JACKSON HOLE, WYO – Government officials are moving quickly on a workforce housing project that began with the purchase of a double-lot in town a few weeks ago.

The county bought the property at 440 W. Kelly Ave on January 10 from Michael and Linda Clement for $1,703,416. By January 23, the town had reimbursed the county for 45% of the purchase price ($766,537.21). Commissioners expect to have a quitclaim deed to the Jackson Teton County Housing Authority (JTCHA) by February 19.

Yesterday, town and county officials met during an afternoon JIM to discuss the plans JTCHA had for the parcel. The plan, according housing director April Norton, is to get 15-18 households onto .31-acres in 12,500-sf of livable space.

“That seems like quite a lot of units on not much land,” commissioner Mark Barron pointed out.

Norton acknowledged it was a drastic change to a single-family neighborhood identified by town planners last summer as “in transition.” Zoning was changed to NH-1—the most densely zoned residential designation in the town.

“We’ve known this neighborhood was going to change and, yes, it is a huge change,” Norton said.

Councilman Jonathan Schechter thought so as well, saying, “It seems like it could cause some angst with an 18-fold increase in households.”

A few neighbors displayed said angst during public comment, most notably Rev. David Bott who called it a “horrible destruction of a neighborhood.”

“The neighborhood wasn’t asked what we thought about this,’ Bott said, urging electeds to slow down. “When you passed this back in July you will recall there were neighbors at that meeting that were yelling at you. You almost had to have police intervene because people felt they weren’t being heard.”

Matt Faupel also gave comment. The real estate agent said, “This will have a huge impact on that area. Is this really where we want density?”

Anna White has a place at 410 West Kelly Ave that she rents out. She warned officials about traffic and parking.

“Based on traffic alone, I’ve almost gotten hit there like eight times. It just doesn’t make any sense adding these units based on the streets alone,” White said. “And there are people parked everywhere. Parking is horrendous. As far as thinking some [in the proposed workforce housing will not need a parking space], I don’t know anyone who doesn’t have a car here. No one.”

Councilman Jim Stanford, as he said six months ago about the town’s rezoning efforts, voiced his own concerns about neighborhood character. But in the end, we all have to make sacrifices if housing is going to work, he said.

Despite neighbors’ concerns, town and county officials were not making decisions on whether or not to move forward with the housing project. That was a done deal. Tuesday’s JIM was to give direction to the JTCHA on how the Request for Proposals (RFP) should read when soliciting developers for the project.

In fact, the only real hang-up with 440 W. Kelly appeared to be how elected officials wanted to structure the parking. Both Hailey Morton Levinson and Mayor Muldoon said they normally lean toward underparking downtown workforce housing projects to stimulate mass transit and walkable neighborhoods.

“That’s where we are headed in the future,” Morton Levinson said.

But both heard the complaints of the neighbors about parking issues on West Kelly and agreed to keep a 1-to-1 rule—one parking space for each unit, rather than a proposed .75 spaces per unit.

Norton also asked the RFP be written with more specificity concerning what exactly the town and county wanted to see on the ground and whether or not it had to adhere to new LDRs there. (It does). She said a more open-ended RFP for 174 N. King Street caused more trouble and work than was worth getting a variety of ideas in return.

Staff was directed to fine-tune an RFP draft for review at a February 4 Joint Information Meeting.