, however. The market is not what it used to be even a year ago as Miller admitted: “Since we met last time [nearly a year ago] things have certainly changed on an economic standpoint. These projects – the only few that are being passed – are a support for locals. Those of you here know I usually try to hire locally.”

Miller also had the unfortunate timing of parading a PMD project before the council during a period when citizen satisfaction for the much-maligned development tool is at an all-time low. It was like showing up to an AA meeting with a 12-pack.
“Are you aware the Town Council is currently reviewing all PMD projects?” Mayor Mark Barron asked Miller.

“Just from what I have been reading in the newspapers,” he answered.
And the newspapers have been full of it. The recent mayoral election weighed heavy on where voters thought their candidate stood on the use of the tool that has made the rotating superstructure crane Jackson’s official postcard picture: “Greetings from Jackson Hole – Excuse our dust, we’re ‘UNDER CONSTRUCTION.’” Even the usually pro-build mayor diplomatically distanced himself from the PMD like it was cancer.

Miller had soothed his neighbors – the Harrisons (Rusty Parrott) and the Rileys (Parkway Inn) – and everyone on North Jackson Street generally agreed that the 27,000-square-foot, four-story, 46-foot-high mix of retail/office/condos was a good fit.

Good fit, my bunions, Mr. Jones didn’t really say, but it’s what he was getting at in a 10-minute ramble about setbacks and compatibility with the neighborhood. Jones owns a home adjacent to the proposed development that he fears would incur ‘headlight sweep’ in his bedroom among other headaches. “There are regulations for this development that aren’t being enforced,” Jones told the council during public comment.

Miller had fulfilled two of the four required criteria that guide a PMD project. Kristy Brunner (JH Conservation Alliance) and councilwoman Melissa Turley pushed the developer to do more.

Miller and architect Tom Ward may have been willing to do most anything for approval before January. Greg Miles is set to step into Abe Tabatabai’s seat on the council and the current planning commissioner voted against recommending the project to the council last month. The project passed, however, 4-3.

All on the Council lauded the design and how the building addressed the street front. The city’s fixation on alleys surfaced again as Council members and Meadowbrook Apartment residents fretted over use of an alley that looked, from the Powerpoint presentation, like it was straight outta Compton.

Turley was jazzed by the LEED certification efforts of Wade-Blake which, anymore, simply mean a structure is next to a bus stop, has plants on the roof and a bike rack outside.

Tabatabai said he thought everyone decided to cap city skyscrapers at 42 feet, not 46. Bob Lenz, normally a scrooge toward four-story buildings, said the project was “fairly well done.”

But skies darkened when Mark Obringer said, “I’m not going to support any more buildings that call themselves four stories.” The mayor said he was troubled by the bulk and mass of the project and asked Miller, “Where is the give-back to the community?”

Rather than face rejection and a one-year penalty, Miller agreed to let the council continue the decision until he and Ward could again jimmy the blueprints into something that didn’t look quite so menacing. PJH

PERMALINK:
Poor timing to seek approval for a PMD project | Planet JH News Article: Council Chronicles

Leave a Comment