JACKSON, Wyo. — After a five-hour discussion on Tuesday, May 6, the Board of County Commissioners (BCC) voted for a continuance to hash out new details pertaining to Northern South Park’s Master Site Plan (MSP) for Area 1. The BCC is slated to pick up the MSP discussion on Monday, May 19, at a time to be determined.
According to the MSP, Area 1 (the Gill property) aims to address the community’s need for affordable housing, potentially providing up to 600 residential units. The Gill family plans to donate land to non-profit developers (Teton Habitat for Humanity and the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust) to construct as many as 420 deed restricted properties, as well as 180 unrestricted units. The MSP requires 70% of the units to be affordable homes.
The BCC debated a number of suggested new conditions to the MSP, including transportation needs, park exactions, the east-west connector road issuance and the conveyance of deed-restricted housing.
Off-site improvements
The BCC and staff had varying views on the timing of capital improvements for infrastructure and essential services. Off-site improvements would include a traffic mitigation plan and a construction impact study to help ensure that Area 1 transportation demands would be adequately addressed. Additionally, concept plans for streets, sidewalks, pathways, parks, water supply, wastewater, transit facilities, stormwater, snow storage, utilities and safety improvements on High School Road, South Park Loop Road and South Highway 89 would be provided prior to the submittal of the first Development Plan, per the staff notes.
Commissioner Luther Propst proposed an alternative timeline that would require all off-site improvements to be determined earlier, before the approval of the MSP. BCC Chair Mark Newcomb said that it’s an important distinction to make — if a condition needs to be completed prior to the MSP or prior to the first Development Plan.
“I understand that the timing of compliance is nuanced,” Propst said. “At the moment, we are talking about the safety of school children. Why would we delay the construction management plan?”
Legal Representative for the Gill family Amberley Baker said that it’s not until housing partners and Teton County Public Works begin to work on the first development plan that off-site plans can be fully realized.
“If you add on the approval of a transportation or construction management plan at this time, that’s a delay of the housing incentives that we want to get moving on for the community,” Baker said. “We need to sit down with partners after MSP approval. Then we need to see what can fit into each block. We cannot do what you are asking us until we start the first development plan.”
Commissioner Wes Gardner suggested that a more specific chart be created now to help determine how many housing units would trigger construction traffic. Charlotte Frei, Regional Transportation Planning Administrator for Teton County Public Works, said that any conditions related to safety, such as the diversion of construction trucks during peak hours, should be defined later.
“We have 80% of that matrix done,” Frei said. “We have calculated the number of units and what the impact could be. There will be monitoring of the generated traffic to make sure the contribution is related to the impact.”
Chief Deputy County Attorney Keith Gingery said that too much specificity with traffic improvements at this stage could delay the MSP by years. He reminded the BCC that there would be multiple development plans for every block in Area 1.
“Because this is multi-year project and because it’s difficult to tell you the entire transportation plan now, it makes more sense to bring all this information prior to the first development plan,” Gingery said.
The BCC eventually agreed that off-site improvements could be provided after MSP approval.
East-west connector
Another proposed condition from Propst was that a right-of-way easement would need to be provided for Northern South Park Area 1 and Area 2 (the Lockhart property) prior to the issuance of the MSP.
Gingery told the BCC that the Land Development Regulations (LDRs) state that the applicant only has to provide an easement for the portion of their property because the two areas aren’t landlocked. He added that a condition can’t be added that amends an LDR.
“The east-west connector would be a nice thing to add, but the difficulty is putting the condition on the Gill family because they don’t own the [Area 2] property,” Gingery said. “Some of the traffic mitigation can be addressed on High School Rd., without an east-west connector.”
Staff adjusted the condition to reflect the LDRs.
Assurance of deed-restricted units
Vice Chairwoman Natalia Macker introduced a new condition stating that the applicant must provide a feasibility study and sketch site plan of any restricted blocks to help maintain the 70% deed-restricted and 30% unrestricted housing ratio. Under the new condition, an amendment could be made to the MSP to put a moratorium on free market units.
“We want to make sure the land is big enough to convey the needed number of restricted units,” Macker said. “I want to know that the recipient of the land can convey that, and if they can’t, they need to adjust down to achieve the ratio. We aren’t going to approve them until all of the numbers are correct.”
Baker told the BCC that putting a moratorium on building would hold up the process and seize needed funding to develop a block.
“Something that we need to keep in mind is that the 30% market units are what fund the project, so we’ve got to make sure it’s there,” Baker said. “We are balancing that with the condition.”
Teton County Senior Planner Chandler Windom said that the point of the condition is to just get assurances of how the densities will be applied. She suggested fewer market rate units per block to maintain the ratio instead of applying a building moratorium.
Newcomb assured the BCC that the LDRs require every development plan to include the affordable and workforce calculation allocation.
“There are going to be a number of check points along the way to approve each block,” Newcomb said. “We can just say that the number of unrestricted units has to be a certain number to maintain the ratio. Then, Habitat for Humanity will evaluate it.”
Newcomb told the BCC that they should consider this condition at a later time. He suggested reading through the development standards so everyone could more fully understand the LDRs.
“We can sleep on this,” Newcomb said.
Park exactions
According to the MSP, the park layout includes Park 1 (5 acres), Park 4 (3 acres) and Park 5 (2.1 acres), which will be developed by Teton County/Jackson Parks and Recreation (Parks & Rec). Additionally, smaller privately owned parks throughout the site plan include 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8. Windom said that Parks & Rec is in support of the conceptual layout.
Windom explained that the MSP condition would require all parks to be built in a series as adjacent housing becomes developed.
“Park exactions become calculated as housing blocks become developed,” Windom said. “It’s an acre minimum per park dedication.”
Gardner stressed that all of Park 1 should be developed first as a community space instead of gradually conveying acreage from different parks. Baker said that the condition should allow substitution of different parks during development to create more livability in the neighborhood.
“We are concerned with giving all of park 1 first, especially if we aren’t building around park 1,” Baker said. “We want these parks to serve the residents.”
Citing an undeveloped Teton County park located at Teton Village as an example, Baker explained that the applicant was comfortable with early conveyance if, prior to conveyance, the BCC would approve a park plan for Park 1 and dedicated funding. In response, the consensus of the Commissioners was to remove the early conveyance requirement.
County Commissioner Carlman said that there will be tremendous pressure on Teton County to develop the larger parks and “not let them sit.”
Newcomb recommended discussing exactions during the first Development Plan.
“We have some ground to cover yet, but we have made some progress,” Newcomb said.
