This article was written and paid for by Mark Newcomb.
JACKSON, Wyo. — Led by County Commissioner Mark Newcomb, the Specific Purpose Excise Tax (SPET) item that will be on the ballot this fall has, like the Tin Woodsman in the Wizard of Oz, received its heart—funds to plan a senior assisted living facility.
If approved by voters on Nov. 8, the option would provide $1.93 million dollars so the Senior Center and a small group of dedicated volunteer citizens can plan and design a facility for the care of our seniors. One option, of course, is to resurrect the Legacy Lodge, the assisted living facility that shut down at the peak of the pandemic.
Having been born and raised in Teton County and working here his entire life, Commissioner Newcomb knows many of the seniors who could benefit from such a facility. And he knows how compassion runs deep in our community and that the SPET item will provide the opportunity for the community to express that compassion.
Whether it’s donating to non-profits through Old Bill’s, pulling together in times of crisis like the Budge Slide, contributing time, land and funds to house local workers, or honoring a fallen soldier like Rylee McCollum, it’s clear this community has a big heart.
So, at the close of the county commission meeting to determine whether the Stage Stop LLC’s application for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) to use Legacy Lodge for employee housing should be approved or not, he was shocked to hear a scoffing laugh on the part of the applicant’s representative when he mentioned that senior assisted living remained a need for our community.
After an arduous discussion about whether the Legacy Lodge should be converted to employer-leased rental apartments, the commission votes were final.
First, the commission voted yes that apartments were an OK use for the 50,000 sq ft facility, a question presented as an amendment to the Rafter J Planned Unit Development (PUD). Then the commission voted no, with a two-two tie, to the CUP that laid out the specifics of how the applicant planned to use the facility for apartments. Commissioner Newcomb voted yes on the former and no on the latter.
He explained that he based his no vote on the lack of parking for 57 total apartments and the lack of a transportation demand management plan. His subsequent comment that our senior citizens deserve a place where they too can thrive, even when they need assistance, was met with scoffs.
Teton County, we’re more compassionate than that. And your commissioners should embrace and focus our compassion.
Promoting the health and welfare of our seniors is just as much a part of our job as promoting the health and welfare of our younger working families by helping provide housing opportunities, transportation alternatives and support for daycare and pre-k education.
Yes, we have a vibrant and exceptionally well-run senior center. But that center meets the needs of a small slice of our seniors who are getting by for the most part without much assistance.
Since the closing of the Legacy Lodge, the Center’s home-care services for seniors who need assistance but choose to live on their own has dramatically increased, stretching resources thin and reinforcing a clear need for a dedicated assisted living facility. To meet this need, its board of directors, working with Kevin Cochary and a small group of citizens, applied for a SPET ballot item. Finalizing its place on the ballot required weeks of wrangling, led by Commissioner Newcomb.
One challenge faced by Newcomb was the glaring lack of vision on how our community should meet the needs of seniors in the Jackson/Teton County Comprehensive Plan (Comp Plan), the primary document reflecting our community vision.
The Comp Plan dwells at length on workforce housing, open space and wildlife protections, transportation goals and neighborhood design, but doesn’t even mention including seniors in our efforts to protect our community’s quality of life. When that document was first drafted between 2010 and 2012 the Legacy Lodge and Senior Center were flourishing, and no one seemed to think that we should put language in the document to reflect the future needs of seniors. And when it comes to housing, other than allowing retirees to remain in the deed-restricted housing they paid for and maintained over the years, we have never talked about how to care for seniors at a community-wide level the way we have talked about housing and transportation.
Fortunately, our land development regulations, which dictate where specific types of development can occur, include multiple zones in town where such facilities are allowed. But buying land and building a brand-new facility would cost tens of millions of dollars. Options in the county are fewer because such uses are encouraged to site themselves closer to higher density development. But the one place in the county we know an assisted living facility is allowed is Rafter J, where the Legacy Lodge and 400 neighboring homeowners lived in harmony for years.
Converting Legacy Lodge to apartments would require, at a minimum, retrofitting all 57 units with a full kitchen, including 220-volt outlets for stoves where there are currently none, and a substantial expansion of the parking lot. The improvements wouldn’t be cheap. Reviving it as an assisted living facility would hardly cost anything at all.
Meanwhile, the county is about to zone for up to 1,800 new units on 225 acres just south of High School Road, ample opportunity for seasonal employee housing appropriately sited within walking distance of services and transit.
Exploring opportunities to provide for our seniors, whether at Legacy Lodge or elsewhere is a long overdue conversation. As the Tin Man said about his heart, “A heart is not judged by how much you love but by how much you are loved by others.” Our heart is big enough to include Seniors. Thanks to Commissioner Newcomb the community now has a chance on Nov. 8 to show our heart.
