The end of Teton Meadows? Moratorium passed

Thursday, May 08, 2008

By Ben Cannon

Jackson Hole, Wyo.- Press time addendum: Teton County Commissioners passed the moratorium 3-2 Tuesday afternoon. The emergency amendment will include the Teton Meadows Ranch proposal. No votes were cast by Commissioner Bill Paddleford, who opposes moratoriums, and Chairman Andy Schwartz, who argued that the TMR application is already in front of the board and should be excluded.

While Teton County Commissioners were expected on Tuesday to decide on a temporary moratorium on new subdivisions and large upzones, officials with the valley’s private housing trust sent a distress call for citizens to rally in support of more affordable housing.

The Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust, a partner of the controversial Teton Meadows Ranch, circulated an email, imploring proponents of workforce housing to attend Tuesday’s special meeting on the moratorium.

Commissioners met on the issue in late April, but decided to put off a vote while the community had a chance to review the language of the emergency amendment, which would halt new developments seeking approval for density bonuses and upzoning.
The moratorium was proposed last month by commissioner Ben Ellis, who said the Teton Meadows Ranch proposal, along with preliminary moves to develop two other major land tracts in the South Park area, were too much for the community, county staff and electives to bear amid major updates to the town’s Comprehensive Plan.

The 500-home Teton Meadows would use a special affordable housing upzone that allows uncapped density. The zoning, which was created to provide more affordable housing, has been acknowledged as flawed by planners and electives alike. Officials have said they hope the Comp Plan revision will garner some sort of community mandate for affordable housing and identify what areas are most appropriate to bear the brunt of density.

The subsequent updates to the Land Development Regulations, the regulatory tools that implement the Comprehensive Plan’s vision, might address the special affordable housing zoning that even county planner Jeff Daugherty has called flawed and overly reliant on the discretion of electives. That discretion, and lack of clearly identified county overlay maps to direct affordable housing, have pitted the community against itself, Daugherty said in a March interview.

Meanwhile, officials with Teton Meadows have said a temporary moratorium would effectively kill the project - and the rare opportunity for a developer to provide 400 homes permanently deed-restricted for the county’s year-round workforce.
Robbin Levy, an attorney for the project, said commissioners might be using the moratorium to pardon themselves from making a difficult decision on a project, which has seen surrounding neighbors mobilized to speak passionately against the development for its traffic, wildlife and neighborhood character impacts.

“It sure seemed a good way to duck and cover,” she said.
Levy said the development project, which only last week went before commissioners for the first time, has not had a chance to be heard out by the community. As a result, hearsay and biased reports and evidence have presented an opportunity to dissuade community members, who might otherwise support the project, she said.
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