Ten units of affordable housing received a nod of approval from county planning commissioners Monday despite opposition from a handful of neighbors in affordable homes on the lot next door.
“If I’m being asked to weigh the balancing act between housing units and guest parking … I’m going to err on the side of housing,” Planning Commissioner Stefan Fodor said. “We need to start thinking differently about development, about transit and about parking.”
Should the Board of County Commissioners approve the plan, construction could start as soon as this summer.
The Teton Village Area 2 resort master plan requires affordable housing units be built periodically as free-market units go up. Area 2 includes much of the land outside the “old Village” homes and commercial core.
The master plan requires at least 220.5 people be housed in 100 affordable units at build out. Thus far 13 three-bedroom affordable units — the Homesteads at Teton Village — have been constructed, housing 39 people.
“If you fast-forward two or three years, depending on free-market development, we’d probably have to build one affordable housing unit,” Lodges at Fish Creek Housing Director Jason Wells said during Monday’s meeting. “It would be a long, long time before we would need to build anything close to the affordable housing units that we’re proposing today.”
The homes are planned to be Category 3 — capped at an income of $102,960 for a family of four — and Category 4 — capped at $120,120 for a family of four.
Some residents of the neighboring Homesteads opposed the plan, saying traffic and lack of parking will be compounded by additional units going up. Many who spoke Monday night rallied for designated guest parking and said Rimrock Road is too narrow for the number of cars navigating through the neighborhood.
“It is a tight road,” Homesteads homeowner Bain Campbell said. “We’ve got 22 children in the neighborhood now with more coming. … My hope is that you take a good hard look at the design and hopefully try to remedy these issues that we have come up with.”
Each Homesteads townhome includes two parking spaces, but there is no designated guest parking. The Ranch Lot, a 812-space public lot across from the Homesteads, has been coined as the parking solution. But some residents say it’s not a good one, since the lot does not allow overnight parking and drivers must pay to park from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. during the ski season.
“They are not providing a solution. They’re saying ride the bus,” said Stephen Fralin, who also owns a home in the Homesteads. “Every community development in this valley has a place for guests to park except this development.
“The Ranch Lot is not a solution,” he said. “Ask them to provide guest parking.”
The planning board voted unanimously in favor of the housing plan. The Teton County Board of County Commissioners has final say.
