JACKSON, Wyo. — Workforce housing at the former Legacy Lodge property is back on track following a ruling by the Wyoming Supreme Court on Nov. 8, and the Board of County Commissioners’ approval of the Transportation Demand Management Plan (TDM) Nov. 19
The Wyoming Supreme Court ruled in favor of Stage Stop LLC., permitting the former senior assisted living center to to be transformed into a 57-unit apartment complex. Brothers Sadek and Dorian Darwiche own Stage Stop LLC, as well as Hotel Jackson and a number of other properties in the County. They purchased the Legacy Lodge property in 2021, after the senior assisted living center shuttered, with the intent to develop it into workforce housing, but it has remained vacant following pushback from the Rafter J Homeowners Association.
The workforce housing project aims to provide 57-deed restricted units including studios, one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms, with a maximum occupancy of 99 individuals, down from the originally proposed occupancy of 132, and requires no public subsidy.
The case made its way in front of the Wyoming Supreme Court after attorneys for the Rafter J Homeowners Association argued that the defined property rights, outlined in the 1978 Rafter J covenants, conditions and restrictions (CC&Rs), restrict residential use of the Legacy Lodge property. The CC&Rs allow for “any commercial purpose” on the lot, which the court determined fits the definition of a for-profit apartment complex.
With that ruling behind them, the owners are moving forward with the project.
The County’s current land development regulations (LDRs) require TDM’s for properties located in Resort Zones, like the TDM for Teton Village. In this case, the TDM was a condition of approval for the conditional use permit, issued back in November 2022. There are currently no specific guidelines for TDM’s outlined in the county’s LDRs, so the TDM is based on draft mitigation strategies included in the Teton County Transportation Impact Study Guidelines and the traffic impact study conducted by Stage Stop in 2022.
Stage Stop will provide annual reports, share monitoring data and how mitigation strategies are being implemented. Regional Transportation Planning Administrator Dr. Charlotte Frei, attended the meeting to offer insight and analysis of the TDM, which she reviewed and supported approval of.
On behalf of the owners, Attorney Stefan Fodor emphasised that the apartments were going to be built but “now we want to make sure that we make it work.”
“This Transportation Demand Management plan is not made to negate, it’s made to minimize the impacts of this development,” Fodor said.
According to the TDM plan, which is based on estimated traffic impacts, the proposed housing is anticipated to make up 8% of total daily trips, which is currently estimated at about 4,395 for the over 485 dwellings inside Rafter J.
“The prior assisted living use represented approximately 2.6% of a.m. peak hour trips and 3.1% of p.m. peak hour trips of the overall Rafter J community — so, an approximate 2.2% increase in a.m. peak hour trips and 1.7% increase in p.m. peak hour trips as compared to the assisted living facility,” the plan notes.
The plan estimates that the 57-unit property will create an increase of about 27 vehicles at the a.m. peak hour and 32 during the peak p.m. hour, but accounting for the previous assisted living facility, net new trips is estimated at 14 new a.m. peak trips and 21 new p.m. peak trips.
To mitigate these trips, Fodor explained that tenants will be incentivized to use only one parking space, which will have a yet to be determined fee attached. For a second parking space, tenants will be charged an additional, higher fee. Parking enforcement by a 24/7 property manager will mitigate illegal street parking and Stage Stop also plans to apply for pathway improvements at the intersection to make biking more accessible. One space for bike parking will be provided for each unit as well.
If monitoring finds the number of trips exceeds 46 in the a.m. peak hour or 53 trips in the p.m. peak hour, the owner will implement the second phase of mitigation measures such as a shuttle service and car-sharing/e-bike sharing services.
During the meeting, Rafter J residents and HOA members shared concerns about safety at the intersection of Big Trail Drive and Highway 89, the primary entrance and exit future residents would use, arguing that more people using the intersection will increase the chances of an accident and asked for the TDM to be denied. Other public comments from community members who live outside of Rafter J asked for the plan to be approved, citing their personal need for housing.
The Commission approved the TDM and asked Stage Stop to submit more mitigation methods that could be implemented if the initial data collection shows traffic thresholds have been met. They asked the owners to explore partnerships with Rafter J HOA to create a shuttle service and learn about WYDOT’s efforts to explore adding a traffic signal at the intersection.
Commissioner Mark Newcomb said it doesn’t fall to the TDM to mitigate the safety concerns at the intersection.
“If a marginal increase in traffic exponentially increases the odds of a collision, then a marginal reduction in trips coming and going from Rafter J also exponentially reduces the odds of a collision,” Newcomb said, sharing support for the proposed mitigation methods.
There is currently no public transportation connecting Rafter J to town. START Bus launched an on-demand pilot project in December 2022 that serviced Rafter J and south of town riders but it was discontinued after six months due to the per-rider subsidy reaching nearly $33.
“We’ve heard a lot of worst case scenarios today, but we haven’t heard a lot of best case scenarios,” Commissioner Greg Epstein said. “Best case scenario is we house nearly 100 members of our community. This is a start, I’ve gone through many monitoring scenarios over the past handful of years, and there is always an opportunity for the public to come back and check in if things aren’t going correctly, but we have to start somewhere.”
