A message from County Commission candidate Mark Newcomb:
JACKSON, Wyo. – Teton County has a huge house problem. As if 10,000 sq. feet wasn’t big enough, some new residences are going even bigger by building extra-large basements or by connecting two very large buildings with a covered porch to essentially make a huge house. And as if living surrounded by some of the highest quality public land in the Lower 48 states isn’t good enough, huge homeowners are digging new ponds and diverting irrigation ditches to create their own miniature version of paradise.
This ain’t right. The latest housing-job nexus study estimates that 100 new large homes generate around 110 new jobs. Since 2015 the number of vacant second homes in Teton County increased by over 1,000 units, and we’ve added over 4,000 new jobs while our population has remained flat.
More jobs mean more competition for our limited supply of housing for locals and more traffic and congestion on our roadways. Watch traffic during any given rush hour, and you’ll see what I mean. Work trucks of all stripes comprise a significant percentage of the traffic. And because it’s impossible to house all these workers locally, they’re headed down the river or over the hill to bedroom communities in other counties.
And ponds, unless specifically designed and carefully monitored to create habitat, degrade water quality and, in winter, can harm wildlife that fall through the ice and can’t get back out. Rerouting irrigation ditches can impact water rights. Basements dug into the ground water could also degrade subsurface water quality.
As your county commissioner, I’ve pushed for a review of our regulations around huge homes, around how basement square footage is counted, and for rational regulations to protect water quality. I built my own spreadsheet based on our regulations to understand how small a lot can be and still contain a huge home. I’m prepared for the task at hand.
The impacts of huge homes on our community are real and substantial. I ask for your vote this primary season so together we can address this issue.
