Housing requirements:a talk
Wednesday, March 18, 2009
By Jake Nichols
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-
Christy Bruner: “We strongly support moving ahead with this.”
J. Pierce Scarlett: “I strongly suggest you don’t move forward with this.”
Item P07-123 seemed like a slam dunk after passing the Planning Commission on a 5-1 vote. At issue was the consideration of an amendment to the LDRs to raise the percentage of affordable housing required for residential developments from 15 percent to 25 percent. A mere 10-percent increase, right? Not if you do math like a Canadian.
Canuck and planning department director Tyler Sinclair made it a point to note that the jump was actually a 67-percent increase. Commissioners had already raised the rate 18 months ago to 25 percent in Teton County and the councilors seemed to have the public’s backing on anything to do with more affordable housing.
The Alliance’s Bruner may have thought she was ambushed when it seemed she was suddenly in the minority during the public comment period. Scarlett has never been a friend to affordable housing propositions. He opposed one of the Housing Trust’s first developments in 1996. When his appeal to the Town of Jackson didn’t get anywhere, he filed for an injunction against the Trust, who said he was doing so “solely to harass the Trust and delay the project.”
In a recent Scarlett letter-to-the-editor (C’mon, who can resist that one?) to Planet JH, the longtime valley resident railed on about American Disability Act requirements for buildings. He touched on that at the council meeting saying, “When you build homes without ADA they are just boxes and won’t last.” When Scarlett was on point, he hit on a few hot button items: Affordable housing mitigation rates are no longer as necessary to slow the growth of development as the sour economy has done that already; and only big, out-of-state developers will be able to afford the hit.
Scarlett’s plea was echoed by others, most notably former County Commissioner Jim Darwiche, who has a major project in the works at the Woods Motel site.
“It’s a noble cause to allow for more workforce housing, but considering the economy and the housing rental market in the newspaper easing … we need to do our homework and solve the problem. To just increase from 15 to 25 percent will have side-effects,” Darwiche said. He also fleshed out a situation where a middle-class Jackson resident might struggle to make a $3,000-a-month condo mortgage while a Johnny-come-lately could land an affordable house next door and still have money left over for a Thule rack on his Subaru.
Melissa Turley wasn’t swayed. After all, she was ready to jack the rate to 33 percent two weeks ago. Bob Lenz was along for the ride and with Mark Obringer absent, that left Greg Miles to take up the charge of the Planning Commission who voted the rate hike on, but were uncomfortable with mitigation-sidedness of the amendment.
“I campaigned on this raise to 25 percent, Miles reminded the Council. “But I also want to see carrots on the end of the stick. If we are going to take something away, we need to find [incentives] to be fair to developers. I think the Planning Commission wanted this conditioned and spelled out before we move forward.”
Mayor Mark Barron agreed that incentives needed to be articulated sometime down the road, but was ready to acknowledge many community developers were already voluntarily committing 25 percent or more affordable housing to their projects because it was needed. The amendment passed, 3-1, with Miles essentially in favor of the rate hike but opposed to the lack of other ‘reward’ tools being left out.
In other business
Reed Armijo made a last ditch plea to reconsider Jeff Heider’s project at the ‘Y.’ He promised to straighten the tunnel, lose 20 more units, and play nice in a workshop if the council wanted to reverse their 3-2 vote against at the last meeting. No one blinked. The project will have to enter pre-application again and work its way through the system in about a year’s time.
The Fairboard got the okay for their high-flying, sled-jumping show during Hill Climb Weekend (Saturday night) but will have to go another year without beer at the demo derby during fair. Police Chief Dan Zivkovitch said he felt it would take a full three or four years for derby-goers to completely disremember they used to take off their clothes and shout “F—- the police” at the event. Mayor Barron agreed, as did Turley and Lenz, but Miles dissented. PJH
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Housing requirements:a talk | Planet JH News Article: Council Chronicles
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