Housing authority hopes to expand on last fall's needs assessment

A key takeaway from the Housing Needs Assessment was that, since 2015, job growth in Teton County is up 5%, while the housing supply is only up 2.1%. This means that job growth is more than double the rate of housing supply growth.

The data from the new study may be used to “inform annexation and entitlement negotiations and discretionary decisions,” according to the draft work program. Data gathered will “stop short of identifying mitigation program parameters,” the draft continued. The study is expected to cost around $22,500.

JHA Chair Shawn Hill illustrated the need for the study at the TCJHA’s July 6 meeting by using the newly-approved Marriot Element hotel as an example.

“How many employees is that going to generate?” asked Hill. “When we go forward as a community, considering annexations into the AOI (Area of Impact), rezones, or any other discretionary approval, we know that x amount of units being proposed to create x amount of need for a place and then we can use that to create percentages that actually reflect reality and mitigate employee generation costs.”

The Hotel’s Developer, Lot6, is not required to mitigate for housing hotel staff per the Driggs land development code, nor was it a part of the recently approved amendments to the code.

Commissioner Troy Butzlaff had reservations not based on the study’s rationale, but about its timing.

Buzlaff cited that his concern is based on personal discussions with a commercial real estate developer that has seen reductions in valuations of commercial property and stagnation on listings.

“I have a feeling that at the rate the economy is going and with interest rates on the rise, maybe it’s not the right time to be doing this study where we could focus our dollars on more important things,” said Butzlaff. “I guess I would question the timeliness of this and whether we want to do this now or wait a little bit and see what’s going on with the real estate market and the economy. That could change the information in the study.”

Hill noted Butzlaff’s concern but remained worried that inaction would delay important information to local authorities that could affect policy action.

“If the county and the city want to consider workforce housing as a part of that AOI discussion, then what kind of advice do they rely on? What kind of data can they rely on to make the right decisions?” asked Hill.

Hill did not ease from his position and argued “the time is now” for this based on the county’s land development code update process, particularly considering AOI discussions between the municipalities and the possibility of ARPA funding.

The Housing Authority has budgeted $300,000 of ARPA funds from the county for the fiscal year 2023 in its most recent budget draft. Those funds are noted for Housing Supply Plan projects.

Through his involvement with the City of Victor, Butzlaff then commented that he has heard complaints about there being “a lot of studies, just not a lot of action” from Victor residents.

He also mentioned other JHA issues such as not having the executive director position filled, and funding for a possible project partnership between the JHA, The Nature Conservancy, and Valley of the Tetons Library.

“There are a lot of reasons for that, one of which is not having an executive director, I just would hate to authorize another study while we don’t necessarily have the funds available,” said Butzlaff.

Butzlaff also wants to see more progress on the Road and Bridge/Sherman Park projects while state (ARPA) funding is available.

“It’s important, but in terms of priority those two projects that we need to get an RFP out on are far more important based on the timeliness of the state’s monies available,” said Butzlaff.

Butzlaff then reiterated his support for the study, on the condition that the JHA commits to it after taking care of other projects first and allocating the budget.

“To me, I don’t have any certainty on what we have to budget. We have dollar figures, but right now those monies are spoken for. Until those monies are free and clear, I don’t want to spend any more than what we have allocated in the budget,” said Butzlaff.

The next step for the study is an action item to have its contract finalized at the July 20 TCJHA meeting. The firm that is being contracted by the JHA for the study is Economic and Planning Systems based in Oakland, CA.

EPS has recently worked with Teton County Wyoming and WSW Consulting on the regional Housing Needs Assessment and TCWY’s own Employee Generation Study.