Teton County and Jackson officials pushed back against a legislative panel’s efforts to boost affordable housing by limiting “exaction” fees collected at the local level to offset the impact of development in a hyperinflated, world-famous real estate market. Development conditions assessed by the town of Jackson and Teton County — whether fees, dedicated affordable housing units or contributions of land — fall within existing legal requirements, several planners and others said Tuesday. Further, the efforts of Teton County and Jackson, while vexing some developers, have boosted affordable housing in one of the nation’s wealthiest communities, while the Regulatory Reduction Task Force’s bill to restrict fees would do the opposite, witnesses said. “Jackson/Teton County is the model all the other communities around the West look to [regarding] what we have done … with this affordable housing problem in resort communities,” Jackson town liaison Andy Schwartz told the task force. Mitigation fees since 2010 have “been responsible” for constructing 218 residential units for workers, about 28% of the total homes built, Jackson Town Manager Tyler Sinclair testified. “This bill is going to make it harder for people to live in Teton County.” Planner Melissa Ruth The two local governments’ programs have built more than 1,700 dedicated workforce units, Schwartz said. One premise is that building free-market homes in Teton County spurs the need for more workers — be they gardeners, plumbers or others — who then compete for rare affordable housing or are forced to commute from far. “By the standards of a lot of people, we are doing more things right than any other community around,” Schwartz said. Committee members voted to advance the draft Property Development Exactions bill, which would require exaction and mitigation fees to be “specifically and uniquely attributable” to a project — statewide. The bill also would prohibit imposing more than a 2% fee on any development and would exempt houses smaller than 2,500 square feet from such fees altogether. $3 million for a regular house Eliminating exaction fees for a 2,500-square-foot home wouldn’t aid affordable housing in Teton County, witnesses said. In Jackson, the county seat, such a home might cost up to $3 million, Sinclair said. A 2,500-square-foot house in Jackson would not be “available to a member of the workforce,” simply by eliminating what Sinclair estimated might be a $17,000 mitigation fee, Schwartz told the committee. “To imply in the bill that a 2,500-square-foot house statewide is going to be providing workforce housing is dubious,” he said. Contrary to the goal of the Legislature and the task force, “this bill is going to make it harder for people to live in Teton County,” said Melissa Ruth, a planner for Cheyenne who was forced out of Jackson because of high housing costs. “I could not afford to stay on two professional incomes with family that was also forced to leave Jackson because of taxes,” she said. The bill, “it doesn’t solve a problem.” She called the bill’s proposed 2% cap exactions “arbitrary” and “not based on anything.” In contrast, exactions in Teton County and Jackson are based on a nexus, or legal connection arrived at through inquiry and study, between a development and its impacts on schools, parks, demand for workers and housing, she said. To “take away a tool that is working is something to consider,” she said. Task force members questioned the contributions exactions make to the housing equation in Teton County, in light of $80 million in voter-approved sales tax measures to create worker housing. Sen. Ogden Driskill (R-Devils Tower) said the fees essentially amounted to counterproductive red tape. Panel members also argued that the town and county have not exercised their full property tax levies and should do that before making building more expensive. Schwartz said even if town fees construct one unit a year in Jackson, they’re worth it. Further, the community runs on a tourist economy centered on sales tax revenue, an economy far different than others in the state. Bill back up in November Although the committee spent hours on the bill, members said its fate — and that of the task force itself — is uncertain in light of likely Wyoming Freedom Caucus control of the statehouse. Members of the hard-line Republican faction could ignore, accelerate or override the initiative. Nevertheless, the committee forged ahead, in part on legislators’ belief that the community uses building codes to stop growth. Committee members supporting the bill appeared to latch on to testimony from earlier this year by a store owner who would have been charged for changing the use of a building to a business that would then require more workers. That issue, however, has been resolved and such change-of-use fees are no longer being employed, witnesses said. Another complaint came from Michael Kudar, who said a temporary moratorium on large buildings affected his plans to build a new hotel on his family’s motel and cabins property in north Jackson. Additionally, town codes require him to build two smaller buildings instead of a single 100,000-square-foot building that would be more efficient, he said. He agreed, however, that the 300,000-square-foot Mogul Capital hotel that sparked the moratorium is inappropriate. “That just isn’t what Jackson Hole is,” he told the panel. “Jackson looks to correct mistakes,” Schwartz said. “They don’t assume that everything they do is working.” Changes to the 10-page draft bill were so extensive that task force Co-chair Rep. Bob Nicholas (R-Cheyenne) said the measure needed to be circulated, discussed and reconsidered at an extra task force session. The panel scheduled a Nov. 19 meeting to further vet the bill. The post Teton County, Jackson say bill giving developers a break undermines affordable housing appeared first on WyoFile .