County firm on ’Ghee growth
Commissioners stick to 450 units as final vote approaches.
By Cara Froedge
January 9, 2008
Grand Targhee may build only 450 dwellings and must ensure that 80 percent of those are “designed” as short-term-rentals as part of the resort’s expansion, commissioners said this week.
On Tuesday, the Teton County Board of Commissioners finalized a set of 33 conditions associated with the resort’s expansion proposal.
It was the third in a series of negotiations between commissioners and Targhee owner Geordie Gillett in which commissioners talked through conditions and voted on them individually.
Tuesday’s meeting included discussions of the most significant conditions considered to date, including the number of dwellings allowed, how those units will be built and exactions.
By the afternoon, commissioners settled on 33 conditions, most of them approved 5-0. Those conditions will be put out for public review before the next meeting at 9 a.m. on Feb. 4, during which a final vote is likely.
Afterward, Gillett said he was disappointed with some conditions but also felt that commissioners listened to his arguments on others and changed their minds.
“Certainly, there’s some things I would have liked to have been different, some big, some small,” Gillett said. “I’m happy, though, with the process. It was a fair process of letting us make our case, and in some cases they listened.”
Gillett and his family submitted an application to the county more than three years ago to expand Grand Targhee on 120 acres on the western slope of the Tetons zoned rural. The Gilletts want to rezone from rural to resort the property that contains 96 units and limited commercial space. In its first iteration, the application called for 875 units and proposed to build almost 200,000 square feet of commercial space and room for resort services and amenities.
After a series of changes and conditions, the plan that commissioners will vote on calls for 450 units, a figure that includes employee housing. Of that total number, commissioners will allow only 45 single-family homes and 45 cabins and townhomes. The remaining 360 units must be located in the 30-acre resort center along with 150,000 square feet for commercial and resort services.
On Tuesday, despite Gillett’s request that they exclude employee housing from the cap of 450, commissioners stuck with the condition and said little.
“I was hoping to negotiate on the units,” Gillett said after the meeting. “They’ve obviously heard what I think and my position. I still feel as though it would be worthy of discussion, but I’m OK with where they came out.”
The most time-consuming condition of the day surrounded the question of not having a hotel at the resort and the possibility that short-term rentals might not be available to the public.
Gillett’s plans call for private ownership of units proposed at the ski area, and while short-term rentals are allowed and expected, there has been no requirement or guarantee they would be available to rent to the public.
To ensure those would be short-term rentals, Christensen proposed that 80 percent of units be hot-bed-style housing to keep with “the spirit of what that resort has been for the last 38 to 40 years.” Others said that was too restrictive, would preclude condo-hotels and would micromanage the resort.
“I think that number is way too high,” Phibbs said, adding that it would burden the application down “with a condition of failure.”
Gillett and his team argued that the condo-hotel-style model is the way resorts are being developed.
According to their statistics, only 3.4 percent of condos and townhomes at Teton Village are used year-round by owners. Teton Mountain Lodge, the village’s first condo-hotel, has no permanent residents in those units, with 100 percent of those units used as short-term rentals, they said. Hotel Terra, opening this winter, also will have no owners planning to live there, Gillett’s team said. All but one of those units will be put into the rental pool, they said.
A nonexistent problem?
“It seems as though there is an attempt being made to solve a problem that doesn’t exist and isn’t born out of the facts and figures,” Gillett said several times. It’s in Grand Targhee’s interest to have as many hot beds as possible to fund its chairlifts, grooming equipment and employees, he said.
Christensen then offered to amend his motion from 80 percent to 50 percent. Others were still was opposed, saying the 50 percent restriction may guarantee failure.
“We are creating some restrictions that make it difficult for this resort to function in a successful way,” Phibbs said. “All of us want to see it function over time.”
Finally, after nearly two hours, Commissioner Ben Ellis suggested the board include language stating that the 360 units in the resort center will be “designed” as short-term lodging. That means every unit being built at the resort will go through the county’s planning process, and officials will determine if that the floor plan of the building meets the definition of “designed as a short-term rental.”
“I think it gets to everybody’s intent, and, in my mind, it leaves some discretion,” he said.
In what could be considered a win for Gillett, commissioners decided to throw out a condition that would have required Grand Targhee to expand in four equal phases, with 25 percent of each unit type in each phase. Instead, they adopted language that Gillett proposed and agreed to permit four phases with 113 units in each of the first three phases and 111 units in the last phase.
During Phase 1, Gillett may build 40 single-family homes, cabins and townhomes as well as all the employee housing and 25,000 square feet of commercial space. During Phase 2 he can build the same number of single-family homes, cabins and town homes but 35,000 square feet of commercial space. In Phase 3 he can finish building commercial services and by Phase 4 finish building all the units.
“The phasing plan is much more realistic and accomplishes everybody’s goals,” he said.
Exaction plan adopted
In terms of exactions, which equal about $1.3 million or 3.72 acres at $350,000 an acre, Gillett submitted a proposal that commissioners adopted. That proposal is now a condition that would require exactions of 0.8 acres, a public service building, a medical facility, a $500,000 payment for the Alta community and site development costs associated with the land and buildings.
According to Grand Targhee’s figures, this would exceed the cost of the exactions. (See sidebar.)
Commissioner Leland Christensen proposed the county study the impact on Alta before agreeing to these exactions. A study could take months, the county attorney said, and no one backed Christensen’s motion.
Other conditions agreed to in previous meetings state:
– Gross floor area for commercial, resort services, amenities and support uses may not exceed 150,000 square feet.
– Grand Targhee must acquire at least 299 acres of quality open space or land that qualifies for what is referred to as the natural resources overlay, a designation in the land-development regulations that offers extra protections for wildlife habitat. That land will be within 50 miles of Teton County, Idaho, or Teton County, Wyo. Targhee also will contribute to stewardship costs.
– A 1 percent annual real-estate transfer fee would fund and support acquisition of lands or conservation easements on quality open space in either of the Teton counties. This also could cover river or stream restoration or acquisition of water rights. Any money from that fee in excess of 1 percent each year would be granted to the Teton Regional Land Trust or another nonprofit organization.
– A number of essential employees required for the operation of the ski area, the development and the emergency management plan must be housed on-site, but no more than 40. Employees not housed on-site will be housed in Teton County, Idaho.
– Commissioners maintained a prohibition on cats and dogs, other than service animals. The entrance to the resort, as well as resort trails serving surrounding public land, must have signs stating the rule.
