In an April 10 email, Teton County planners rejected an initial development plan from the Gill family as “insufficient” because the 471-page document failed to fully account for the project’s impact on traffic.
“It’s not because we failed to do anything in that plan,” family attorney Amberley Baker said. “It’s because the county engineer has not decided the precise amount the county will charge each home for traffic mitigation fees.”
She added that this is the first mitigation fee of this type in Teton County and that negotiations with the county have been ongoing for months.
Addressing traffic impacts has been an ongoing concern for the plan to convert the family’s ranchland south of town into more than 300 hundred affordable homes. The project has been tied up in various public discussions and studies for six years.
The traffic issue may be resolved this week, according to the county email that referenced Baker. But for the first time, plans with block-level detail will be scrutinized by planning officials and the public this summer. Baker told KHOL it could then go to county commissioners in October.
This summer, planning commissioners will likely preview hot-button issues such as traffic and what gets built first.
Commissioner Luther Propst has been a vocal critic of the project as-is. In addition to concerns about a “traffic apocalypse” he worries the Gill’s nonprofit partners — Habitat for Humanity of the Greater Teton Area and the Jackson Hole Community Housing Trust — won’t be able to fundraise an estimated $400 million to subsidize affordable homes. In public meetings, nonprofit representatives have acknowledged the challenge, but say they’re up for the task.
The yearslong worry among some like Propst has been that if only the free-market units are built, it could worsen pricing for Teton County workers.
“This whole plan is based on just fantastical assumptions,” he told KHOL.
The Gills plan to develop nearly a third of the homes themselves as free-market units. Single-family home values have hovered near $2 million for the last three years, according to Keller Williams Jackson Hole. The remaining 70% would be built by the two nonprofits and restricted to remain affordable for those who work locally. But there is no requirement that both sides get built in tandem, as some housing advocates had hoped.
Despite consternation on both sides, rancher Nikki Gill feels cautiously optimistic.
She said it’s taken “blood, sweat and tears” to get to this juncture. She is frustrated that county officials haven’t responded to the housing crisis with what she feels is due urgency.
“I think six years proves that even projects that are so beneficial, that are obviously beneficial to a community, are difficult to get approved,” she said.
But those leaders have said they wanted to make sure that the majority of homes would be kept affordable for generations.
The Gill’s land is only half of the planned Northern South Park neighborhood. The Lockhart family has not expressed public interest in developing their half of the operational cow pastures.
The public will have the chance to weigh in on the development proposal at planning commission meetings this summer.
This article has been updated to include additional comments from Amberley Baker and reflect that the Gill team has submitted traffic studies, but Teton County did not find parts sufficient as of April 10. — Ed.
