Beer, boxes and kum-bah-yah

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

By Henry Sweets

Family dinner with beer
Jackson Hole, Wyo.-Monday’s Town Council meeting began with a proclamation that parents should eat dinner with their kids, so as to keep them off drugs.
Then, the council unanimously approved Jeremy Tofte’s request for a license to brew beer in the back of Thai Me Up.

Living and working in JH
Next up was Steven Dynia, purveyor of sexy metal triangles, who proposed some boxes set into the hillside above the Phillips 66 gas station.
Don’t worry, even though they are square, the townhomes will appear to be triangles once they are in the ground.

The units are live/work townhomes. The general idea is to have office space on the first floor, with a bedroom loft that can only be accessed from the office space itself, and can’t be split into a seperate living unit.

That way, the person buying the townhome can have an office where they live, or can rent their whole unit out to a business that can house an employee upstairs. Greg Prugh, who called himself Dynia’s “co-person,” said that type of product is in high demand and that people are already living and working in the same space all over South Park.

The problem for Dynia and Prugh are code requirements and deed restrictions that come into play when building live/work spaces, especially when it comes to the affordable housing requirements.

Questions arise, like what happens if the owner defaults - do they lose their house and office in one fell swoop? And how do you make sure that the people living there are also working there?

Bob Lenz said he was confused. A few others were also not quite ready to give the project a go, including Christine Walker, director of the Teton County Housing Authority, who said she doesn’t want to have to kick someone out of their home and office at the same time.

Council members liked the project, and saluted its creativity. The general consensus: it’s refreshing to see developers think outside the box to provide townspeople with something that might foster local business. But instead of approving the request for the Final Development Plan and moving forward, they decided to sit on it for two weeks so everyone can wrap their heads around it.

Mark Barron, ever the holistic ruler, complemented Dynia and Prugh for their creativity and utilization of a beautiful part of town that’s had historically industrial uses.

“There are  fantascic views up there,” he said.

Less energy
After that, the town discussed it’s tri-party agreement with Teton County and Lower Valley Energy to reduce energy consumption.

McLaurin said the agreement was to “hold hands and sing kum-bah-yah” with the other parties, because there are no hard numbers or strategies included in the agreement yet, just a commitment to devote staff time to figure out how to reduce overall energy consumption in Teton County.

“No more big houses in the county,” Mark O. suggested.
“Or just build em off the grid,” McLaurin said.
That’s funny.

Both were referring to the very large homes that in some cases use 10, 20, or 30-times as much energy as a smaller home in town by heating outdoor hardscapes, running fountains and keeping big-view windows nice and warm in the winter.

But all joking aside, they figured no other municipalty is teaming up with a county government and utility to save energy and save people money.
“Groundbreaking,” Barron called it. JHW


PERMALINK:
Beer, boxes and kum-bah-yah | Planet JH News Article: Council Chronicles

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